The Nashville Predators finished up their 2020 NHL draft, picking up seven players from the draft and acquiring another through trade.
After the No. 5 seed Preds were beaten by the No. 12 seed Arizona Coyotes in the opening round of the 2020 postseason, it became clear that something was wrong with the team, especially in the goal-scoring department. With that much talent on the roster, anything short of a Stanley Cup is a bust.
With the Preds’ first pick, the 11th overall selection, I was hoping that the team would select a natural goal-scorer, but according to the team, apparently there were none left to take. Instead, the Preds went in the polar opposite direction and picked up a goalie.
With the 11th overall pick, the Preds selected goalie Iaroslav Askarov, an 18-year-old gaolie from St. Petersburg of the Kontinetial Hockey League (KHL) out of Russia.
In 2020, Askarov appeared in three games for St. Petersburg, going 2-1-0 with a 0.74 goals against average (GAA) and a save percentage of .974. In 2019, he went 12-3-3 with the club and maintained a high .920 save percentage.
On top of that, Askarov was the second-youngest goalie to start in the KHL at age 17. Askarov has shown that he can compete with the big boys despite his young age, and I have full confidence that his abilities will translate well to the NHL.
I imagine Askarov will replace longtime Preds netminder Pekka Rinne in the coming years and form a solid tandem with Juuse Saros for years to come.
With the 42nd overall pick, the Preds selected right winger Luke Evangelista from the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Another 18-year-old, Evangelista played in 62 games for the Knights last season, racking up 61 points, with 57 of them coming at even strength. For what I hoped for, this is the best goal scorer of the Preds’ draft class.
What Evangelista really brings to the table is a solid two-way game, which was evident in his work to establish a league-leading penalty kill with the Knights. London is known for an exceptional player development model, evidenced by the amount of alumni they have in the NHL and the team’s success as of late.
The Preds third pick was defenseman Luke Prokop of the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Calgary Hitmen at 73rd overall. Prokop was third among Hitmen defenders last season, recording a career high 23 points in 59 games.
Clearly, Prokop isn’t a goal-scoring or offensively minded defenseman. What Prokop does have is a big frame at six-foot-four-inches, 217 pounds. He’s a very raw talent that will need a few years in the WHL and minor league team to develop properly. Not a great pick, but Nashville historically is good at developing defensemen, so if any team is going to take a raw talent on defense, might as well be the Preds.
With the 101st overall selection, the Preds grabbed D Adam Wilsby out of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). A polar opposite of Prokop, Wilsby is a transition defenseman with solid puck handling skills who can help lead a rush.
I won’t go into detail on the team’s following choices, but I’ll lay them out.
Round 6, 166th overall: D Luke Reid (Chicago, USHL)
Round 7, 202nd overall: LW Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (Chicago, USHL)
Round 7, 209th overall: C Chase McLane (Tri-City, USHL)
The eighth player coming Nashville’s way is Luke Kunin, a six-foot, 197 pound center. Kunin was acquired via trade with the Minnesota Wild which saw the Preds ship out their 37th and 70th overall picks and veteran center Nick Bonino
” …we really needed to fill a lot of holes, so we picked up some forwards and two right-handed defensemen, which was an area in our depth chart we needed to address,” said Preds’ Chief Amateur Scout Tom Nolan. “In all areas of the game – from skill, character, speed and size – we hit every aspect and we’re happy that we did. We are happy with how the draft went.”
I’m not thrilled about this draft class. I believe that Askarov and Saros will make an incredible tandem together in the coming years and that Evangelista will be a good fit, but I feel like the rest of the class is lacking.
The team’s biggest need is offense and they decided to take mainly defensemen and a goalie. I feel a goalie was necessary but why the glut of defenders? This would make more sense to me if the Preds go after a forward in free agency.
The departures of Bonino, F Craig Smith and C Mikael Granlund will clear up some room for the team, and I imagine that some of these picks are to make up for the loss of grit that Bonino and Smith brought to the table.
If I had to grade the team’s draft, I’d give it a solid C, or a five or six out of ten. Again, not the best, but middle of the road. The team has to address the lack of a natural goal scorer at some point in the future.
Photo Credit / NBC Sports
