Speculation: The 2020 Draft Thread: Part 1

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Okay... so a few ground rules:

1) No tank talk, even implied or attempts at humor.
2) No need to rehash the lottery.
3) No slagging the team. The thread is to discuss upcoming candidates for the 2020 NHL draft, which early press and observation seems to indicate is both very talented and fairly deep.

So with that in mind there are a few early rankings already up.

Alexis Lafreniere: LW; Rimouski, QMJHL; Just won the Q league MVP despite being in his D-1 season. Was tied for top point getter at last year's Hlinka Gretzky Cup with 2019 draftee Podkolzin, captaining the gold medal winning Canadian squad that was dripping with high-end 2019 draftees (Dach, Byram, Cozens, Pelletier, Poulin). He's been long considered the front runner for this draft and with good reason. He had an 42-goal, 80-point season as a 16-year old in the Q, then followed that with a 105 point season as a 17-year old.

There are a bunch of other players to discuss along with Lafreniere. Quinton Byfield is a giant, fleet skating center for Sudbury of the OHL. The Swedes have a their usual inclusion for top pick consideration with Lucas Raymond on Frölunda's J20 team. Anton Lundell is the obligatory Finn prospect, playing for HIFK in the Liiga and drawing some parallels to fellow countryman Alexander Barkov.

There is also more international flare in the early reviews.

Want some other Swedes? Alexander Holtz, Zion Nybeck, and Noel Gunler.
Want some Czech? Jan Mysak
How about a German? Tim Stuetzle (C)
Swiss? Theo Rochette (C, playing in the Q)
How about Russian drama? Vasily Ponomaryov, micro-sized Marat Khusnutdinov, and perhaps the best goalie in the running Yaroslav Askarov.

Canadians? How about defensemen Jamie Drysdale (go watch him skate... kid's a dream) or Justin Barron. Or centers like Byfield Marco Rossi or Cole Perfetti?
You want 'Merican? Dylan Petersen (C), Ty Smilanic (C), and Tyler Kelven (D)

The Hlinka is coming up which is very much a showcase for this year's draftees, as are the U20 selection camps which sometimes see interesting performances from draft eligible players.

Click to read more...

 

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Raymond is probably my favorite to watch out of the early set of higher ranked guys outside of Lafreniere. He's smallish (5'10") buy my word he wants the puck all the time so he can go do all sorts of fun things with it, like score in a variety of ways or set the table for his linemates and generally dangle the hell out of someone. Great fun, highly entertaining AND he's no slouch defensively. He has all of what we have come to expect out of Swedish trained players in his own zone, yet all of the creativity that they're trying to infuse back into their development model.

 

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Canada's selection roster for the Hlinka is out: 2019 National Men's Summer Under-18 Selection Camp Roster

In another format:



Of interest to me is seeing Byfield as "the man". I loved his OHL season.

And from a Sabre-centric side, Brendan Guhle's little brother should be in the upper-end of the draft mix based on early projections and he's also on the invite roster.

 

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Some early ink from Morreale on the upcoming 2020 draft:

Lafreniere headlines 2020 NHL Draft prospects

 

[Jame]

Raymond is probably my favorite to watch out of the early set of higher ranked guys outside of Lafreniere. He's smallish (5'10") buy my word he wants the puck all the time so he can go do all sorts of fun things with it, like score in a variety of ways or set the table for his linemates and generally dangle the hell out of someone. Great fun, highly entertaining AND he's no slouch defensively. He has all of what we have come to expect out of Swedish trained players in his own zone, yet all of the creativity that they're trying to infuse back into their development model.

Raymond and Holtz were dynamite together at U18, hope Sweden keeps them together for another tourney.

CHL guys that stood out last season Rossi, Perfetti, and Stranges... along with the Lapierre and Rochette duo in Chicotoumi.

Justin Barron will be in the #2 overall conversation by year’s end.

 

[Chainshot]

Raymond and Holtz were dynamite together at U18, hope Sweden keeps them together for another tourney.

CHL guys that stood out last season Rossi, Perfetti, and Stranges... along with the Lapierre and Rochette duo in Chicotoumi.

Justin Barron will be in the #2 overall conversation by year’s end.

They were entertaining at the U18's.

And I'm not sure if Raymond and Holz will be at the Hlinka, since they're on the U20 selection team playing in Lake Placid right before it. I think they have 3 or 4 days to make it to Piestany for the Swedish games. I don't see the Swedes on the schedule for any on Berklav: Schedule and Scores

Lafrienere won't be, since he's a late 2001 birthday and the Hlinka is a 2002 or sooner cut off this year.

 

[Jim Bob]

There is a big local goalie that will be draft eligible that is at the USA Hockey Select 17 camp in Amherst.

I'm sure the talking heads will approve of picking him late on day 2 of the 2020 draft.

 

[Duddy]

Rossi is going to be really really good.
Would love to finally have an Austrian on the team again.

 

[Chainshot]

CHL import draft is today. I don't think the Sabres have anyone who is jumping the pond, but it might be interesting to see if any of the early draft board guys from Europe get selected. (This is not advocacy, this is just that it would be interesting to see if it happens.)

 

[Tsyolin]

So from what I've heard so far, there isn't a very big American presence at the top of this draft. Guess we threw everything we had at this last draft huh.

 

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Import draft link: CHL

 

[Chainshot]

So from what I've heard so far, there isn't a very big American presence at the top of this draft. Guess we threw everything we had at this last draft huh.

Yeah it is not nearly the same as last season. I'm curious if they can keep up their medal streak at the U18's with the group they have right now. The Hlinka should color expectations, but USA Hockey seems like they have a lot of work to do collectively to overcome a smaller number of naturally talented guys.

 

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A small amount of humor:



Mysak was picked by Hamilton, Stuetzle (that one requires practice to spell) by Seattle, Martin Has selected by North Bay. Not familiar with a bunch of these guys... opportunity to watch and read up on them.

 

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Finnish breakdown of the first round of the Import Draft:

 

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Analysis review in draft trends:

 

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I've never seen a breakup on social media before:



Tough blow for the Otters though. I think they figured they had him in the bag.

 

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For later:

 

[Jim Bob]

 

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Here is a link to the US U18 list:

 

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Czech U20's summer games:

 

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More summer lists are being built:

 

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Another early list:

 

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Some projection on the Hlinka roster for the Finns: