The 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 28-29 at Sphere in Las Vegas. The first round will be June 28 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) and rounds 2-7 are June 29 (11:30 a.m. ET; ESPN+, NHLN, SN, SN1). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.
Boston University center Macklin Celebrini, expected to be the No. 1 pick of the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft, reminds NHL Network and Sportsnet analyst Sam Cosentino of Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.
"I covered Sidney when he was playing in Rimouski ( Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League ), and I look at Macklin Celebrini and I see a lot of the same things in Macklin's game that I saw in Sid's," Cosentino said on the latest episode of the "NHL Draft Class" podcast. "That's not to say he's going to become Sidney Crosby, don't get me wrong. But in terms of his three-zone detail, his ability to be a dual threat offensively, the leadership skills, the fact that when games are big, he performs, all of these things Sid did when he played in Rimouski. And Macklin did them at BU."
Cosentino joined co-hosts Adam Kimelman and Mike G. Morreale to preview the 2024 draft, and shared his opinion on what the Chicago Blackhawks could do with the No. 2 pick, and the potential destinations for several players, among them USA Hockey National Team Development Program Under-18 team forward Cole Eiserman, who scouts believe has the best shot in the draft but has question marks surrounding his off-puck play.
"I look at a guy like Tyler Toffoli, who wasn't a Grade 'A' skater, who wasn't an amazing distributor, whose detail off-puck wasn't great, his defensive play wasn't great," Cosentino said. "Yet here we are all these years later and he still does that No. 1 thing that translated from junior when he played in Ottawa, is the goal-scoring ability. That's not to say Cole is going to be Tyler Toffoli, but I look at a guy who I think translates very much the same way and I think it will work for Cole in that regard in the NHL."
"NHL Draft Class" is free, and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms, including iTunes and Spotify. It also is available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
