The Tampa Bay Lightning 2020 Draft class may not have been great, but they still came away with some strong picks. Here’s a breakdown of who they got with their final five picks! Click HERE for Part One!
Tampa Bay Lightning 2020 Draft Class Deep Dive and Grade
Despite plenty of rumours and a gruesome cap-crunch, the Tampa Bay Lightning kept all of their players during the 2020 NHL Draft. The only made one somewhat notable trade (although it wasn’t their only one), swapping the 124th selection and a pick in 2021 with the Montreal Canadiens for the 57th overall pick; which became their first of the Draft. But they still managed a strong haul, netting a total of nine new names.
116th Overall Pick: Tampa Bay selects Eamon Powell
Pick Grade: A-
The Lightning made another move to acquire this pick, trading the 94th overall selection to the Flyers for the 116th pick and the 147th pick in this draft. With the first of the two acquired picks, Tampa takes what could be a big steal in Eamon Powell. The 5’11”, 170 pound right-handed defenseman played all of last season with the US National Team Development Program, recording 6 goals and 14 points in 43 games. In 19 USHL games, Powell recorded an impressive 5 goals and 11 points from the blueline. He has committed to Boston College for the 2020-21 season, if there is one, of course.
Tampa Bay Lightning 2020 Draft Class Scouting Report on Eamon Powell
Being listed as Last Word’s 78th ranked prospect, Powell was taken well-after many thought he would go. First off, Powell is an elite skater. He is technically sound in his stride technique and execution. He’s super fast, with the ability to burn opposing players with relative ease. Powell is not only fast skating forward either, as he can be faster going backwards than some players going forward. He can skate fast with and without the puck as well. Not only does his skating stand out, but despite his small stature, he has excellent lower body strength and can be very difficult to knock down and away from the puck.
Offensively, he can stickhandle as good or even better than most forwards, and he can do it at full speed, making him lethal with the puck, especially in transition. This opens up space for himself to make plays and also buy time for his teammates to get open. Powell has the passing ability, vision, awareness, and skating abilities to quarterback a power play. His shot does need some work, but he is still strong offensively.
Defensively, Powell yet again does well due to his skating. His edges and speed allow him to close gaps and change directions to follow the play effectively. He still needs work defensively, but his skating gives him a strong foundation from which coaches can build upon. He has the skill set to project as a future top defenseman, but the safer ceiling for Powell is mid-pair upside with power play time. Tampa has to keep a close eye on his development if and when Boston College’s season begins.
147th Overall: Tampa Bay selects Jaydon Dureau
Pick Grade: C+
With the second pick they received in the trade they made with Philadelphia, the Lightning elect to take a left-winger from the Portland Winterhawks, Jaydon Dureau. Dureau is a player who went undrafted in 2019, electing to re-enter the draft. The 5’11”, 174 pound winger produced 12 goals and 29 points for the Winterhawks in 2018-19, his draft-year. After not being selected, he came back with a vengeance, scoring 19 goals and 70 points in 61 games.
Dureau benefited greatly from playing with Seth Jarvis, who went 13th overall to the Carolina Hurricanes in this same draft. However, he still showed a lot of promise in that role. Will Dureau ever be a star player? Not likely. But he has the showing of a capable complementary player who, if put in the right position, could thrive on a line. He doesn’t have the high-end skill to drive his own production, but he is well-rounded and does a lot of the little things right. For a comparison, look at the Ondrej Palat’s and Yanni Gourde’s of the world. His forechecking is excellent, his defensive game for a winger is solid, and he has some flashiness to his offensive game. He won’t “wow” anyone, but he showcases a strong playmaking ability, able to set up one-timers on occasion.
That flashiness, well-roundedness and detail-oriented game make him potentially a future role player for Tampa Bay. Again, he could be used in a Palat or Gourde role, being placed anywhere up and down the lineup from game-to-game and year-to-year, and occasionally shining for the Lightning when placed in an ideal situation, similar to Palat with Kucherov and Point in the playoffs, or Gourde with Coleman and Goodrow.
157th Overall Pick: Tampa Bay selects Nick Capone
Pick Grade: C
This pick originally belonged to the Ottawa Senators, which the Lightning received last off-season in the deal that gave Ryan Callahan to the Senators. With this selection, they take the gritty Nick Capone, a winger from the Tri-City Storm of the USHL. In 34 games with the Storm in the USHL, Capone recorded 7 goals and 19 points, to go along with 96 penalty minutes. Capone is 6’2” and 216 pounds. He’s committed to the University of Connecticut for the 2020-21 season.
Capone is exactly what he seems. He does not project well, lacking much, if any, offensive upside. He plays whistle-to-whistle, grinds hard in the dirty areas, and forechecks relentlessly. He’s a very big body that does a lot of the dirty work, sticking up for teammates and looking for the momentum shifting physical play. Similar to Dureau but with far less upside, Capone could be a role player in the future, comparable to Josh Anderson, but with far less upside. At this time, he looks to be a future top AHLer that provides injury depth in the NHL.
186th Overall: Tampa Bay selects Amir Miftakhov
Pick Grade: D
A goalie! The Lightning draft yet another netminder after taking the high-upside and extremely skilled Hugo Alnefelt last draft. The 6’1”, 165 pound Russian goalie Amir Miftakhov has gone undrafted in consecutive years. He’s a 20-year-old in this draft, one of the oldest players eligible. The undersized Miftakhov is coming off a season in the VHL with Bars Kazan, posting a .913 save percentage and 2.19 goals against average in 23 games played.
Miftakhov is a long-shot to make the NHL, even in a backup role. He’s undersized and gets beaten up high with consistency. Though he is tough to beat down low, he isn’t particularly athletic. He tracks the puck well and has strong flexibility, but with a goaltending crop of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Magnus Chrona and Alnefelt, it seems extremely unlikely Miftakhov makes a difference in Tampa Bay.
217th Overall Pick: Tampa Bay selects Declan McDonnell
Pick Grade: D
The 2020 NHL draft concludes with the Lightning’s final selection. With it, they take 5’10”, 194 pound forward Declan McDonnell of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers. In his one and only season of experience in the OHL, McDonnell recorded a very respectable 21 goals and 42 points in 63 games with Kitchener.
McDonnell is an average skater. He also has low involvement on offense, in transition, and in the defensive zone. He’s kind of just there, a body on the ice. With the puck on his stick, however, he can kick into high gear and make plays happen. He’s got a good, but not great, shot. His shots are also smart, as he has recorded several assists from his rebounds. The issue is, he’s simply not good enough away from the puck and doesn’t have much else to offer that he doesn’t have any NHL upside. His game needs a complete revamp, and those sorts of projects never really work. Some late round gems at least have something to build off of, McDonnell does not. But who knows, only time can tell.
Lightning 2020 Draft Class Grade
With the picks they had, the Lightning did a solid job. The Finley selection to kick things off was strong, especially considering he’s a high-upside player with good size. He effectively replaces Nolan Foote, who held that role in Tampa before being dealt. Goncalves is an intriguing selection as well. Powell looks like a steal, one of my favorites leading up to the draft. Groshev, Capone and Dureau could all be strong role players at some point down the line. Thompson has intriguing upside on the back-end, but Powell looks to be the better of the two, and there will be competition there. Miftakhov and McDonnell are long-shots taken with their final two picks.
However, there were better players to be had. Martin Chromiak fell all the way to the fifth round. So did Tyler Tullio, Evan Vierling, Anton Johannesson and Alex Cotton. They all would have been excellent selections in the third round, never mind the fourth round. Rhett Rhinehart, someone I watched bloom over this season, would have been a much better pick to conclude the draft. He is certainly better than McDonnell as well. William Villeneuve, Antonio Stranges, Zion Nybeck, Jaromir Pytlik, Carter Savoie, Michael Benning and Zayde Wisdom were all solid. All of them went round four when they should’ve gone as early as round two.
Lightning 2020 Draft Class Grade: B-. They have upside and a potential home run pick in Eamon Powell. Again, the guys they got are solid, but they could’ve come out of this draft a little bit better. A lot of very good youngsters fell for them and they may kick themselves for it in the future.
Check Out Part One of the Tampa Bay Lightning Draft Deep Dive!
Again, click HERE to check out Part One, which dives into the first four picks of the Tampa Bay Lightning draft!
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