2020 NHL Draft: Contenders make high risk, high reward draft picks

Teams made some very interesting choices in the 2020 NHL Draft.

With the 2020 NHL Draft completed, fans can now try and decipher what their favorite teams may have gained or missed out on. Alexis Lafreniere was, as predicted, the New York Ranger’s first overall draft pick. Quinton Byfield and Tim Stutzle rounded out the top three, which was also the common prediction. That is where the draft consensus ended.

As the picks go on and players fell off of the draft board, there were more and more questions. Those top three picks were all thought of as the best bets available.

After that, teams choose a player who has an NHL ready shot, but needs to improve defensively, or has NHL ready skating but needs to become more consistent, and so on. It becomes a balance of confidence in organizational developmental processes with team needs and the best players available.

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All teams do their homework. However, the contending teams who picked later in the first round had tougher choices of risk versus reward. It is the obvious, built-in, competitive balance factor of any pro-sports entry draft.

For competitive teams to stay that way in years to come they need to be reasonably successful in the draft to stay affordable and competitive. Just reference Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point, former 3rd-round pick.

Two teams, in particular, took a high risk, high reward draft choice in Tuesday’s first round. The Washington Capitals drafted Hendrix Lapierre 22nd overall and the Colorado Avalanche drafted Justin Barron 25th overall. Both were highly touted prospects in 2019, but fell hard due to medical concerns.

In Washington’s case, they traded up from 24th overall to 22nd overall in a swap with Calgary to select Lapierre. Lapierre was the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s offensive rookie of the year in 2018-2019. That is where the hype began. However, at the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, Lapierre suffered from two concussions in a month.

If the head injuries were not enough, there were corresponding neck injuries from the incidents. Lapierre only played in 19 games in his draft year because of the medical concerns. The silver lining is that he did score 17 points in those games, and has scored five points in the Chicoutimi Saguenéens first two games of the 2020-2021 season.

Oh, not to mention the massive silver lining of still being drafted in the first round and if he rushes to the NHL he might even play with one of the best goal scorers of all-time in Alex Ovechkin. This may very well end up being the best draft pick in the 2020 draft, particularly for the value. Moving up those two spots only cost Washington a 2020 third-round pick.

For Colorado at 25th overall, they had been supposedly smitten with defenseman Justin Barron for quite some time. There is a lot of expectation for the Avalanche’s future young players like Cale Makar, Bowen Byram, and Alex Newhook. Despite having both Makar and Byram, the prospect depth at defense is weak after their potential graduates for this upcoming season.

The trouble with Barron and Colorado is that his medical concerns are rumored to possibly be negatively impacted at altitude. Barron was only able to play in 34 games in the 2019-2020 season due to a blood clot.

Playing at altitude, aside from its obvious difficulties, can otherwise harm athletes. Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark could not play in Denver because of how the altitude affected his body as a complication of carrying the sickle cell genetic trait. Clark almost lost his life in 2007 from playing in Denver. Luckily he was able to recover and even play pro-football for another seven years after the incident.

Neither Barron nor the Avalanche has any concerns about the issue now. The blood clot was not caused by any kind of reoccurring condition or physical predisposition.

Despite this Barron, like Lapierre, fell out of the top half of the first round because of the associated health risks. Barron has also continued his junior hockey career with the Halifax Mooseheads at the recent start of their 2020-2021 season.

Both players could end up being thought of as steals, that general manager in their right mind would pass up. If that is the case it looks like a matter of the rich getting richer in the NHL thanks to some bold moves by Colorado and Washington.