I think lots of teams would prefer Lafreniere to Petterson, I don't see this happening at the draft.

I think a lot of teams would be crazy then... Petey is already one of the top young players in the league, playing center which is a more valuable position. The only reason Lafreniere would be more desirable at this point would be the extra two years of a cheap ELC contract.

Pettersson was picked 5th but he might as well have been picked 1st overall. So not sure why anyone would prefer Laf over Petey. The only reasoning anyone could have is they need a winger vs a center more but frankly, the center is more valuable so that is kind of weird to think.

Unless you can predict Laf comes into the Nhl and scores at McDavid rates, theres no reasoning for having him any higher than Petey. At best theyre even and that is assuming Laf is guaranteed to be a superstar which there is no gaurantee for. Petey is already a star in this league and only getting better but more importantly plays center while doing it.

VAN is not doing that move regardless.