Coming into the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft, it was unclear which direction the Nashville Predators were going to go. They had plenty of options. Would they look for a defender to help shore up that part of the pipeline? Or would they add another forward that can score?
They went the latter route.
In our very own Eric Dunay’s final draft ranking before the main event, he had Predators 17th overall draft pick Joakim Kemell ranked 10th overall. You can find his entire final top-96 ranking list here. And here was his brief description of the young Finnish prospect:
“While Brad Lambert struggled to start the year, Kemell came out of the gates scoring at a scorching rate.