PODCAST: ESPN's Chris Peters Joins the Pod

There is nothing particularly ordinary when it comes to this year's NHL Entry Draft.
The 2020 class will be drafted months later than expected before the coronavirus shut down the hockey world. Instead of the June draft, which was supposed to be held in Montreal, the draft will find a new format in early October after the Stanley Cup is awarded.
"You would think with the extra time it would make things easier, and obviously there's a huge emphasis on video scouting now," said Chris Peters of ESPN "And there are some great companies that have really been on the forefront of providing that content to teams, making sure that they have the ability to watch these players shift-by-shift or full games. So that's a huge development and it's going to be interesting to see how that affects scouting in the future."

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Peters joined the Speak of the Devils Podcastthis week, hosted by Matt Loughlin and Chris Wescott to discuss the upcoming NHL Draft. From start to finish it will be a unique experience, including not having a Draft Combine, and seasons and tournaments that were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"You miss big opportunities like the CHL playoffs, the NCAA tournament, the World Under 18 Championship, which was going to be in Michigan this year. So, you knew that pretty much every GM was going to have a chance to have a first-hand look at some of the top talent in this draft in Plymouth, Michigan. All of that got wiped out. So, you have to use what's available to you, you have to really do a lot of work."
Every NHL GM and staff are in the same boat, so when the 2020 NHL Entry Draft arrives at the beginning of October, Peters is certain that teams will have already familiarized themselves with prospects on their radar and done their due diligence in these unique times.
"The good news is that hopefully [teams] had area scouts that have met a good chunk of these guys before everything got shut down," Peters said, "And that helps, but that's not the GM meeting that player. You're relying on somebody else's opinion. And so that's something that's missing is that the GM typically is going to be most involved in that combine process where they are the ones that can kind of conduct the interview and, and really get down to the player and that that's where some of the decisions are made of this guy's on our list and we're locking them in. This is who we want."
As for what decisions Peters suggests the Devils will make when they're called to pick at number seven?
"I had Lucas Raymond, who was actually my fourth-ranked prospect falling to the Devils at seven […] I think he's exactly the kind of player that the Devils need now."