2018 NHL Draft: Colorado Avalanche full seven-round mock draft

We’re projecting every draft pick for the Colorado Avalanche in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft on Friday and Saturday.

The Colorado Avalanche have eight selections in this weekend’s NHL Entry Draft. They could have nine selections, assuming no more trades are made, by the time the draft starts.

A lot rides on the fourth pick for Colorado. The Ottawa Senators have the option to keep the fourth overall selection on Friday and defer their 2019 first-round pick to Colorado, or give them the fourth pick and keep their 2019 first-round pick. As of now, most expect Ottawa to keep the fourth selection, but the Avalanche brass are prepared for all possibilities.

Along with their seven selections, Colorado gained a second-round pick from Nashville as part of three-team trade. That pick falls at No. 58.

The Avalanche surprised just about everyone by making the playoffs one year after the worst season of any team in the salary cap era. Despite their success, their timeline has not changed. They have defensive studs Cale Makar, Nicolas Meloche and Conor Timmins in the system. Ty Lewis, Shane Bowers, and Travis Barron are their top offensive prospects. This doesn’t even include Sam Girard, Tyson Jost, and J.T. Compher, three young players who got NHL playoff experience last season.

The biggest needs for Colorado are a scoring winger and goaltending depth. The Avs are in a position to take the best player available in all seven rounds as it’s unlikely that the player picked will jump into the lineup next season. Collecting the best talent is never a bad strategy.

First Round – No. 16 Overall: Vitali Kravtsov (W)

The 18-year-old Russian forward should be there when the Avs select at 16. His numbers at the KHL level – seven points in 35 games – are nothing to write home about, but they don’t tell the whole story. He spent time between the KHL, VHL and MHL last season and won KHL Rookie of the Year honors. While his numbers weren’t good during the KHL regular season, he did have 11 points in 16 KHL playoff games.

At six-foot-two and 183 pounds, he has good size that doesn’t hinder his skating ability. Like many Russian-born players, there’s no lack of confidence or creativity. He can be used on the wing as a playmaker or scorer and projects as a top-six forward. For a team who needs a scoring wingers to compliment centers like Alexander Kerfoot and Tyson Jost, Kravtsov seems like a perfect fit.

The knock on him is that he doesn’t use his size to his advantage. That’s something he can be taught at the next level.

Colorado’s luck with Russian prospects has been hit-and-miss over the last couple of years. There was a contract dispute with Nikita Zadarov prior to offseason that saw the defenseman report to camp late. There was also Andrei Mironov wanting his contract terminated so he could go back to Russia. However, Zadarov appears to be happy with his place in the organization, they’ve always shown great faith in Semyon Varlamov, and they have high hopes for Vladislav Kamenev. Furthermore, the Avs just signed Pavel Francouz, who played on the same team as Kravtsov in the KHL.

Kravtsov might be labeled as a risk because that’s just a cliche with Russian players at this point. The Avalanche can afford to take that risk given their prospect pipeline and need for a high-end scorer.