From The Silky Mitten State: Which player from the top five of the 2020 NHL Draft would you be more excited to have on your team moving forward—Raymond or Lafreniere?

On the most recent episode of The Silky Meeting State, Connor Earegood and I opened with a rather contrived debate: If you could have one of Alexis Lafreniere or Lucas Raymond for the rest of their careers, which would you be more excited about?

The debate started from a conversation about the Red Wings' poor draft lottery luck, which was on our minds after the Pistons also suffered (another) lottery setback at the latest NBA drawing.

Detroit fans are quick to point out that the ongoing rebuild has been slowed by repeated lotteries going the wrong way.  2020 is the most acute example of this phenomenon.  The '19-20 Red Wings were historically bad, but thanks to the lottery, they picked only fourth in the 2020 Draft.  This allowed the Rangers (a play-in round loser in the 2020 playoff bubble) to score an unlikely lottery win and draft Lafreniere, billed as the best Quebecois prospect in a generation out of Rimouski Océanic in the QMJHL.  With the fourth pick, Detroit selected Raymond of Frölunda HC in the SHL.

At the time, it was of course frustrating to Red Wing fans to miss out on the top pick, but four years later, it's not clear that they actually wound up with the lesser player.  Of course, that doesn't mean the two players might not look different had they been developed by different teams, but both Connor and I agree that the answer to our original question is Raymond, because of the steps he took as a line-driving scorer this season.

You can see a sample of our conversation in the clip above and listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify:

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