2022 NHL Draft Preview

It's time for one of the most important weeks on the National Hockey League off-season calendar, as the NHL Draft goes on July 7 and 8 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Draft-eligible prospects have played with the pressure of NHL Central Scouting, NHL teams, and draft insiders watching their every move, and all the hard work that led them to this point can pay off this weekend.
It's also a time that can shape the futures of franchises for years to come.
The Winnipeg Jets are scheduled to make seven picks, with two of them coming in the first round.

The First Round
Winnipeg's selections sit at 14th (thanks to the Draft Lottery) and 30th (a conditional pick that became a first-round selection when the New York Rangers made it to the Eastern Conference Final after the Andrew Copp and Morgan Barron trade).
Kevin Cheveldayoff and his scouting staff have had success in the draft's opening round dating back to 2011. Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey, Nikolaj Ehlers, and 2022 Lady Byng winner Kyle Connor are all first-round picks by the Jets.
In fact, every first-round pick the Jets have made - with the exception of 2021 selection Chaz Lucius - have played NHL games for the franchise.
This is also the third time since 2011 that the Jets have had two first round picks, with the two previous occasions coming in 2015 and 2016.
"You look at all of the mock drafts and they are all over the map, there is really no consensus anywhere," said Cheveldayoff. "It was unique perspectives to sit in the scouting meetings because this is a group of players who, for a lot of them in the OHL, missed an entire year and didn't play. They missed a year of development two years ago. So for a lot of them they were supposed to be second year junior players, but they are only first year, so some of those things need to be taken into consideration. That might lead to varying opinions on different players."
Director of Amateur Scouting, Mark Hillier, feels he was able to get in a large amount of views on players this season, especially with a travel schedule that had him leave home for two to three weeks, return home for a few days, then head back out.
"Safe to say I probably do lead the league in Air Miles," said Hillier, who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
It's all in an effort to be as prepared as possible.
"I can tell you at 14 we're going to try and get the best player, probably regardless of the position," said Hillier on the
Fly By Podcast
. "You might have a preference in later rounds, or if you've gone through a couple rounds and you've taken a couple forwards and now you want to get a D or vice versa."
Rounds 2-7
The quality of the draft doesn't drop off after the first round, according to Hillier.
"Our two picks in the first round, and our pick at 55 in the second round, I think we'll get real good quality options there," he said. "Every year we might say 'this isn't a deep draft,' but once we go through our meetings and list the 100 or more players, in all aspects of the list we like different players in different parts of the list."
In addition to the three picks Hillier mentioned, the Jets are scheduled to pick in the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh rounds.
The seven total selections would be the most the Jets have had in a draft since 2017. In each of the last two drafts, the Jets have had four picks.
The second day of the draft has also been critical to the building of the Winnipeg roster. The 2020 Vezina Trophy winner, Connor Hellebuyck, was picked in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL Draft. Adam Lowry was a third round pick, and Mason Appleton came in the sixth round.
Dylan Samberg, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Declan Chisholm - three defencemen who made their NHL debuts in 2021-22 - were also picked on the second day of the draft. Both Samberg and Kovacevic's names were called in 2017, while Chisholm was picked the following year.
Development Camp
With the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship - which was postponed in December due to positive COVID-19 cases - rescheduled for August, Cheveldayoff said the Jets won't have an on-ice development camp this summer.
That wasn't the only factor. Some prospects are nursing injuries while others - like Henri Nikkanen and Daniel Torgersson - got into games with Winnipeg's American Hockey League affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, at the end of the season. The virtual drafts of the last two seasons also meant changing the traditional development camp model the Jets have used for years.
While making those changes, Cheveldayoff said they found an alternative that they like.
"It's important for these players that we draft here that if they are not part of a World Junior program for our development staff to go see them and watch them workout in their environment," said Cheveldayoff. "That is probably the single biggest thing now that we are able to do things differently is getting to watch the players in their environment and make sure they are doing all the right things."