Vegas Golden Knights 2019 NHL Draft: First Round Winners and Losers

The first round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft is in the books and the Vegas Golden Knights can be extremely happy with how their night went.

On the board at No.17, the Vegas Golden Knights hit the jackpot when elite playmaker Peyton Krebs fell in their laps after being expected to go much higher.

High-end talent slipping down the board was the pattern of the first round as we were treated to a number of shocks with a lot of teams opting to address needs rather than select the best player available.

Many experts predicted that the draft wouldn’t really begin until the Chicago Blackhawks went on the clock with the No.3 selection, and those predictions came true with the Hawks setting the tone for the rest of the night.

After defying a plethora of draft boards and mock drafts by selecting Kirby Dach over potential franchise center Alex Turcotte, a flurry of teams followed Chicago’s lead by ignoring a slew of elite prospects and instead picking players who were projected to go a lot lower.

With that in mind, we have picked out who we believe to be the biggest winners and losers from the first round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

Now, it is worth keeping in mind of course that we won’t know how a lot of these drafts will pan out until at least a few years down the line, but these projections are based on what we were expecting to happen going into Friday night.

Okay, let’s get started…

Winner: New Jersey Devils & New York Rangers

This is a fairly obvious one given that we knew this year’s draft was all about the talent at the very top.

Jack Hughes was the consensus No.1 overall pick and the American-born center really is a generational talent.

He needs to bulk up a little but that is only a minor blemish on the copybook. Other than that, Hughes ticks every single box when it comes to selecting your franchise center.

We all know that centers are a valuable commodity to NHL teams and the Devils now have a deadly one-two punch down the middle with Hughes and Nico Hischier.

Hughes is a cornerstone piece for New Jersey and it is now up to the front office to build a team around their young stud that can compete for Stanley Cups on a consistent basis.

As for the New York Rangers, they were going to win big no matter what the Devils did with their first overall pick.

And, as it turns out, the Blueshirts have probably got the best case scenario after spending their No.2 pick on Kaapo Kakko.

The Finnish sensation is ready to take the NHL by storm right away and, as shown at the IIHF World Championships, he’s built to truly thrive and succeed in the big moments.

Kakko, at the tender age of 18-years-old, has a man’s physique already and that will stand him in good stead to be able to handle the rigors of a gruelling 82-game NHL regular season.

Kaapo Kakko fever has officially swept The Big Apple and the elite wing has all the weapons in his armoury to be able to fire the Rangers back into Stanley Cup contention.

Loser: Detroit Red Wings

Now, let’s preface this by saying that Red Wings General Manager Steve Yzerman knows what he’s doing and he’s certainly got more hockey knowledge than us.

However, you can’t help but feel that Detroit committed a small sin by overlooking a slew of high-end offensive talent in favor of selecting German defenseman Moritz Seider with the No.6 overall pick.

Of course, Seider is a very nice player and he has credentials having been crowned the DEL’s Rookie of the Year following an impressive 2018-19 for Adler Mannheim, where he posted a plus / minus rating of 2 along with two goals and four assists for six points in 29 games, in addition to five points in the postseason.

He’s been credited as a smart two-way defenseman who can skate well and move the puck even better.

However, Seider was projected to go in the mid-to-late first round and, when you consider the offensive talent above him, you have to question Detroit’s decision.

They could have added another stud to the stable by drafting an elite offensive talent in the ilk of Dylan Cozens, Trevor Zegras, Cole Caufield or Vasily Podkolzin.

Only time will tell whether or not the Red Wings made the right decision but, as of right now, you can’t help but feel that they missed out on the chance to add a key piece to their rebuild.

Winner: Colorado Avalanche

Boy, does this Colorado Avalanche team look scary. Outside of the top two picks the Avs were the undisputed winners of the first round on Friday.

After waiting in position at No.4 to take Bowen Byram, the highest-rated defenseman in the draft, off the board, the Avalanche then took advantage of teams going for need over quality by taking speedy center Alex Newhook with the 16th overall pick.

It was quite the haul and, just like that, Colorado are a better hockey team and have added a few more years to their Stanley Cup window.

I mean, man, they are loaded and they could follow in the footsteps of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks when it comes to emerging as the next dynasty in the NHL.

Just look at their roster. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Barrie (if he’s not traded, of course), Nikita Zadorov, Cale Makar and now Byram and Newhook.

Lord have mercy on us and the rest of the NHL. The Avalanche are coming and they look absolutely terrifying.

Loser: The Chicago Blackhawks

Similar to the Detroit Red Wings, there is no telling at this stage whether or not the Blackhawks’ selection of Kirby Dach with the No.3 pick will turn out to be a huge success or a massive failure.

What we do know however is that Chicago had the pick of prospects that were ranked higher than Dach, including elite center Alex Turcotte and stud defenseman Bowen Byram.

We said in our first round mock draft that Turcotte would have been the perfect fit for the Hawks given his high compete level, excellent skating ability and elite playmaking ability.

Turcotte would have been the natural heir to the throne to Jonathan Toews, but instead we will wait and see if power forward Kirby Dach is the long-term answer for the franchise.

Winner: Spencer Knight

Regarded as a generational talent and the most exciting goalie prospect since Carey Price, Spencer Knight came into this draft with a lot of hype and rightly so.

However, he maybe didn’t get the credit he deserved in regards to where he was projected to be picked due to history.

See, it is very rare that goaltenders are taken in the first round with Tampa Bay Lightning star Andrei Vasilevskiy the last goalie to be taken inside the top 20 back in 2020.

However, the Florida Panthers were in desperate need of a franchise netminder and they decided to take the gamble and select Knight with the No.13 pick, making the American-born prospect the highest goalie drafted since Jack Campbell was taken 11th overall in 2010.

Should the Panthers now go out and splurge on Sergei Bobrovsky in free agency, then they will have elite goaltending in place both for the present and for their long-term future.

Loser: NHL Fans

We have gone for this one mainly because there was so much hype over potential trades heading into the first round.

Tyson Barrie, P.K. Subban, Kris Letang and a plethora of other names were all being floated about in trade talks and fans were licking their lips at the tantalising prospect of witnessing a boatload of stars switch teams.

However, it turned out to be the biggest anticlimax of all time because, for the first time since the Sidney Crosby draft in 2005, there were no player trades at all.

And, to add insult to injury, there are no guarantees that there will be much movement today with the salary cap for 2019-20 still not decided upon.

Let’s hope if one player gets traded today that will spark a domino-like effect and we can be treated to a mouthwatering feast of big moves.

Winner: Montreal Canadiens

Things are starting to look up for one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, and their outlook for the future got a whole lot better on Friday.

Reading the room and sensing that teams were addressing need rather than going for quality, the Canadiens stayed put and that decision paid dividends when Cole Caufield landed in their laps.

Caufield was the best pure sniper in this year’s draft and he averaged nearly a goal per game last year with the USNTDP.

It appears Caufield’s size, he’s 5’7″ and 163 lb, went against him with some teams trying to copy the St. Louis Blues’ throwback model of being big and hitting hard.

However, that is a crazy decision when you consider that the NHL is still in the infancy of its golden age, with the sport filled to the brim with elite skaters and offensive phenoms.

Just look at the Chicago Blackhawks’ Alex DeBrincat. He’s small in size but has thrived in the NHL, scoring 41 goals and 76 points in 2018-19 alone for the Hawks.

Both players are exactly the same size and, like DeBrincat, Caufield possesses the skills required to become an elite scorer at the NHL level.

If Caufield can live up to his potential then the Canadiens may well have just landed themselves an elite goalscorer.

Loser: Offensive Talent

This draft was renowned for being loaded with high-end offensive talent and elite playmakers, especially in the top half of the first round.

However, and as already mentioned, teams decided to go against the grain and draft for need leaving a slew of high-end forwards on the board.

That includes Arthur Kaliyev, Raphael Lavoie and Bobby Brink who were all expected to be taken in the first round but will find themselves still on the board once the second round starts at 10 am PT today.

Kaliyev in particular was a huge shock not to have gone early in the first round given that he scored 51 goals for Hamilton in the Ontario Hockey League.

All three would add a considerable offensive punch to any team in the NHL, and don’t be surprised if some franchises try and trade up in order to take one of those talents off the board early.