Draft Day

The annual NHL entry draft was held this past weekend in Columbus Ohio, and while there was actually a fairly decent crowd of supporters for the event, it was relatively quiet in the US press. This despite the fact that for the first time ever the top two overall picks were American born players. Pat Kane of the London Knights was selected first overall and this was no great surprise given the numbers he put up last season, leading the OHL is scoring, as a rookie, and in the new NHL despite all the raving over size now that Anaheim won the cup, there is a place for smaller players like Kane. There was definitely a lack of big names in this draft class, as was there a lack of overseas players taken. The lack of a transfer agreement between Russia and the IIHF/NHL was probably responsible for some of this, but there was a definite lack of foreign players taken this year. As was there a lack of goaltenders, Tyler Sexsmith of the Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants was one of the more prominent tenders taken. Otherwise, this was a relatively uneventful draft year, but with the crop of talent the last three years, it has been hard to repeat such a wealth of players.