Chicago Blackhawks: 2019 NHL Draft grades for central division
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche had as good of a draft as any team in the NHL. If you were to power rank teams’ drafts the Avalanche would be at minimum top five. They have lately been one of those teams that everything they seem to do is the right thing. They traded Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators for a first round pick after an all-time bad NHL season that saw them with only 48 points in 2016-17. They then magically turned it around, while Ottawa fell way off and finished as the worst team in the league in 2018-19 and the lottery results left that first round pick as fourth overall in this draft.
The Avalanche took full advantage of the Blackhawks not selecting the third best player in the draft and took Bowen Byram for themselves. He is projected by scouts to be an NHL number one defenseman so he will join Cale Makar as two defensemen with that projection on Colorado’s roster. They also had their own first round pick and selected Alex Newhook who fell to them, so they had a very successful first round.
Alex Beaucage was a really good third round pick and Matthew Stienburg in the second round was a reach so they believe he is going to be something someday. This was an awesome draft for them and they are looking like one of the favorites in the Western Conference next season.