2020 NHL Draft Recap From A Washed-Up Duster
I am sitting here tonight writing about a bunch of 18-year-old kids who as a washed-up 4th line tier 3 junior hockey player are way better than, but who better to do it than a hopefully Red Wings fan. I am going to do my best to give any of you true fans my opinion on who the draft winners and losers were this year.
I would like to give some base of how I am going to judge winners and losers. A winner to me in any draft year is a team that finds a guy who can make an immediate impact on a roster but also load up on high ceiling players who seem to have a future in the NHL. A loser will be based on lackluster picks in high rounds, lack of picks altogether, or if you are the Arizona Coyotes. Hopefully, this now gives a better idea of how I will be judging all 31 teams.
Biggest Winner of The 2020 NHL Draft
The biggest winners of this draft year I believe are the following three teams in no particular order. The Detroit Red Wings, The New York Rangers, and The Ottawa Senators. I am not going to spend a bunch of time on each team here, but I will give my key highlights of why each of these teams are winners. Let’s start with the Senators, Congrats Ottawa you landed yourself what seems to be a very solid player in Tim Stuetzle. Honestly, I think you won in that the Los Angeles Kings picked Quinton Byfield over Stuetzle. I think Byfield will be a solid player, but I like the upside of Stuetzle more. Ottawa also went out and got themselves 7 picks in the first 3 rounds. I don’t know the exact success rate of players having long term careers in the NHL when drafted in the first 3 rounds, but 7 players in the first 3 rounds tell me Ottawa has finally taken their first step in starting a true rebuild. Speaking of rebuilds let’s go over to our next winner of this year’s draft the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit is now in the trusty hands of Steve Yzerman. The same Steve Yzerman who is responsible for putting together this year’s Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Detroit could have almost been a loser in this draft due to having the worst record in the NHL by a lot, but Yzerman ends up starting the draft with 10 picks. At the end of the 2-day draft, the Red Wings have 12 new prospects. Detroit’s new big prospect is Swedish forward Lucas Raymond taken in the first round at 4th overall. Raymond has been compared to Mitch Marner. Overall I consider Detroit a winner because they are now loading up with young talent and finally going to give guys like Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha help upfront with the young talented forwards. This brings us to our Last winner the New York Rangers. Everyone knew the winner of this year’s draft lottery was getting themselves, Alexis Lafreniere. New York one the sweepstakes and now has a top 9 forward group who I consider to be a top 5 in the NHL. The Rangers also got Braden Schneider at 19th in the first round. Schneider is a big strong D-man who should be able to help on the backend right away for New York. Of course the Rangers choosing not to bring back King Hendrik Lundquist means they need some help in net. In the 4th round, they got Dylan Garand out of the WHL. Goalies are always hard to judge, but nonetheless, they gave themselves another guy to look at to fill the big shoes of Lundquist.
Biggest Losers of the 2020 NHL Draft
Now let’s get to the two teams I feel like are the biggest losers of this draft the Arizona Coyotes and the Buffalo Sabers. As a hockey fan myself, aren’t we all just a little bit sick of making fun of the Sabers and Coyotes? I consider the Coyotes to be a loser in this year’s draft for a couple of key reasons. Reason 1 they lost a pick altogether for illegally testing CHL players before the NHL combine. Next, the Coyotes didn’t get their first player in the draft until midway through round 4 and only got 5 players total. I think we all know Arizona isn’t anywhere near good enough to not pick up a high-end talent. By the way, next year doesn’t get any better for the Coyotes because of the illegal testing they lose their first-round pick next year too. Now the Sabers are less of losers than the Coyotes, but with them also only getting 5 players in the draft I consider them a loser. The Sabers did get Jack Quinn in the first round at 8th overall. Quinn seems to be a solid player, but is he enough to help out Buffalo right now? Buffalo is one of those teams in professional sports that always seems to be in a rebuild, In fact, I would compare them to the Detroit Lions in the NFL. A team with talent on the roster, but can’t ever seem to figure out what to do with said talent.
In closing, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully, you enjoyed it!
