Brackett era begins for Wild as it preps for 2020 NHL Draft

The Wild will begin perhaps the busiest week of an already busy offseason on Tuesday when it takes part in the first-of-its-kind, virtual NHL Draft.
Round 1 will commence at 6 p.m. Tuesday (NBCSN) while Rounds 2-7 will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday (NHL Network).
The draft, originally scheduled to take place in Montreal in June, was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also delayed the completion of the 2019-20 season.

Minnesota currently has the ninth overall pick in the first round, and five picks thereafter, including selections in the second round and one apiece in rounds 4-7.
The Wild traded its 2020 third-round pick at last summer's draft for the chance to add a 2019 pick in the same round, a selection Minnesota used on Western Hockey League forward Adam Beckman.
Beckman scored 48 goals and had 107 points, so Minnesota is off to a good start in using its 2020 draft capital wisely. Beckman is expected to return to WHL for the upcoming season.

New man in charge

The event will also mark the draft debut of Judd Brackett, the Wild's new Director of Amateur Scouting, a big-time addition to the front office announced back in July.
Brackett held the same role for the Vancouver Canucks the past five seasons,
helping the Canucks build one of the NHL's most respected farm systems
.
Among players drafted during Brackett's time in Vancouver include first rounders in Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and defenseman Quinn Hughes.

But Brackett hasn't only been successful in the draft's top round.
Goaltender Thatcher Demko was picked 36th overall. He's viewed as one of the top young goaltending prospects in the NHL. Adam Gaudette, selected in the fifth round in 2015, scored 12 goals and 33 points in his first full NHL season this year.
"For me, personally, I've done amateur scouting. I've never done it full time, I've never lived in that world, but I do know how important that is," Wild GM Bill Guerin said soon after the announcement of Brackett's addition. "In my position now, I have to have somebody there that I can trust when I'm not around. And I do. I trust all my guys and I'm adding another guy now that I think is really going to help us.
"Drafting and developing is critical for long-term success. When you're living in a salary cap world, you need to draft prospects and you need to develop them to come in. We put a premium on that, it's extremely important."
Brackett will have an opportunity to help make an early impact here in Minnesota, where the Wild currently own the ninth overall pick. It is the highest the Wild have selected in the first round since 2012, when it picked defenseman Matt Dumba seventh overall.
But he does so after coming to the organization at a unique time. Under normal circumstances, joining the Wild in early July a couple of weeks after the draft was originally scheduled, would be quite normal.
Instead, he came aboard just a three months before the draft, working with a group of scouts that had put in a full year of work.
"It's been incumbent on me to really get to know the scouts, understand how they value players, how they view players and have honest, open discussions about it," Brackett said on a call with Twin Cities media late last month. "Coming in, I definitely saw some players in a different light, as did they, and we're working together now to make it a collaborative effort and share our opinions and come to a mutual understanding."
Rarely, Brackett said, will each scout view a player the exact same, so these types of productive conversations are normal and can actually be healthy.
But as the man in charge of making the draft picks, Brackett has done some reshuffling of the Wild's draft board in the couple months since he was named as Guerin's first external hire in the front office.
"It's been challenging, but it's been exciting and fun," Brackett said. "The group of scouts here have been incredibly receptive to a unique situation and I've really enjoyed the past two or three months here, getting acclimated and learning as much about them as I can in a short amount of time."

What's at stake

If the Wild maintains the ninth selection, it will be the third time in franchise history that Minnesota has used that pick. It picked forward James Sheppard No. 9 in the 2006 Draft, who went on to play 224 games with the club over three seasons.
Minnesota had much better luck the second time, selecting forward Mikael Granlund with the ninth pick in 2010. Granlund went on to skate in 461 games with the Wild, scoring 93 goals and and 317 points.
At No. 9 this season, the Wild could go in any number of directions. Minnesota could even choose to trade down, although it seems more likely that a move up may happen if it doesn't stay in its current spot.

Options for the Wild

There seems to be just one consensus selection in this draft, and that's forward Alexis Lafreniere, who is expected to be picked first overall by the New York Rangers, who won the second phase of the NHL's Draft Lottery back in August.
Lafreniere scored 36 goals and had 112 points for Rimouski of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season, the second time in as many campaigns the 6-foot-1, 192-pound winger crossed the century mark in points.
After Lafreniere, the draft could move in a couple different directions.
Most believe centerman Quinton Byfield will be picked second by the Los Angeles Kings, although left wing Tim Stutzle has quickly been moving up mock drafts in recent weeks. The German-born sniper has drawn comparisons to Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane.
Whomever the Kings don't pick second will likely land with Ottawa, which has the first of two top-five selections third overall.
It is believed the Wild could be interested in many of the draft's top centers, a position that lacks high-end depth throughout the organization.
But getting a centerman won't be easy.
Byfield will be long gone by nine, and the interest in others like Cole Perfetti, Marco Rossi and Anton Lundell will be immense as teams up top always aim to get stronger down the middle.

"Center is a premium position, not just for us with the Minnesota Wild, but it is for everyone," Brackett said. "Even when you feel like you may have prospects coming, because of the value of it, it is an important position."
Of the centers currently expected to be on the roster next season, just one, Joel Eriksson Ek, was drafted and developed by the Wild. Luke Kunin, who played center at the University of Wisconsin and has occasionally with the Wild, sees most of his time now on the wing.
"It speaks to the level of play in the National Hockey League and how good it is," Brackett said. "We're seeing the league get faster and faster, and that's challenging players as the move up the ranks. Can they continue to perform at pace? But it's the nuances too ... are they receptive to coaching and adaptable to system play? Centers have to have a high hockey IQ and be able to systems and read off his linemates and defensemen."
Among defensemen that could go in the top-10 are Jake Sanderson of the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Jamie Drysdale of the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League.
Sanderson, who will play for the University of North Dakota this winter, is an elite skater and has plenty of offensive upside. Drysdale lacks prototypical size, but is a fantastic skater and playmaker capable of quarterbacking an NHL power play in the near future.
Among wings that could be available to the Wild at nine include Lucas Raymond, Seth Jarvis, Jack Quinn and Alexander Holtz.
Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, who could become the first goalie to be selected among the draft's first 10 picks since Carey Price in 2005, could also be an option.
As a whole, Brackett said he believes the 2020 draft is strong, meaning the Wild will have a chance to select plenty of players who can make big impacts, even deep into the draft.
"Measuring a draft, you can measure it in the strength of the first round, you can measure it in the strength of maybe the top 10 ... but I think this draft has both," Brackett said. "I think this is a really accomplished group early in this draft with high-side potential, but there's also a lot of depth throughout the draft with strong players at every position."

Local angle

Among Minnesotans, Andover's Wyatt Kaiser, Maple Grove's Brock Faber, Hermantown's Blake Biondi and Rosemount's Jake Ratzlaff are all ranked inside NHL Central Scouting's top-100 North American skaters. Kaiser and Biondi are both headed to the University of Minnesota Duluth, while Faber and Ratzlaff are University of Minnesota commits.
Related:
- Brackett's hiring provides Wild one of NHL's top amateur scouting minds