Eduard Sale Will Need To Pair Mindset With Undeniable Talent
High risk, high reward isn't a bad strategy when you're picking in the lower half of the first round. That's where the Seattle Kraken found themselves at the NHL draft in Nashville yesterday, with pick #20.
Seattle's brain trust chose Czech left winger Eduard Sale (SHAL-lah), as we reported here. The potential reward is undeniably high; Sale has the hands, vision and skating ability to be a top-six forward. But to be sure, there's risks, too.
"At the beginning of the year, we were talking about this guy as a top-five pick," said Rachel Doerrie of The Hockey News. "He slipped because he didn't have the best year. He didn't have the numbers; there were concerns about his body language.
"But his underlying numbers and his analytics are really good.
"I like this pick. He's going to play next to Matty Beniers or Shane Wright, and fit in seamlessly, because their playing style is so similar. To get him at 20, if I'm (general manager) Ron Francis, I'm pretty happy with that." (You can see Rachel's excellent complete first round analysis with THN's Jacob Stoller here.)
Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis (at right) welcomes 2023 1st round draft pick Eduard Sale to the podium at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.Sportnet's Sam Cosentino expressed scouting reservations this way: "He showed inconsistencies in play away from the puck and attention to detail, which has scouts concerned about his ability to maintain a top-six spot at the next level."
It is interesting, then, that Seattle would choose a player widely described as "polarizing." If Sale doesn't prove to have top-line talent, some wonder if he will accept the non-glamorous assignments necessary to stick in the NHL.
Flexibility of mindset is an attribute highly prized by Francis. It's one he and his scouts will be looking for in today's round 2-7 of the draft (8 am Pacific time on NHL Network). In other words, players willing to adapt to a different style than they're accustomed to.
"There's a lot of guys that aren't able to make that decision," Francis said on The Athletic Hockey Show. "They are asked to play in a third-line role or a fourth-line role. In their mind they're still a top-six guy, or an offensive guy, or a power play guy, and they struggle with it."
One who did successfully make the transition was Dean Evason, a teammate of Francis' with the Hartford Whalers. In his final two junior seasons with the Kamloops Blazers, Evason scored an eye-popping 120 goals and tallied 301 points. Then he was a 5th round selection by the Washington Capitals in 1982.
Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason, who played 13 NHL seasons for the Capitals, Whalers, Sharks, Stars and Flames."I don't know if he went strictly to a defensive role, but he understood kind of where he was," Francis recalled. Evason, now head coach of the Minnesota Wild, compiled 803 NHL games as a checking-line center.
"The thing I love about Dean was, he was just so competitive. And you see it now and his emotions on the bench and stuff. He's just a really competitive guy. He hates to lose. And those are the kind of guys you want to play alongside on your team."
Before he and his scouting staff depart Nashville, the Kraken GM will hope to nab some more Evason-like diamonds in the rough.