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Quick Strikes: Nolan Foote joins his brother Cal as the Lightning first-round pick

Now the Lightning can put its best Feete forward!

The Bolts

The main event of Friday was clearly the first round of 2019 NHL Entry Draft. This year the Tampa Bay Lightning had the 27th overall pick and Geo discussed why it could have been worth it to trade the first round selection [Raw Charge]

Once you start getting towards the end of the first round, the difference between players becomes smaller and smaller. There is a very steep drop off that goes from the top two or three players, then through the top 10 and top 20. Once you get around pick 20, the value curve flattens out greatly. Draft boards also tend to be set up into tiers.

In reality, the Lightning decided to retain their pick and for the 27th overall pick selected left winger Nolan Foote from the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. He joins his older brother Cal Foote, who has been selected in the first round of 2017 NHL Draft by the Lightning.

According to our consolidated draft rankings , he hasn’t been expected to be selected in the first round, most experts ranked him the 32-40 range [Raw Charge]

Foote fits into the Lightning system as another forward that can slide into the middle six eventually. He brings a bigger game than a lot of the Lightning’s prospects and is also an older prospect in this draft class. Like brother Cal, he’ll only need one more year in the WHL before he is eligible to join the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL. The Lightning could potentially be graduating a number of forward prospects in the next year or two and Foote’s quick progression to the AHL will help fill that void. At 6’3”, he joins Taylor Raddysh as the tallest Lightning forward prospect and with another 10 pounds on his frame, he would be one of the heaviest as well.

You can also check his profile on the NextGen Hockey site [paid content]

The  2019 NHL Draft continues today at 1:00 p.m. EST. The Lightning have the 89th, 120th, 182th, 198th and 213th overall picks.

In non-draft news, the Tampa Bay Lightning will face the Florida Panthers on their home opener night in October.

The NHL Draft

As always, the NHL Draft started with a speech by the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman who has been traditionally booed by the audience in Vancouver. To avoid this situation Bettman has brought with him on stage two former Vancouver Canucks players Daniel and Henrik Sedin. As it was announced, the Canucks are going to retire their numbers during the celebration in February.

No big surprises happened with the first two picks. As it was expected Jack Hughes has been selected by the New Jersey Devils and Kaapo Kakko joined the New York Rangers.

As the 3rd overall pick the Colorado Avalanche selected Bowen Byram. The future Avalanche blueline’s looking impressive.

Probably the biggest surprise of the first round is Moritz Seider who has been selected by the Detroit Red Wings as 6th overall pick.

The Arizona Coyotes traded up to take defenseman Victor Soderstrom as the 11th overall pick.

Spencer Knight has become the only goaltender who has been selected in the first round. He’s the newest member of the Florida Panthers organization.

Syracuse native Thomas Harley is heading to the Dallas Stars as the 18th overall pick

Here’s the complete list of the first round picks.

No NHL player has been traded during the first day, according to reports it might be connected with concern about the salary cap

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