The NHL club selecting Shane Wright at the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be able to sleep easy that night, Joey Tenute of NHL Central Scouting said on the "NHL Draft Class" podcast.
Wright (6-foot, 199 pounds) could become the first player from Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League chosen No. 1 in the NHL draft. The Montreal Canadiens have the No. 1 pick, the New Jersey Devils have the No. 2 pick and the Arizona Coyotes have the No. 3 pick.
"When I look at Shane, he's an elite skater, elite hockey talent, elite hockey IQ, he's a leader, he's the captain of his team and he's been on the scene for a long time and always delivered," Tenute said. "I think whoever gets Shane Wright is going to sleep like a baby the night of the draft. I think he's a great prospect and think he's going to have an excellent career."
Wright, a right-shot center, finished eighth in the OHL with 94 points (32 goals, 62 assists) in 63 regular-season games. He had 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 11 OHL playoff games.
"I think that it's very easy to focus on any type of negative you can find in any player but there are players who obviously had elite seasons, and really put themselves in this conversation (as the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft)," Tenute said. "I think Shane's in that conversation."
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Tenute also discussed Mississauga centers Luca Del Bel Belluz (6-0, 179), No. 8 in
Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters
, and Owen Beck (5-11, 187; No. 10).
"I know the Montreal Canadiens have the No. 1 pick right now, but whoever picks one of the top-tier guys of this group is getting an unbelievable prospect for their franchise," Tenute said. "I don't know what the expectations for Mississauga were coming into this season but guys like Owen and Luca really took those lead roles very early in the season and were key players all the way through," Tenute said.
Del Bel Belluz was second on Mississauga with 76 points (30 goals, 46 assists) and Beck was third with 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists) in 68 regular-season games.
Co-hosts Adam Kimelman and Mike G. Morreale also discussed some of their most memorable moments at the NHL Scouting Combine and provided an update on the recently released
update to their mock drafts.
The podcast is free, and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms, including iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. It also is available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
