The Colorado Avalanche have the #10 selection at the 2015 NHL Draft. Avalanche GM Joe Sakic stated in yesterday’s media call that the team would be open to trading up or trading down. However, the Avs are also content with the #10 pick.
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At the end of the season, head coach Patrick Roy, who has last word on player personnel as VP of hockey operations, told 104.3 The Fan that he didn’t see why the Colorado Avalanche couldn’t draft a “6-foot-3, 6-foot-4 center” and also that he felt the team’s lack of size contributed to their injuries — Colorado lost the second-most man games to injury during the 2014-15 season. Coach Roy also stated he felt the team had a lot of talent already in defensive prospects.
I took that information and ran with it. I’ve been scouting big forwards in the #10 range of scouting ranking, ignoring smaller players and defensemen.
Our GM threw a small wrench into my reasoning:
"“We have our list, we’ve had our meetings and we’re confident we’re going to get a real good player that’s going to have an opportunity to help us, whether it’s next year or down the line. It’s going to be the best player available for us. Other rounds, we’re going to look more to need.”"
Sakic also pointed out there’s some “skilled defensemen” available as well as “big forwards.”
Well, so that doesn’t radically change who I think the Avs are going to select with their #10 pick, but it does open up a couple other possibilities that I hadn’t considered. Let’s look.