NHL DRAFT ORDER IS NOT SO CLEAR THIS TIME AROUND
Lafreniere the consensus No. 1 overall pick, but picture incomplete on other prospects
A dynamic winger who models his game after Patrick Kane. A centre built like Evgeni Malkin. A German-born forward who could be the next Leon Draisaitl. Or a defenceman who moves the puck like Cale Makar.
Take your pick, Ottawa Senators.
Quite possibly, one — or even two — of these top-four prospects could be yours. We just don’t know if or when that might happen.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs were supposed to begin on Wednesday and the draft lottery was scheduled for this weekend. But, like the end of the regular season and the NHL Entry Draft, and pretty much everything else in between, they’ve been put on hold because of the coronavirus.
That means that the 30th-ranked Senators, who also own the 29th-ranked San Jose Sharks’ first-round pick, might not know until June or July where they’ll be selecting.
Based on their odds, they could end up making both the second and third overall picks. Or, depending on how the lottery balls bounce, they could end up picking fifth and sixth overall.
And yet, that didn’t stop NHL Central Scouting from releasing its final prospect rankings on Wednesday. After all, unlike NHL teams that are evaluating players right up until they make their selection, their work was mostly done when various leagues began to shut down.
“Unfortunately, no one got the benefit to scout playoffs, the Memorial Cup, the U-18 championships,” Central Scouting director Dan Marr said during an online conference call. “For Central Scouting, our list always comes out around this time, during the first round of the NHL playoffs and before the draft lottery. We missed about 10 days. And most of our rankings is based on regular season play.”
Topping the list of North American skaters was Rimouski Oceanic winger Alexis Lafreniere, followed by centre Quinton Byfield (Sudbury Wolves), defencemen Jamie Drysdale (Erie Otters) and Jake Sanderson (National Development Team Program) and centre Cole Perfetti (Saginaw Spirit).
German winger Tim Stuetzle was named the top European skater, with forward Alexander Holtz (Sweden), centre Anton Lundell (Finland), and wingers Lucas Raymond (Sweden) and Rodion Amirov (Russia) rounding out the top five.
Nico Daws (Guelph Storm) and Yaroslav Askarov (Russia) were named the top North American and European goalies, respectively.
“For sure, growing up it’s a dream of every hockey player,” Lafreniere said of being selected No. 1 overall.
NHL Central Scouting doesn’t combine North Americans and Europeans in their rankings. But if they did, it’s safe to assume that Lafreniere, who was named tournament MVP for Canada at the world juniors, would be the consensus No. 1 pick.
“Alexis is quite the player when you look at every aspect of his game,” said JF Damphousse, the regional scout for Quebec and the Maritimes. “I think you could look at every aspect as elite when you look at his skating, his puck skills. … What separates him from the pack is his compete level. Any time the game is on the line, you want him on the ice.”
Still, it would have been beneficial to see more of the prospects.
Byfield, who was invisible at the world juniors, was preparing to lead Sudbury to an OHL championship and possibly a trip to the Memorial Cup.
But now there are no playoffs. No Memorial Cup. No world championship. And there is also no draft combine, preventing teams from conducting one-onone interviews and seeing how the prospects measure up in physical fitness tests.
What you see is what you get. And for teenage hockey players, whose bodies are changing from month to month, what you’re seeing is an incomplete picture.
Take Sanderson, for example. From January to April, he improved seven spots in the order. Raymond, meanwhile, dropped from second in the midterm rankings to fourth in the final rankings.
Would those same prospects continue to rise or fall in these lost months? We won’t know.
“Our list was pretty much completed the way we scouted all year,” said Damphousse. “We’ve seen those players a good amount of time. I don’t think this situation (with COVID-19) changed our lists.”
The players, however, are the ones who could be affected most.
As Lafreniere said, it’s every player’s dream to get drafted into the NHL. And part of that dream is putting on a new suit and having your name called to the stage, where after hugging family members and friends, you get to put on an NHL jersey for the first time.
That might not happen. While the NFL will hold its draft later this month virtually via phone and over internet, the NHL hasn’t yet decided what route it will take.