- Jeremy Rutherford of St. Louis Today: Unless something changes, the Blues won’t make their first selection until 56th overall and then not again until 94th overall. That’s nothing new as the Blues have only selected in the first round twice in the last four years. Said GM Doug Armstrong:
“Yeah, we’re talking to teams now,” he said. “If there’s a way that makes sense for us to get into that first round and get a player that we covet in that area, we can look at doing that. We’re certainly not ruling it out.”
Armstrong is well-aware of the price to get into prime drafting position:
“Obviously you’re getting a player you believe is going to help your organization long term,” Armstrong said. “You have to believe that there’s a replacement available through free agency or you have an internal replacement. Obviously you’re giving something of value to get into that first round and you want to be able to replace that.”
- Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: The Maple Leafs’ first three picks are fourth, 24th, and 65th overall and President Brendan Shanahan and his team is ready to make the necessary moves to collect their desired players in and out of the draft:
“(Both picks) are in play,” said club president Brendan Shanahan. “We’d answer the phone on just about everything. With the 24th, we’re preparing for many options. We have a cluster of players that we like in that area. We’re trying to prepare ourselves for different scenarios that. We could move up or back.”
- Mike Chambers of the Denver Post: With the 10th and 40th selections, Director of Amateur Scouting Alan Heppel has the Avalanche’s draft strategy in place:
“Colorado will select the best player available at No. 10, regardless of position, then draft based on need the rest of the way. It just happens that the best player available at No. 10 will fill a need.”
That need is quite clear:
“At 10 we’re going to get what’s left, and there is a combination of (big) forwards and (skilled) D there,” said Hepple.”
- Tom Guilliti of Fire & Ice: The Devils own the sixth overall pick, and feel like they’re in prime position to select a quality player even if they move back a couple of slots:
“There’s a cost to move up where we are in terms of assets,” GM Ray Shero said. “Everybody’s going to have different rankings, but there are good players there from 3 to 10, so if we’re at 6 we’re going to get a good player there we believe.”
One team the New Jersey may make a deal with is Columbus, who sits in eighth and appears to covet defenseman Noah Hanifin:
“The Devils would likely keep their pick if London (OHL) right wing Mitch Marner slips to sixth, but, if not, Shero might be tempted to trade back to eighth,” Guilliti notes, “where he would still be able to select one of the other top forwards available and pick up another asset in the process from the Blue Jackets.”