NHL Entry Draft: St. Louis looks for blue-line help
by Shawn Sillinger
With the Stanley Cup Finals now complete, the attention of the hockey world turns from the Carolina Hurricanes and the Edmonton Oilers to the ... St. Louis Blues? Yes, the lowly Blues hold the top pick in this year?s NHL Entry Draft, which will take place at GM Place in Vancouver on Saturday. The draft?s first selection will be made at 6:00pm ET.
So who will the Blues grab with the top pick? The consensus among draft experts is that 6?4?, 222-pound defenseman Erik Johnson is the best player available this year, and will be St. Louis? choice. Johnson, a member of the United States? Under-18 squad, could eventually fill the huge blueline hole left by the departure of Chris Pronger last summer.
Johnson finished atop the rankings for North American skaters put out by the league?s Central Scouting Service, and was also listed as the cream of the crop by The Hockey News, International Scouting Services, McKeen?s, The Sports Forecaster, and Red Line Report. In short, if the Blues don?t take Johnson, it will be a Reggie-Bush-sized shocker.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have the second pick, and they?d be thrilled if Johnson fell to them. After taking forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with high picks in recent years, the Pens? biggest roster need right now is on defense. So if Johnson goes first overall, do the Pens still go with defense at No. 2?
No, they go with a forward. The drop-off from Johnson to the next best defensemen in the draft, players like Nigel Williams, Bob Sanguinetti, Ty Wishart, and Ivan Vishnevsky, is just too great to justify such a high selection. Instead, the Pens will focus on one of a group of high-end forwards that they?ll team up with Crosby and/or Malkin down the line.
And their ultimate choice could turn out to be Phil Kessel. The University of Minnesota forward was long-touted as the best player available in the 2006 draft, but his stock has fallen in the past year. The Central Scouting Service dropped him to No. 5 on their final rankings of North American skaters, and he ranges from second to fifth elsewhere too.
But the explosive Kessel might be too tempting to pass up for the Penguins, who can probably already envision him and Crosby terrorizing opposing goaltenders and riding high on the league?s scoring-leaders list. With world-class speed and sniping abilities, Kessel would just need to overcome questions about his on-ice focus and intangibles.
Should the Pens go in another direction with the second overall pick, they could grab Peterborough Petes forward Jordan Staal. Jordan, of course, is the brother of (Stanley Cup champion) Eric Staal, and hockey people love to talk about bloodlines. Another of the Staal brothers, Marc, was taken early by the New York Rangers in last year?s draft.
Central Scouting Service ranked Staal third among North American skaters, and at 6?4? and 209 pounds he towers over Kessel (and most of the other top forward prospects as well). Seen as the safest bet among the top-ranked forwards because of his hockey sense and family ties, the Pens may indeed go for him with their pick instead of Kessel.
And if not Pittsburgh, Staal?s destination could end up being Chicago. The Hawks, who draft third, really need to add a star, and Kessel and Staal both project as such. Chicago might also pick one of the other top-ranked forwards, such as Jonathan Toews (North Dakota), Derick Brassard (Drummondville), Peter Mueller (Everett), Nicklas Backstrom (Brynas), Bryan Little (Barrie), Kyle Okposo (Des Moines), and Jiri Tlusty (Kladno).
The Washington Capitals, who pick fourth overall, need to get some help for star winger Alexander Ovechkin up front, and should be picking from that above group of forwards as well. A big center like Staal would be ideal, and with Ovechkin riding shotgun Jordan might be able to match his big brother?s prolific scoring totals sooner rather than later.
The rest of this year?s Top 10 selections (assuming none of the picks are dealt on draft day) will be made by the Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Minnesota Wild, and Florida Panthers, and there?s a good chance that each of those teams will also be taking forwards with their high first-round choices.
Goaltenders are the draft?s wild cards. Teams that are in desperate need of a quality netminding prospect might be inclined to snag the best left on the board. Lewiston?s Jonathan Bernier and Finnish dark horse Riku Helenius are considered the best two available, and they?ll go to the first teams that decide they can?t afford to pass on them.
And who will the Stanley-Cup-champion Hurricanes be taking in the first round of the draft? Nobody, as the Canes dealt their first-round pick to the Blues in exchange for Doug Weight during the season. That?ll mean one less prospect in Carolina?s cupboard, but we?re thinking the hockey fans down in Raleigh are happy with the outcome anyway.
