WWYDW: Who Would You Take With The 20th Pick?

We’ve already well established that the Winnipeg Jets are lacking a first round pick thanks to their trade with the New York Rangers for Kevin Hayes at the deadline this past season. The Jets had likely hoped it was going to be a very late first round pick, but a disappointing first round exit means it’s the 20th pick overall. Not exactly the best position in the first round of the draft, but some gems have been picked there in the past. Joel ErikssonEk, Michael DelZotto, Travis Zajac, Anthony Mantha, Brent Burns and Robert Thomas have all been picks at the 20 spot over the last couple of decades, as have the likes of Beau Bennett, Scott Laughton, Kendal McArdle and Angelo Esposito.

It hasn’t been perfect, but 20 has given the NHL some solid players over the years.

Our friends at Canucks Army as is their yearly tradition are doing a countdown of the top 100 prospects and they just recently published profiles for numbers 21 to 25 as well as 16 to 20.

Meanwhile a very popular mock draft website, MyNHLDraft.com has the Rangers taking smooth skating defenseman Thomas Harley from the Mississauga Ice Dogs of the OHL. Canucks Army has him listed at number 31.

A few other names to consider? Phillip Tomasino, who is a smallish forward and as such may scare a few GMs causing him to slide down the draft board. Peyton Krebs could also be a name worth keeping an eye on as it was just revealed a few days ago that he suffered a partial tear of his Achilles tendon. He’s expected to make a full recovery, but injuries such as this could also cause some GMs in the mid teens that would be expected to take him then, to suddenly go a different route.

So with all that in mind today’s question is asking you to put on your scouting and GM hats on. If the Jets still had the 20th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, who would you go after? Would you take one of the names mentioned here, or would you do the very Kevin Cheveldayoff-like thing and go “off the board” with your pick?

Let us know your thoughts and what trades you’d make in the comments below or on either our Twitter feed or Facebook page! As always, we’re going to go over some of the best and/or most thoughtful replies next week.