NHL Draft: 5 Reasons To Fall In Love With Lucas Raymond

4. Raymond Does Everything Well

This is said a lot about prospects, and most of the time you should take it with a grain of salt, but what we saw from Raymond in the World Junior Championships last season showed how well he can do every aspect of the game. He’s an old school five-tool player who still dominates the analytics. He can pass and score, which most top-ten prospects can do this year. However, he’s also a master at taking the puck away, he’s really good at positioning in all aspects of the game, and he can make a defender miss.

Need more? We’ve seen him making amazing plays to keep pucks in the offensive zone, get past defenders, and forcing them to take an unnecessary penalty. Raymond does everything right whether it gets on the score sheet or not.

This is insane growth for someone who was 17 at the time of the WJC. Usually, a player has a really good shot, or knows where to go, or can skate out of his skates. To have a player that can do this much at a high level is rare for someone not going first overall. Raymond could go first overall in some years, but because this draft is insane, Raymond could fall to the Devils.