The chance Portland Winterhawks star defenceman Seth Jones gets selected first overall by the Colorado Avalanche at the upcoming NHL Draft has been drastically decreased.
Joe Sakic, the former Avalanche captain and the club’s current executive vice-president of hockey operations, told The Denver Post the team is leaning towards selecting a forward with the top pick.
The Avs — who landed the No. 1 selection by winning the NHL Draft Lottery on April 29 — apparently have their eyes on Halifax Mooseheads standout forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, and Alexander Barkov of Tappara in the Finnish Elite League.
“If we do pick first, we’re leaning more toward one of those three forwards,” Sakic said. “We feel those three forwards are just too good to pass up.”
Jones finished the season as the top-ranked draft-eligible North American skater on the National Hockey League Central Scouting Services list.
The 18-year-old American grew up in Denver while his father, Popeye Jones, was a member of the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association.
MacKinnon and Drouin are ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, on the North American list, while Barkov is the top-ranked European skater.
The Mooseheads and Winterhawks played one another in the final of the MasterCard Memorial Cup, in which MacKinnon shined and had some saying he would be the best bet to be selected first overall in the NHL Draft.
The 2013 NHL Draft takes place at the Prudential Center in New Jersey on June 30.
