Keep or trade? It’s a decision the Avalanche will make regarding their first-round pick, No. 25, on Tuesday when the NHL draft begins at 5 p.m. MT.
Rounds 2 through 7 will take place Wednesday.
They haven’t selected this late in the first round since taking Jonas Johansson at No. 28 in 2002. It worked out pretty well only because the Avalanche acquired Steve Konowalchuk and a 2004 third-round pick from Washington for Johansson's rights and Bates Battaglia in a 2003 trade.
Johansson, a forward, played one NHL game in his professional career, for the Capitals in 2005-06.
Now more than ever, it makes sense for the Avalanche to maintain their “take-the-best-player-available… philosophy if they keep the first-round pick.
Chief amateur scout Alan Hepple is saying as much.
"I think one of the biggest things is pick the best player," he said. "We've kind of got the criteria now, we're going with sense and we're going with speed and skill level. It's pick the best player and not worry about right-handed shot, left-handed shot or positional; we're picking the best player.
“That's kind of been the thing now, we kind of said everybody's in play, we're not trying to target one specific area."
The Avalanche don’t have a second-round pick, having traded it in June 2019 to Washington for Andre Burakovsky, who had a career year in 2019-20 with 45 points (20 goals, 25 assists) in 58 games. He’s a restricted free agent and certainly will be re-signed.
The Avalanche also have picks in the third (No. 75), fourth (No. 118), fifth (No. 149), sixth (No. 167) and seventh rounds (No. 211). The first round will be televised by NBC Sports in the U.S., and by Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada. The NHL Network and Sportsnet will cover the second day starting at 9:30 a.m. MT.
Having to wait 50 picks between the Avalanche’s first- and third-round selections isn't the greatest scenario.
"It's a bigger range (than usual),… Hepple said. “We’ve covered a lot of names. We're hoping some guys drop and guys slide. So that's the good thing about being prepared and spending the last basically six months getting prepared for this."
Like the rest of us, Hepple, his staff and the prospects have spent plenty of time on Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We've had guys at the Pepsi Center cutting video for us of games, so that was a big thing,… he said.
"My guys have always been good at getting information and getting background stuff, so that was always going to be there. They did it and then we interviewed every kid over a video call."
Hepple called all of the picks “assets… for general manager Joe Sakic.
“We make do with the picks and then if Joe has to trade some to get another piece to the puzzle on his end, I'm all for it,… he said.