Edited Oct. 16, 2019 at 2:46 p.m.
Quoting: DomCholette
Lafreniere has all the tools and any team that won't choose him would be crazy!
Watch both of them and Byfield is powerfull but many plays he make it alone protecting the puck with is size... He can't be dominant like that in the NHL just for the size... even if he skate well.
Who would you pick last year? Kakko or Dach?
Lafreniere as an amazing vision, speed hands and a good size 6'1'' to become the next thing!
But given the context with the Wild and Ottawa, neither team is deep at center. Both Ottawa and MN have players that either are or will be good 2C's or 3C's, but not 1C's. Both teams also have a plethora of talented LW's. So right there, that makes Lafreniere a little bit less desirable for these two teams. I'm with you that you take the best player available, as my last sentence in my previous comment states, I just haven't seen either of them play yet so I'm reserving my judgement about who is better until I do that. The wing position is the least valuable position in the NHL and even IF Lafreniere IS the better player, it just makes him a little bit less desirable than the 1C that everyone has said Byfield can be. My whole point was that if the skill gap isn't that wide between Byfield and Lafreniere and Ottawa wins the lottery, I can see how there's a good argument for them to take Byfield (much like Montreal did with KK over Tkachuk and Zadina since you're a Habs fan).
You say that Byfield can't dominate with size in the NHL the way he does in the OHL, but I'm not sure I buy that. Again, I haven't seen him play, but the kid is 6'4" 214lbs as a 17 year old... That's nearly identical to Getzlaf (who is 6'4" 225lbs) who was once a terrifyingly physical player. Byfield is going to get bigger, too. So yes, he may be playing against people a lot smaller than him right now, but there are similarly sized players in the NHL than Byfield that do major damage physically (Josh Anderson, for one, who is 6'3" 225lbs).