2 days Ago By Michael Leboff
There is no mystery about who will be taken No. 1 overall by the San Jose Sharks in the NHL Draft on Friday night at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Macklin Celebrini of Boston University is a -20000 favorite to walk across the stage first.
But things could go in a hundred different directions from there, and that makes for good drama and even better betting. What adds to the intrigue is the four teams that follow the Sharks in the draft — the Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens — have each spent the last handful of seasons rebuilding and have terrific prospect pipelines. So those teams could afford to take some risks and bring this thing off the rails.
With that in mind, we’ll dive into a few best bets that could make for a good sweat Friday evening. No. 2 overall: D Zayne Parekh (150/1, bet365 ) Most prospect rankings consider Ivan Demidov as the second-best prospect in this draft, but the consensus is the Blackhawks will bypass the Russian and fill an organizational need by drafting a defenseman.
They’ve got a franchise cornerstone center in Connor Bedard and he’ll soon be joined by fellow forwards Frank Nazar and Oliver Moore. With that in mind, it makes sense that Artyom Levshunov is a prohibitive favorite to go No. 2 at -260 odds.
And while the Michigan State Spartan is a near-consensus top-five talent in this pool, there are a few forward-thinking prospect experts out there who have Parekh as the best defenseman in the dra.
