Alan Hepple, chief Avalanche scout, opens up more about the 2019 NHL draft

Not a lot of text for you to read on this post. I’m simply going to post the audio of what I thought was a good 10-11 minute talk by Alan Hepple today at the Pepsi Center, on what the draft was like for him and the Avs, and what he thinks of the kids drafted moving forward.

This is a conversation that also involved Rick Sadowski, of NHL.com. Rick is the guy who was the Avs beat writer from 1995-2009 for the Rocky Mountain News. He’s a great guy, and am happy to share the stage with him here. We worked as competitors to each other for 14 years, but not once have I ever had a bad moment with him – and I’m a pretty competitive guy who occasionally makes an ass of himself because of it.

Click on the play button to hear the audio. One interesting note: Hepple said that, no matter what, the Avs were going to take Bowen Byram at No. 4, even if Kirby Dach or Alex Turcotte were available. Dach was not available, but the Avs would have passed in favor of Byram, he said.