Lindstrom to be first CHL player chosen in Button’s final 2024 NHL mock draft
TSN’s Director of Scouting Craig Button has Medicine Hat Tigers forward Cayden Lindstrom as the first CHL player to be selected in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Button predicts that Lindstrom – the winner of the CHL’s Top Prospect Award in 2023-24 – will be taken fourth overall by Columbus.
“I’m looking at players that will come in and they’re going to be difference-makers, not just because of their skill but also because of their will,” Button said. “They don’t accept losing, and if you don’t have players like that, you’re never going to win. Cayden Lindstrom is that guy. I think [Adam] Fantilli is that guy. But you’ve got to start adding guys like that or you’re going to be forever in nowhere land.”
A pick later, Button has Kelowna’s Tij Iginla going to Montreal.
“I think Tij Iginla, he is a difference-maker like his father, he plays hard when it matters, the ‘on’ switch is always on,” said Button. “He’s a different type of player but I think he can influence things and build like the way [Juraj] Slafkovsky plays, the will and the drive of [Nick] Suzuki and [Kaiden] Guhle. Those players that are in it to win it.”
Also in the Top 10 Button has Ottawa selecting Saginaw’s Zayne Parekh seventh overall, London’s Sam Dickinson to Seattle eighth overall and Oshawa’s Beckett Sennecke to New Jersey 10th overall.
“Zayne Parekh, offensive wizard,” said Button. “They do not have a player like that on the blueline. They have lots of offensive players and they have good young prospects. They do not have an offensive wizard right-shot ‘D’ [who] conjures up images of Erik Karlsson.”
All in all, Button predicts that half of the first round will be CHL selections with 16 picks.
The 2024 NHL Draft takes place June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
TSN’s Craig Button’s 2024 NHL Mock Draft
4th overall – Columbus – Cayden Lindstrom (Medicine Hat)
5th overall — Montreal — Tij Iginla (Kelowna)
7th overall — Ottawa — Zayne Parekh (Saginaw)
8th overall — Seattle — Sam Dickinson (London)
10th overall — New Jersey — Beckett Sennecke (Oshawa)
11th overall — Buffalo — Carter Yakemchuk (Calgary)*
15th overall — Detroit — Berkly Catton (Spokane)
19th overall — Vegas — Jett Luchanko (Guelph)
21st overall — Los Angeles — Liam Greentree (Windsor)
24th overall — Colorado — Cole Beaudoin (Barrie)
25th overall — Boston — Terik Parascak (Prince George)
26th overall — Montreal — Andrew Basha (Medicine Hat)
27th overall — Marek Vanacker (Brantford)
28th overall — Calgary — Sam O’Reilly (London)
30th overall — New York Rangers — Charlie Elick (Brandon)
31st overall — Anaheim — Ryder Ritchie (Prince Albert)
* On June 27 Buffalo traded the 11th overall pick to San Jose for the 14th and 42nd overall pick.
