I doubt that very much. He was never talked about as being a top #10 pick whereas Hendrix was a clear candidate to be in that group but his injury issues has bumped him down to a possible mid to late 1st rounder, with him most likely slipping to the 2nd round.
Hendrix Lapierre is an outstanding talent who I have lauded at great length. I feel in terms of sheer playmaking, he is the second best prospect in the entire draft after only Alex Lafreniere. He is superlative at seeing the passing seams before they even exist, and then he is able to utilize an outstanding combination of hands and skating to open a seam, and once he does he passes with surgical precision.
Lapierre comes with two caveats, however. One is the well-publicized injury woes, which are of course no fault of his own. But the other is that not only does Lapierre not shoot with any authority, but he also almost never shoots. This makes him a bit predictable, and the best defense against him is often to back off and clog the lanes.
Still, I believe if healthy -- and this is a big if -- Lapierre has the potential of becoming a play-driving #1 center at the NHL level. He's just so smart and so skilled.
That being said, I can't argue that he has more "talent" or "upside" than Jacob Perreault. Perreault possesses a combination of shooting/skating/vision which is far and away the best among RWs in the class of 2020. Three elite skills is very rare for a draftee, and when you factor in that Perreault also has terrific hands and is one of the younger players in the draft class, you have to be impressed by what he is capable of.
Of course, Perreault comes with completely different caveats which have dropped him to a likely draft destination in the #12-#20 range. His 200-foot game is in need of great work, and his compete level has come into question. Reportedly, he showed up for 2019 training camp out of shape, although I'm not entirely certain of the veracity of these reports. There are certainly elements of Perreault's game which need to improve if he is to reach his potential.
But, since
potential is what we are discussing, I would have to say that Perreault would rank very highly in the 2020 class in this respect. Lafreniere and Byfield would certainly top this list, but Perreault has to be in the conversation immediately after the likely top two picks.
In my final rankings, I ranked Perreault at #12 and Lapierre at #23. I would love to see Lapierre prove me too conservative, and he certainly has the ability to do just this. I would say my ranking of him was in the neighborhood of most of the consensus, but quite frankly the injuries are so scary I'm not certain I would even draft him this early. The worst injuries in terms of recurrence are head and neck and back injuries, and Lapierre has suffered major versions of all of these before he turned 19. He was not the same player after returning late in the 2019-20 season, and although I have high hopes that he will return to form for his draft +1 campaign, there is still no guarantee.
My ranking of Perreault is as high as I have seen him ranked. I must admit that normally I am a stickler for compete level, but I was completely bedazzled by his skill set. When Perreault is going full throttle, he looks like a top 3 pick, not a guy who the Devils have a shot at at #20 overall. I can explain his high ranking with the same rationalization as I used to rank Arthur Kaliyev as high as anyone last year -- Jacob Perreault is just that talented. If he puts it all together, his potential is to be an absolutely unstoppable offensive force at the NHL level.