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Sakic reiterates Avalanche will select a forward with first overall pick

Colorado Avalanche Introduce Patrick Roy

DENVER, CO - MAY 28: Patrick Roy is introduced as the new Head Coach/Vice President of Hockey Operations of the Colorado Avalanche during a press conference at the Pepsi Center on May 28, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Doug Pensinger

The Colorado Avalanche will pick one of the three highly touted forwards at the NHL Entry Draft later this month, something executive vice-president of hockey operations Joe Sakic confirmed with ESPN.com on Thursday.

This would mean that the Avalanche would decline the storybook selection of defenseman Seth Jones, who has connections to the Denver area.

“He’s a great player, he’s going to be good,” Sakic told ESPN.com about Jones and the draft process of his hockey club.

“But after we had our internal meetings we came up with these three forwards, (Nathan) McKinnon, (Jonathan) Drouin and (Alexander) Barkov. We’re really leaning towards one of those three forwards.”

Earlier this week, Sakic told the Denver Post essentially the same thing. Then again, his comments would make it seem like the Avalanche are open to the idea of a trade.

“If we do pick first, we’re leaning more toward one of those three forwards,” Sakic told the Denver Post.

Last month, after a dominating performance at the Memorial Cup, forward Nathan MacKinnon of the Halifax Mooseheads moved to the No. 1 spot of the International Scouting Services draft rankings.