With the 10th Selection in the NHL Entry Draft the Colorado Avalanche Select...

The Colorado Avalanche sit in a prime possition to land an impact player in the draft tonight. Depending on who you talk to any number of players could be on the board at 10 tonight. Lets take a quick look at a few of the possible players that could still be on the board when the Avalanche make their selection. Joe Sakic recently told the media that their top 10 list was very forward heavy this year. While he acknowledged that there are a few really good blue liners as well on their list. Here are a few players that I could see potentially being on the board when they make their pick at 10.

Alexander Nylander

Clayton Keller

Logan Brown

Jakob Chychrun

Mikhail Sergachyov

here is a quote from Alan Happle  - 

“We always seem to get some surprises in the top 10 — just like we did last year that allowed us to get Rantanen — and I don’t see anything different this year that’s going to stop us to get a good player at 10,”

for a full in depth look at each of the prospects and where SI feels they will be going please take a look at their well done mock drafts at

http://www.si.com/nhl/2016/06/23/2016-nhl-mock-draft-first-round-auston-matthews

While Sergachynov or Chychrun would be big peices for the avalanches blue line in the years to come i am predicting that they go with Keller Nylander or Brown.  The Colorado Avalanche seem to be one forward short of having their whole forward core together for the long term. While there are needs on the back end you don't exactly fix that by drafting a player. That is something that will need to be addressed on July 1st when the free agency period opens. Look for the Avalanche to take a good look at Luke Schenn, Jason Demers or Kris Russle. Any of those players would make a great partner for Tyson Barrie. They could play a great shut down role and allow Barrie to play as offensively as he wants. Possessing elite offensive potential and numbers through his first three years of play Tyson Barrie is a player who you can expect to have a break out season this year if they finally find a partner for him to play with who is of a top four quality. To this point he has played with mostly bottom pairing players. With no disrespect to Nate Guenin, Zach Redmond or Nick Holden Barries play and statistics will be greatly improved when he is paired with a better suited partner.

What do you hope to see tonight? Trade rumors abound rampant this year with the coming expansion draft next off season. I am predicting many more moves in this years draft then in years prior as teams attempt to place themselves in the best position to survive the expansion draft next year.