The Tampa Bay Lightning began the day with eight picks. One each in the second and seventh round, and two each in the third, fourth, and sixth round. The Lightning have no picks in the fifth round. As the day goes on, we’ll be updating this article with each draft pick made, along with some quick thoughts. We’ll be following up with more in-depth profiles for each player selected.
- 2nd Round, 57th Overall – Jack Finley – C – Spokane Chiefs, WHL
- 2nd Round, 62nd Overall – Gage Goncalves – C – Everett Silvertips, WHL
- 3rd Round, 85th Overall (from PHI via SJS) – Maxim Groshev – RW – Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, KHL
- 3rd Round, 93rd Overall – Jack Thompson – C – Sudbury Wolves, OHL
- 4th Round, 94th Overall (from DET) – TRADED AWAY
- 4th Round, 116th Overall (from PHI) – Eamon Powell – D – USNTDP, USHL
- 4th Round, 124th Overall – TRADED AWAY
- 5th Round, 147th Overall (from PHI) – Jaydon Dureau – LW – Portland Winterhawks, WHL
- 6th Round, 157th Overall (from OTT) – Nick Capone – C – Tri-City Storm, USHL
- 6th Round, 186th Overall – Amir Miftakhov – G – Bars Kazan, VHL
- 7th Round, 217th Overall (Last pick of the draft) – Declan McDonnell – RW – Kitchner Rangers, OHL/
1:27pm: The Tampa Bay Lightning have made a trade! It’s not the trade you were expecting. The Lightning have traded their 4th round pick (124th overall) and a 2021 second round pick for the 57th overall pick in the second round.
With the 57th overall pick, the Lightning have selected Jack Finley from the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL. Jack Finley is a big boy at 6’5.75” and 213 pounds. He’s a right handed center and is the son of former NHLer Jeff Finley. Finley is a two-way center that is a pass-first guy. In 61 games for the Spokane Chiefs in 2019-20, Finley put up 19 goals and 57 points. He also had 32 penalty minutes and was a plus-32. He’s also one of the younger players in this draft having turned 18 on September 2nd.
1:50pm: With the 62nd overall pick, the Lightning select Gage Goncalves. The Lightning dip back into the WHL well for another center. Goncalves is listed at 6’0” and 165 pounds. Goncalves is also an overage pick having been passed over in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. In 2018-19, Goncalves only posted one goal and 15 points over 67 games, so it’s understandable why he didn’t go the first time around. But he stepped up his game in 2019-20 and posted 33 goals and 71 points over 60 games for the Everett Silvertips.
2:50pm: With the 85th overall pick, the Lightning select Maxim Groshev. The KHL right winger who shoots left was ranked 63rd on Bob McKenzie’s list. He’s a great value pick as a 6’2” forward who’s succeeded in a men’s league already. Dobber Prospects consider Groshev a power forward with complimentary offensive talent. He works hard and plays a simple, physical game effectively. He played well at the U18 World Juniors for Russia in 2019 and was on their 2020 World Juniors team a year ago. He has one assist in 10 games this season with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, a bottom-feeder in the KHL.
3:06pm: With the 93rd overall pick, the Lightning select Jack Thompson. Thompson is a 6’0”, 180 pound, right handed defenseman from the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL. It has been a while since the Lightning have taken a player from the OHL, a league that, at one point, seemed like a feeder league for the Bolts. Thompson posted 13 goals and 32 points in 63 games for Sudbury in 2019-20. He was ranked 82nd by Bob McKenzie and 106th by HockeyProspects.com.
3:10pm: The Tampa Bay Lightning have traded the 94th overall pick to the Philadelphia Flyers. This pick was originally the Detroit Red Wings pick and was acquired in a trade for Adam Erne at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. The Lightning get the 116th and 147th pick in exchange for the 94th overall pick. The Lightning did not have a 5th round pick, but add one by trading down in the fourth round.
3:59pm: With the 116th overall pick, the Lightning select Eamon Powell. Powell comes out of the U.S. National Team Development Program as a right-handed defenseman. In 43 USDP games, he scored 6 goals and 14 points. In 19 USHL games, he scored 5 goals and 11 points. Powell is committed to Boston College and will be playing there for the 2020-21 season. Powell is from Marcellus, NY, just outside of Syracuse. He was ranked 70th by Bob McKenzie and was ranked as high as 43 by McKeen’s Hockey. He was also ranked 48th by HockeyProspects.com. At 5’11” and 165 pounds, he’s on the smaller size, especially for what the Lightning normally prefer on the blue line, but has good hockey sense and puck skills.
5:26pm: With the 147th overall pick, the Lightning select Jaydon Dureau from the Portland Winterhawks. Dureau was passed over in last year’s draft and turns 20 in January. He scored 12 goals and 29 points in 67 games in his draft season, which was also his rookie season in the WHL. He followed that up with 19 goals and 70 points in 61 games in 2019-20. A playmaker from the left side, Dureau has average size at 5’11” and 174 pounds. He was ranked 73rd by HockeyProspects.com, but was generally unranked. This is the second overage player the Lightning have taken in this draft class. He’ll be able to play in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch in 2021-22.
5:42pm: With the 157th overall pick, the Lightning select Nick Capone. Capone has size at 6’2” and 205 pounds. He’s a right shot center that played for the Tri-City Storm in the USHL in 2019-20. In 34 games, he scored seven goals and 19 points. He also had 96 penalty minutes. He’s committed to the University of Connecticut for 2020-21. There’s a big red flat to me though in that he was suspended a total of 15 games for four different incidents throughout the season. Definitely a physical player, but it doesn’t seem like the skills or skating is there to really project an NHL feature. This reminds me of the Bokondji Imama pick from 2015 that ended with the Lightning trading him to the Los Angeles Kings for a seventh round pick.
6:21pm: With the 186th overall pick, the Lightning select Amir Miftakhov. Miftakhov is an overaged goaltender from Russia. He is a left hand catcher and is listed at 6’1” and 165 pounds. He’s already 20 years old and has spent most of the past two seasons playing for Bars Kazan in the VHL, the Russian second league. In 2018-19, he had a 2.40 GAA and .919 SV% in 33 games. He also made Russia’s U20 World Junior Championship team, but did not play. In 2019-20, he followed that up with a 2.19 GAA and .913 SV% over 23 games in the VHL during the regular season. In the playoffs, he played eight games and had a 2.03 GAA and .936 SV%. He once again made Team Russia for the WJC, and in five games, posted a 2.21 GAA and .919 SV% winning a Silver Medal. He also made his KHL debut in 2019-20 for Ak Bars Kazan and played two games a 2.31 GAA and .886 SV%.
The Lightning have Magnus Chrona and Hugo Alnefelt already drafted in the previous two drafts, but add some more insurance in net with Miftakhov. According to EliteProspects.com, he is only under contract to Ak Bars for this season. It’s possible he could come to North America to play in the AHL in 2021-22.
7:21pm: FINALLY! It’s been 84 years! With the last pick of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, the Lightning select Declan McDonnell. A right winger, McDonnell is listed at 5’10” and 160 pounds. McDonnel played in the OJHL and USHL during the 2018-19 season, presumably in preparation for going to NCAA hockey. However, he decided to go to the OHL for the 2019-20 season with the Kitchener Rangers. With the Rangers, he put up 21 goals and 42 points in 63 games.
Thank you everyone for joining us in this very long day two of the draft that took just short of eight hours to get through. It was quite the slog. I believe that is at least due in part to not everyone being together in draft rooms and the delays of technology in making and announcing decisions. We’ve already put out a couple of draft profiles and we’ll be doing complete profiles on each selection as we continue through the week.
