Moving up to 4 is a huge win for Utah, which already has a nice young NHL core built around Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther and Mikhail Sergachev. And now it has a chance to add a star prospect to what is already a very good farm system.
Top defenseman Matthew Schaefer and top forward Michael Misa aren’t likely to make it to them at No. 4, but many of the other forwards at the top of this class still look like strong fits for Utah.
In particular, Caleb Desnoyers could give them a strong two-way center to pair with Cooley for the long term future, as could Anton Frondell.
James Hagens might be a tad redundant to Cooley, but he brings great pace and plenty of offense. Porter Martone would bring lots of skill in a big body. And Jake O’Brien could be in the mix as well as a 6-foot-2 center with strong playmaking.
It’s not quite the star level that Utah would have gotten at 1 or 2, had they been eligible (teams can only move up 10 spots), but winning this draw will allow them to take a totally different tier of prospect than they would have otherwise.