Chicago Blackhawks: 2019 NHL Draft grades for central division

The Chicago Blackhawks had a pretty good draft overall with all things considered, but how did their division rivals do this year?

In 2018-19, the Central Division was by far the best division in the National Hockey League. They have seven teams and all seven teams held a playoff spot at some point in the second half of the season, They sent five of their seven teams to the playoffs as both Western Conference Wild Card teams came from this division. The only two teams in the division that missed were the Chicago Blackhawks and the Minnesota Wild, who have both been perennial playoff teams for most of the last decade.

Now that the 2019 NHL Draft is in the books, all seven of these teams believe they did well and have playoff expectations going into next season. They also have the defending Stanley Cup champions in the group of teams looking to defend its title. This was a really fun draft weekend and lots of teams made moves.

There were some unexpected decisions by certain GMs, NHL level trades, and even a bit of the obvious happened as well. The New Jersey Devils selected Jack Hughes first overall and the New York Rangers selected Kaapo Kakko second overall just like everyone expected. Then the next two picks came from Central Division teams and it was very interesting, to say the least.

Now, let’s look at how each team in the division did in the draft and give them grades based on how their weekends went. These grades are specific to each club and moves and draft picks they made all throughout the weekend of the draft.