2024 NHL Draft Profile: Why the Dallas Stars must draft Dominik Badinka

Another big, talented, right-shot defender. Possibly the most talented big, right-shot defender?

If you’re not a draft nerd, well, you should be. When it comes to prospects, some make the cut but many don’t. Regardless, every journey, whether it’s Julius Honka or Logan Stankoven, can help make you a more informed hockey watcher.

If Charlie Elick and EJ Emery are the blue chip prospects, and Adam Kleber is the blue chip project, then today’s highlight — Czech-born defender Dominik Badinka — is about a defenseman somewhere in between.

The Bio

• Date of Birth: Jan. 17, 2006

• Age: 18

• Height: 6′3

• Weight: 191lbs

• Position: Defense

• Shoots: Right

• Team: Malmo Redhawks (SHL)

What the pros are saying

Below I’ve highlighted a few choice quotes from the most familiar, and most respected public outlets.

From EPRinkside (ranking him at #35):

• It wasn’t the offence that kept him in Malmö’s lineup, much less playing 14:43 a night on average in a league where 17- and 18-year-olds often have to settle for half that. In fact, the Czech blueliner’s flare with the puck rarely showed up at all in the SHL, only in flashes. Instead, it was a defensive game that was mature beyond its years that allowed Badinka to sometimes play 22-plus minutes a night in one of Europe’s top professional leagues and look the part, too. Badinka doesn’t just read the game in the defensive zone; he anticipates it. Where others get lost in the cycle, the 18-year-old blueliner disrupts it, switching off his check with the timing and feel you’d expect of a seasoned veteran.

From Scott Wheeler (ranking him at #43):

• He's got size, moves the puck and sees the ice well, likes to carry it and influence play, and plays hard and confidently. He’s a strong skater who takes space on both sides of the puck when it's there. He missed out on playing at U18 worlds last year due to appendicitis, but I think he would have had some more buzz had he played. There's a solid player to work with there, once you start talking about the second-round range in this draft. I don’t think I see a first-rounder, though.

From Corey Pronman (ranking him at #29):

• He has a lot of NHL attributes between his size, mobility and ability to make offensive plays. He has a powerful stride and has shown versus men he can make skilled plays and move pucks with a good tempo. His pure playmaking doesn't excite you, although I see secondary offense coming from him in the NHL. Badinka defends well enough due to his feet and length but he isn't going to run guys over, which leaves some scouts wondering if he's going to be a tweener as a pro.

From Will Scouch (ranking him at #21)

• Badinka is the embodiment of modern defense-first player, but don’t count out the offense he has generated through hard stretch passing and a hard shot from the point. Badinka is a tall, fluid skating defender who covers ice well in stride, monitors gaps well, and erases puck carriers effectively. His data profile looks eerily similar to Anton Silayev, but you may be able to get him a round later.

Unimaginative, misleading comparables

• Alexander Carrier

• Filip Hronek

• Travis Sanheim

• Brian Dumoulin

• Jeff Petry

• Artem Zub

The numbers

Oh man. This should be fun. Given Badinka’s profile — a stay-at-home defender in a puck mover’s body — I figured it’d be super fun (and by fun I mean ‘let’s get carried TF away!’) to compare Badinka’s microstat profile with Miro Heiskanen. Because why not!

So how does Badinka fare?

Not sure what this chart means and need a quick and dirty explainer? I’ve got you covered! Click here to learn more from a man who knows less.

Quite well! Granted, your first thought is probably “Ouch! Maybe Miro really doesn’t have that next level in terms of offense!” And yes, I find Lassi Alanen’s work highly instructive here because it still feels descriptive. Heiskanen’s defense has always been elite. But while he’s become a productive defender in his NHL career, he’s not a singular talent on offense. Some may disagree here, but let’s table that discussion for the comments.

Switching back to Badinka, he actually rates higher than Heiskanen in two key categories:

• grabbing control of pucks in the defensive zone

• percentage of defensive zone exits with possession

Heiskanen clearly has the edge in almost every other defensive category, but two things are worth nothing here:

1. These are games from Badinka’s time in the SHL. The SHL is universally agreed to be better than the Liiga. Even from a purely metric point of view, the Liiga rates lower, and recent work into NHL equivalency scores (math attempting to figure out how much a point in one league is worth in the NHL) has the SHL ranking even higher than previous estimations. This makes Badinka’s performance, in my view, even more impressive.

2. Badinka’s offense looks like it could be there.

It’s worth remembering that Badinka played in two leagues. One was professional (SHL), while the other was against his direct peers (Malmo’s junior team). Needless to say, he dominated the lower levels.

The tape

Personal observations

One thing that stands out is that Badinka is not your typical ‘big man’ defender. He seems most at home with the puck on his stick, taking control of the defensive zone with possession, whether it’s a solid and economic outlet pass or a few powerful strides to get into the neutral. He’s a lot less comfortable defending one-on-one, which could be a criticism, but to me it just reads as a preference. There are different ways to defend, and Badinka excels by playing defense proactively rather than reactively.

So much of the appeal is just his raw tools too. He’s a high end skater, with good stop and start mechanics, quality acceleration and overall east-west mobility. There are times when his movement outduels the skilled wingers he’s defending, which allows him to stay tight to the play even if he doesn’t leverage his physicality to great (if any) effect. His puck skills aren’t high-end per se, but he makes quick, confident passes that bode well for his ability to adjust to an NHL pace. His play-processing could use some work, but one has to wonder how much of that was on him being a teenager in a man’s league. Given the fact that he stuck around the pro team in solid minutes, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

How he improves Dallas

We’ve talked about Dallas’ need for a right-shot defenseman. Hence why so many of these profiles focused on that position re: Charlie Elick, EJ Emery, and Adam Kleber. However, all of those players have a pretty clear floor. They’re shutdown defenders and that’s the extent of it. Badinka, however, looks like someone who could legitimately adds talent in all three zones. This is not your typical “defensive defenseman with a limited offensive ceiling.”

Part of what I find so funny looking back at Miro’s microstats is that, yes, he’s developed more offense over the years, but how much of that offense is attributed to his standalone offensive talent, and how much of that is attributed to the minutes he plays with standalone offensive talents? There’s a distinction there that I think warrants reflection because it’s possible that the Stars could use another classic puck mover, at least in time.

Badinka is perfect for splitting the difference here: lots of raw tools to play whatever role Dallas needs him to play while having the upside to do more than eat quality minutes (an asset on its own, granted). Elick was my favorite going into this draft rabbit hole. I slowly talked myself into Emery. While I’m not there yet, Badinka could be even better.