NHL Draft

This years draft was touted as "nothing special" which I'm sure made the kids feel great.

However, it definitely did not go unstoried.

The top 3 teams were not interested in trading away their picks. Dave Nonis of the Vancouver Canucks was the most noise about trying to acquire one of them. Rumours have him offering Morrison or Ohlund and a pick.

For the first time Americans went one and two in the draft: Patrick Kane and James Vanriemsdyk.

Edmonton loaded up in the first round going out of their way to trade up in order to find ways to rebuild a team without Ryan Smith. Also to keep salaries low.

Alexei Cherepanov was the biggest story of the night. It terms of talent he was ranked in the top 5 but his wanting to play in Russia for one more year has made the teams question his commitment. He got picked very, very late. The Russian Elite league is paying good money for players these days and its becoming a thorn in the side of the NHL's new salary cap.

But here's the kicker: When Glen Sather picked him for the NY Rangers they already had a sweater with his name on it. Europeans are notorious for not wanting to play in cities they'd never heard of. Seriously, how would like to hear that you are not only going to Russia but its some place called Omsk instead of Moscow.

In other words, I'm guessing he let it be known he wasn't going to play anywhere but NY. Its happened before, especially with Ruskies. The transfer agreement problem is not a problem: with no agreement they just need to get out of the country..and he was sitting right there! The same thing happened when Jagr went number 5 behind Nolan, Nedved, Primeau, and Ricci.

Alex Esposito also dropped majorly for no good reason I can think of. He was about to cry when he didn't hear his name being called..over and over and over again. Until Pittsburgh pciked him up. The opportunity to play with Crosby, Malkin, and Staal seemed to perk him up.

10 Americans were picked up in the first round tying an NHL record. In particular a number of players came over from the fledgling USHL. There were four or five offensive defensemen from this group that caught the NHL's eye.

My Canucks picked a kid named White from this league and it baffled TSN's/Versus' commentators saying they had him picked for 36th at least not 25.

Which doesn't matter because Central Scouting had him listed about there. In which, TSN admitted their Eastern Bias by saying they would have had to travel 3400 miles by bus to look at the kid. Tri-Cities is very close to Vancouver so this makes sense.

Nonis apparently picked him because Ottawa was going to before they got another crack at the 33rd pick.

This kid is 6'4" and a two way player. He's a got a bad haircut that looks like he's done it that way so he has an excuse to pound you. I think this kid is a steal..he'll be a no 3 center or he could be a 2 or 3 if he develops some faster skating for his size. He's mean, he could turn into a Joel Otto type.

And most of them will spend the next few years toiling in the AHL, or equivalent!! Better off playing in Europe somewhere!!

The biggest difference was a rule in the new CBA that changes how long teams have to sign a draft pick to a pro contract. With college kids, the teams have 5 years (I think it's 5...it's two more than the number I'm going to guess at momentarily) to watch them develop before deciding whether to hand over the big bucks. With Euros, the limit is 3 years. If you don't get the Euro over to North America and signed to a pro contract within 3 years, you lose their rights and they go back in the draft pool. Pre-lockout, teams could lock up a Euro player's rights forever.

As an example, the Wings drafted hugely-touted Igor Grigorenko back in 2001. He was in a life-threatening car wreck in 2004. He's about bounced back to where they're going to try to bring him over this year. Under the new CBA, we would have had to sign a untested 21-year-old from his hospital bed or lose his rights. That's a lot of risk for teams being asked to fork over $1mil and a measureable portion of their salary cap. Even ignoring the injury factor, most guys don't seem NHL-ready until their mid-20's. That's problematic when you're drafting guys that are 18 and haven't played North American hockey.

not to mention defensemen and goalies. They usually don't develop until their late 20's and most goalies don't peak until they're at least 30. Picking a D early is usually risky unless his offensive abilities can bring something to the table right away. I don't think any goalies were picked in the first round this year.