LA Kings: Scout believes Quinton Byfield doesn’t need extra time

As the potential second overall pick for the LA Kings, the Head Scout of Eastern Canada stated that Quinton Byfield doesn’t need more time to mature.

In less than a week, the LA Kings will have made their first-round selection in the 2020 NHL Draft. Winners in the lottery and coming away with the second overall pick, the pick is likely going to be either Quinton Byfield or Tim Stützle. The debate will continue until both players have played a couple of years in the NHL to make a fair comparison.

Alexis Lafreniere is the consensus number one pick, and by all accounts, Byfield should be the pick at number two. But there have been some concerns about the ability to translate his skill set to the NHL. At 6-foot-4, 214 pounds, Byfield is one of the youngest players in this draft class, having turned 18 just over a month ago.

Others have mentioned his lack of physicality on film being a concern, given how big he is. But the fact of the matter is that Byfield is a power forward who projects to an Evgeni Malkin or Nathan MacKinnon-type player.

Head scout of Eastern Canada, Dylan Galloway, believes that Byfield doesn’t need more time to mature his game. He said that Newmarket, Ontario native could continue his development outside the OHL.

Outside of the OHL meaning, Byfield would be assigned to Ontario of the AHL if selected with the second overall pick. The Reign already figure to be a stacked bunch this coming season with the likes of Alex Turcotte, Akil Thomas, and several other prominent members of the talented prospect pool.

But if you ask Ottawa Senators chief amateur scout Trent Mann, he feels that Stützle, not Byfield, is closer to being NHL ready. With his size, speed, and puckhandling skills, the German winger has drawn comparisons to Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane. The Senators hold the third and fifth overall picks in next week’s draft, so they’ll have their choice between the two phenoms and another top-end talent just two picks later.

The primary argument for drafting Stützle over Byfield is that the former plays with grown men in the DEL. But the NHL had only 9 players representing Germany last season. Far more players have come out of the OHL than the DEL, with the latter seeing an influx of North American NHL castoffs come through.

Byfield’s 82 points were tops for the Sudbury Wolves and 14th in the OHL. Stützle’s 34 points for seventh-best for Adler Mannheim and 47th best in the DEL. Both players project to be fantastic talents in the NHL, but the LA Kings should go with the numbers. Take Byfield and focus on the second round.