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The NHL Draft Lottery came and went without any surprise as the favored Edmonton Oilers kept their first overall draft position. Boston will pick second, Florida third, Columbus fourth, and the New York Islanders fifth, as the final draft order finished exactly the same as the teams finished the regular season in the standings.
Tampa Bay will be sixth and providing the Hurricanes do not make a trade up or down, they will keep their lucky seventh spot in the coming draft.
Who were some of the players selected at number seven in previous years?
- 2009 Nazem Kadri - Toronto
- 2008 Colin Wilson - Nashville
- 2007 Jakub Voracek - Columbus
- 2006 Kyle Okposo - New York Islanders
- 2005 Jack Skille - Chicago
- 2004 Rostislav Olesz - Florida
- 2003 Ryan Suter - Nashville
- 2002 Joffrey Lupul - Anaheim
- 2001 Mike Komisarek - Montreal
- 2000 Lars Jonsson - Boston
- 1999 Kris Beech - Washington
Some readers here have been analyzing the players available in the draft for the past couple of months and it looks like there should be several very talented kids still available in the seventh slot.
Cory always runs a mock draft here and has made some excellent predictions in the past. He is still gathering his information and will put out his draft soon. Then we will compare his results with those of other sites who also perform mock drafts and will analyze this draft in even more detail.
In the meantime, TSN recently released their Top 10, which is put together with the help of several scouts who were interviewed. For now, this is their ranking:
- Taylor Hall
- Tyler Seguin
- Cam Fowler
- Erik Gudbranson
- Brett Connolly
- Brandon Gormley
- Nino Neiderreiter
- Ryan Johansen
- Alex Burmsitrov
- Derek Forbort
The order of these kids has already changed several times and expect them to change again before all is said and done. The list looks different on some other sites and even the CSS has a different current ranking.
Of course, it's usually extremely difficult to tell how good or bad an18 year old will be able to play hockey in the future. But that doesn't stop anyone from trying to predict, nor does it stop fans from having an opinion.
What should the Canes do? Trade up? Pick "el Nino", the flashy Swiss winger who had a dominating performance in the Worlds? Or should they select the best defenseman available when their time comes?
June 25th will be here before you know it.