Ranking The Top 31 Prospects in The 2020 NHL Draft: 16. Hendrix Lapierre

A lock inside the top-10 heading into his draft year, Hendrix Lapierre had an injury-riddled season

Hendrix Lapierre (C), Chicoutimi (QMJHL)

Coming off a very successful season in 2018-19  he produced at near a point/game pace during his rookie season in the QMJHL with 45 points in 48 games, expectations were high.

Taken 1st overall in the 2018 QMJHL Entry Draft, Lapierre has always been highly regarded for his play and this past season was an outlier, primarily due to injury. Now with adversity facing him, it will be interesting to see how Lapierre will rebound.

2019-2020 Recap

GP: 19 G: 2 A: 15 P: 17 +/-: 4

Starting the season ranked 7th in Bob McKenzie‘s pre-season draft rankings, Lapierre was synonymous with the top-10 and he would help himself even more at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup. Finishing with 11 points in just 5 games and only trailed Cole Perfetti by one point for the tournament lead. He finished with a surprising 6 more points than our 3rd ranked prospect Quinton Byfield.

Lapierre found himself climbing up scouts draft rankings due to his stellar performance.

The talented pivot started off the season fine with 13 points in his first 13 games, then he suffered a concussion on October 23rd which would put him out of commission for a couple of weeks. Returning in early November, Lapierre would sustain another concussion after just 6 games, this would sideline him for the remainder of the season. A tough break for Lapierre and one that is making teams cautious about his future in hockey.

Strengths

Playmaking

A tremendous thinker of the game, Lapierre always has his head up for his teammates. Lapierre has 47 assists over his last 67 games in the QMJHL, he’s one of the premier playmakers in the league, he will always tend to produce way more assists than goals as he is a pass-first player.

In the play below many players would shoot that puck from the slot, but Lapierre instead dishes a pass to his teammate that looked out of the play for the pretty goal.

Not many players in the draft could make that play.

While Lapierre isn’t the most flashy player on the ice, he doesn’t need to be, the talented forward is ultra-efficient with the puck and gets pucks to the right spots on the ice.

Two-Way Ability

One of the better defensive forwards in the draft, Lapierre covers all 200 feet of the ice and can be a pain to play against. TSN’s Craig Button is a huge fan of Lapierre as he compared him to an interesting name:

Bergeron has been the best defensive forward in the NHL over the past decade and if Lapierre can become anywhere close to the player that the Bruins forward is the pick will be well worth it.

Teams covet players who can be relied upon on both ends of the ice so Lapierre should have no problem finding some fans inside of NHL organizations prior to the draft.

Weaknesses

Durability

There have been plenty of players over the years who have lost their NHL careers due to concussions and Lapierre is on a dangerous path. Suffering a concussion in 2018-19, then suffering two this past season, those injuries add up and in such a physically demanding sport such as hockey, there’s no guarantee these injuries won’t come back.

Lapierre has played three games during pre-season for the upcoming campaign and hasn’t had a set back yet which is quite encouraging. We can just hope that Lapierre’s concussions are a thing of the past and that he can reach his full potential in the NHL.

Will Injury Concerns Help Lapierre Fall to 28th Overall?

With the New York Islanders losing in the Eastern Conference Finals, Ottawa officially holds the 28th overall selection in the upcoming draft. Lapierre is ranked as low as 27 by a couple of notable scouting services, so the fall is possible.

With such an odd 2019-20 season teams may be more apt to take safer plays whether than swinging for the fences for risky players, with Lapierre the biggest boom/bust player in the whole draft. If teams are timid there’s a chance he falls to Ottawa and they shouldn’t hesitate selecting Lapierre with their bulk of draft capital allowing them to take some chances.