2020 NHL Draft: Jack Quinn Becoming a Popular Choice for Predators

Mock drafts are always fun to consume and bring up a lot of fun debate as Armchair general managers. Who’s the popular choice for the Nashville Predators?

The day is finally here for the NHL. The 2020 NHL Entry Draft gets going tonight and will be held virtually due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The Nashville Predators hold the 11th-overall pick and have many different directions they can go.

With the Predators falling so short of expectations by getting ousted in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, they’re picking at a spot on the draft board that’s unfamiliar territory. They haven’t picked this high since 2014 when they also held the 11th-overall pick and took Kevin Fiala.

The year before that they held the No.4 pick overall and took Seth Jones. Other than that, the Predators usually pick in the back half of the first round, so they have to take advantage of this high draft pick.

There are some excellent mock drafts circulating out there right now to check out before the draft gets underway. Our personal mock draft for the site has always had Seth Jarvis as the pick for the Predators.

However, there’s a growing consensus on NHL.com that another sharpshooting scoring winger will be taken by the Predators later tonight. That player is Jack Quinn of the OHL’s Ottawa 67s.

Interestingly enough, Quinn actually trained with former Nashville Predators captain Mike Fisher, along with a few other NHL players. Quinn has really worked hard to improve his draft stock.

Slating Quinn as the pick

A scoring winger is widely considered a top need for the Predators, but let’s be honest here; the Predators have a lot of needs and can’t fill them all with one pick.

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With that said, Adam Kimelman of NHL.com identifies defenseman depth as the top need for the Predators, and highlights a couple of defenseman prospects to target at pick 11 ( Kaiden Guhle and Braden Schneider).

Quinn is also listed as a top fit for the Predators with their first-round pick. The Predators have a league-wide reputation of being masterful at developing homegrown defensive talent, but a shift in draft strategy is needed this season. T

The Predators need to be thinking dynamic offensive playmakers at pick 11.

That’s why Quinn is a popular choice to consider, along with my original pick of Seth Jarvis. Either one of these top offensive scorers in the OHL I’ll be happy with if the Predators take them.

All three NHL.com writers (Kimelman, Mike Morreale, Guillaume Lepage) in their current mock draft has Quinn going to the Predators.

The biggest takeaway from making their collective cases for Quinn going to the Predators is Morreale pointing out that Quinn is one of just eight players coming out of the OHL to record 50 goals in their first season being draft eligible.

Others in that group include Patrick Kane, John Tavares and Steven Stamkos. My goodness, that’s elite company.

What Quinn would bring to prospect pool

Quinn is just a hard-working and grinding forward that has a knack for finding the back of the net. It’s fair to say the Predators are lacking in that department, and that’s why they’ve gone backwards since their 2017 Stanley Cup Final appearance.

Taking a dynamic offensive forward like Quinn would at least be a nice consolation prize for not going deep in the playoffs this season. The Predators need to come out of this disastrous season with something positive.

I’m not sold that Quinn will slip out of the top-ten picks. I could see other slumping teams like the Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild and New Jersey Devils also taking Quinn before the Predators pick.

Quinn isn’t just a prolific goal scorer. He’s a strong forecheckers and actually plays a pretty physical brand of hockey despite being a winger. His game will translate well to the NHL level when his time eventually comes to make that jump.

Other popular mock drafts out there have the Predators making these selections:

• Seth Jarvis, RW ( NBC Sports)
• Jack Quinn, RW ( Bleacher Report)
• Yaroslav Askarov, G (Sam Cosentino, Sporsnet)
• Kaiden Guhle, D (Larry Fisher, The Hockey Writers)

So many different directions the Predators might go in, and a lot of it depends on how it shakes up in an unpredictable first ten picks once you get past Alexis Lafreniere and a few other top prospects that are locks for the top-five.

The 2020 NHL Entry Draft begins at 6 P.M. CDT Tuesday night on NBC Sports Network, with the remainder of the draft getting completed on Wednesday beginning at 10:30 A.M. CDT on NHL Network.

The Predators have two picks in the second round, and one pick each in the third round, fifth round and sixth round.