There are a lot of needs the Nashville Predators have in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, and they take care of one of those needs by drafting goalie prospect Jack Ivankovic with the 58th-overall pick in the second round.
Ivankovic is considered one of the top goalie prospects of the draft class. In fact, TSN's Craig Button ranked Ivankovic No.12 on his prospects draft class, which is insane considering many other prominent scouts have Ivankovic ranked outside the top-40.
Regardless, the Predators get a goalie with a lot of upside despite being undersized. He has great movement in the crease to track pucks and has already played on the international level for Canada at the World Juniors. He posted an incredible .961 save percentage in six games going undefeated at the U-18 WJC for Canada in this past year.
Nashville Predators draft their future backup and possible replacement to Juuse Saros way down the road
After the exodus of Yaroslav Askarov in a trade with the San Jose Sharks before last season, the Predators had to plan out a long-term replacement in this draft. Juuse Saros is about to start his eight-year contract while Justus Annunen holds down the temporary role of being the backup.
This gives the Predators plenty of time to develop Ivankovic, but first the prospect will head to the University of Michigan. A top NCAA program so he'll be up against some of the best competition NCAA hockey can offer.
A few years down the road we'll see if Ivankovic is ready for the professional ranks. By then, who knows who will be backing up Saros. No one can predict that right now in 2025.
Be that as it may, I like this pick a lot and how they waited pretty deep into Round 2 to get him. Originally there were a lot of mock drafts that had the Predators taking Joshua Ravensbergen in the first round at either 23rd or 26th.
The only reason I don't give this pick a perfect draft grade is I get nervous about undersized goalies making it full-time on the NHL level. But Ivankovic holds a lot of desirable traits and has proven it against some stiff competition already so there's no reason to doubt him yet.
The beauty to this pick is there's no rush here. Ivankovic can keep building his skills for an outstanding program at the University of Michigan after spending a couple years at the OHL level.