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Colorado Avalanche fail to win the draft lottery; will select fourth overall

The Colorado Avalanche will select 4th overall in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft

By Tom Hunter
NHL: NHL Draft Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Avalanche didn’t win the NHL Draft Lottery and will be selecting fourth overall at the 2019 Entry Draft. It is a bitter-sweet outcome for the Avalanche organization as they will be able to add a prospect that will add to the core built around young stars like Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar.

The outcome is undoubtedly disappointing as the Avalanche had the best chance to win the top pick, but the silver lining is that this is a playoff team who will be picking in the top four of the draft while still holding on to their own selection a dozen picks later.

This pick was acquired by Joe Sakic in November of 2017 as a part of the now infamous Matt Duchene trade. The Senators had the option to give Colorado their first round pick in either 2018 or 2019. Last summer, they decided to hold onto their pick and select Brady Tkachuk - a player that would likely be the 3rd best prospect in this year’s draft.

As a result of the Tkachuk selection, the Avalanche have known all season that Ottawa’s pick would be coming their way. Avs fans have watched with a keen eye as the Senators dismantled their roster resulting in a 31st place finish.

While they had the best odds, it was still only an 18.5% chance of landing the first overall pick. The Avs will now select after the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks.

This outcome will bring back memories of 2017 when the Avalanche finished dead last in the NHL only to lose the lottery and drop all the way to fourth overall. There was a silver lining to that as the team picked Makar - a player who has the unquestioned potential to be the best defender from that draft class.

With this lottery outcome, the book is finally closed on the Matt Duchene trade that happened more than 520 days ago.

Now we move on to speculation as to who the Avalanche will target at No. 4. Prospects like Trevor Zegras, Bowan Byram, Vasili Podkolzin, Dylan Cozens, Alex Turcotte and Kirby Dach should all be in play.