Continuing the Minnesota Wild Draft Target series, today we look at Spokane Chiefs center Berkly Catton.
The Chiefs center has the potential to be a No. 1 center in the NHL one day or at least a solid No. 2 center. He is very skilled and can move up the ice quickly. Catton has a heavy shot and is quite the playmaker as well.
The 5-foot-11 center is currently projected as a top-ten pick in the upcoming draft according to Tony Ferrari and Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. He is being projected to go as high as No. 3 and as low as No. 14 in many different site projections.
Ferrari has Catton ranked third and Kennedy has Catton ranked sixth.
Catton is coming off a 54-goal season in the Western Hockey League with 62 assists for 116 points in 68 games. He's recorded 78 goals, 97 assists, and 175 points in 140 career WHL games across three seasons.
Berkly Catton being compared to Brayden Point using Byron Bader's model.
Photo Credit: Byron Bader/HockeyProspecting.com
I think a fair comparison to what Catton could be in the NHL would be like Brayden Point or Logan Cooley. Both are really solid centers but are a bit undersized. Yet they don't let it affect them.
Point and Cooley are both 5-foot-11, like Catton, and have proven they don't let it affect them at the NHL level. Cooley is coming off a 20-goal season in his rookie year as a 19-year-old, now 20, and Point has been a steady point-per-game center for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
According to Hockey Prospecting, Catton has similar NHLer and Star probabilities as Tyler Seguin, Elias Lindholm, Point, Sam Reinhart, and Leon Draisaitl.
Catton should not be available at No. 13 come draft time but crazier things have happened. This is a pretty good draft in terms of defensemen, maybe they all get taken in the top ten. This would push guys like Catton, Cole Eiserman, Cayden Lindstrom, and maybe even Konsta Helenius out of the top ten.
Any of those four players would be a home run type of pick for the Wild if they were to be there at 13 when they are drafting.
I'm not entirely sure why some draft projections have Catton outside the top ten but to be honest those don't matter to NHL teams when they are deciding who to draft come June 28th.
If there was one stat out there that would make you believe Catton is not worth a top-ten pick, it wouldn't be this one.
Only four players in the 21st Century have scored 50 or more goals and had over 115 points in the CHL during their Draft Year. Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Connor Bedard, and Catton make up that list.
If he falls to 13, you almost have to draft him. Right?
