The Avalanche faces an uncertain position entering this year's draft

Coming into the 2020 NHL Draft, the Avalanche find themselves in an unfamiliar position. For the first time in many years, the NHL Draft was a secondary (at best) storyline for the franchise as they weren’t rooting for another team to lose or gauging their own draft position throughout the season.

Following a strong regular season and second consecutive loss in Game 7 in the second round, the Avs enter the draft season with the 24th overall selection. Should they make that pick, it would be Colorado’s lowest selection in the first round since 2002, when they drafted 28th (obviously discounting the years they traded first-round picks away).

In fact, the Avs have drafted almost as many times in the top 10 (seven) as in the 20s (eight) since moving to Colorado. Safe to say, this simply isn’t a position of comfort for this organization.

It’s easy to say their approach at 24 will be the classic “best player available” approach and it should be. Their system is as balanced and talented as it ever has been in Avalanche history.

On defense, the Avs have two players who will push for NHL jobs whenever next season begins in Conor Timmins and Bowen Byram. Beyond that, they have Drew Helleson entering his sophomore year at Boston College and Danila Zhuravylov over in Russia continuing to improve. Beyond that, there’s very little of note as Josh Anderson has accomplished little since entering pro hockey and both Nick Leivermann and Nate Clurman are on prolonged career paths at Notre Dame.

Simply, the Avs sitting at 24 should be strongly considering a defenseman if one is available who makes sense for them. Given that may not happen, the impressive coffers at forward may get another high-quality prospect.

The Avs have forward prospects who will push for NHL jobs very soon in Martin Kaut and Shane Bowers after both had strong AHL seasons last year. Beyond them, the organization is looking at a wide array of talents, from the reliable two-way game of Russian Nikolai Kovalenko to the tantalizing offensive upside of college players Sampo Ranta and Tyler Weiss and bruising roughness of Cornell’s Matthew Stienburg.

The big name in this group, however, is Alex Newhook, whose freshman year at Boston College was a smashing success and vaulted him into the top 10 of many prospect lists around the league. Newhook is likely to play just one more year at BC before turning pro and beginning his career with the Avalanche so he is a talent that will need to be replenished in the system.

In fact, while Colorado boasts plenty of forward depth with the strong years of CHL talents such as Alex Beaucage, Sasha Mutala, and Luka Burzan, every prospect outside of Weiss is expected to graduate to pro hockey in a year.

That’s a significant amount of turnover for an entire system to experience at once, meaning the Avs are in plum position to benefit from taking whichever name is highest upon their board come the 24th selection. Because that player is very unlikely to be a goaltender, we’ll skip over that portion of Colorado’s system beyond saying it’s also in healthy shape with Justus Annunen leading the pack.

Beginning in 2015, Colorado’s drafting patterns changed drastically as they rededicated themselves to scouting Europe more thoroughly and have not been shy to draft players from more obscure locations.

In that time, the Avs have drafted players from every league in the CHL, two different Canadian Junior-A leagues, a Canadian prep school, the USHL, a US high school, a US prep school, two of the three leagues in Russia, two different leagues in the Czech Republic, two different Finnish leagues, and Swedish juniors. That’s a ton of ground the organization covers and gives the already-unpredictable draft process an extra dose of uncertainty when forecasting Colorado’s preferences.

While the organization has stated they love high-end skaters and have gone to the mat to prove in drafting players such as Cale Makar, Newhook, and Byram in the last several years, they’ve also drafted players with significant skating question marks when they took Tyson Jost, Cam Morrison, Timmins, and Kaut (his was less questionable skating and more that it wasn’t really a strength) all in the first two rounds. Again, it leaves you wondering exactly what they are prioritizing at times because what they say and what they do don’t always align.

The one attribute that does tie many of their draftees together, especially in the first two rounds, is hockey IQ. The Avs believe in playing fast and that means processing the game quickly just as much as it means how much time it takes for a player to physically get from point A to point B. Think fast, play fast, be fast is how the Avalanche has built their NHL club on down.

With all that emphasis on speed, it’s no wonder the Avs were able to transform themselves from bottom-feeders to Stanley Cup contender in just a few short years. While they may not have as high a pick as they’re accustomed to this year, whomever they select will be important in spearheading the wave after the next wave for the Avalanche.