LOS ANGELES — The Edmonton Oilers selected forward Taylor Hall with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft on Friday, finally ending a year-long debate about the two best 18-year-old prospects in hockey.
The league-worst Oilers chose Hall over fellow OHL forward Tyler Seguin on Friday, making the toughest call at the top of a draft in several years. Edmonton general manager Steve Tambellini said the club didn’t make its final decision until earlier in the day.
“They’re such a great franchise with so much history behind them,” Hall said after pulling on his blue-and-orange jersey. “With the five (Stanley) Cups they won, it will mean a lot to me to join their organization and hopefully bring another one up there.”
While Hall will go to a rebuilding club, the playoff-tested Boston Bruins eagerly grabbed Seguin moments later with the No. 2 pick.
Edmonton believes Hall has the physical gifts and work ethic to be a mainstay in the middle for a club that has lacked an elite front-line talent since trading Ryan Smyth three years ago.
“He’s such an imposing young man,” Tambellini said. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a more focused, competitive athlete. He was the best player on a good team for a long time.”
Many NHL scouts and executives couldn’t choose a favorite between Hall, a physical left wing who scored 106 points in 57 games for the Windsor Spitfires, and Seguin, a smooth-skating center from the Plymouth Whalers. Seguin was the league MVP last season, and Hall was the playoff MVP while leading the Spitfires to their second straight Memorial Cup title.
Just the first round of the draft was completed at Staples Center on Friday. The final six rounds are Saturday.
The first day featured only one significant trade involving current players. Florida shipped defenseman Keith Ballard to Vancouver in a four-player deal involving Steve Bernier and Michael Grabner.
While the Los Angeles Kings hosted the draft, the Anaheim Ducks made bigger splashes. Anaheim picked defenseman Cam Fowler with the 12th pick, grabbing a top prospect expected to go much higher, and then drew a huge cheer from the crowd when they picked Long Beach native Emerson Etem with the 29th overall pick.
The New York Islanders traded up to take center Brock Nelson, a high-school player from Minnesota, with the 30th and final choice of the first round.
“Entourage” actor Kevin Connolly, a big Isles fan, announced the pick.
Earlier, Florida selected Kingston defenseman Erik Gudbranson with the third pick.
“I did my research on their team,” said Gudbranson, a physical defenseman with a big shot. “(With) Dmitry Kulikov there, I feel like I could be a good complement to him on the back end. The real attraction was having (new Panthers general manager) Dale Tallon there, seeing what he did with the Chicago Blackhawks and winning the Stanley Cup and building that team from scratch. I feel this is a team that’s going in the right direction, so there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be here.”
Columbus grabbed WHL center Ryan Johansen with the fourth pick. Forward Nino Niederreiter, Johansen’s teammate in Portland, became the highest-drafted Swiss player in NHL history when he went to the Islanders with the fifth pick. The Islanders already have defenseman Mark Streit, the only NHL All-Star from Switzerland, as a club cornerstone.
“I’m trying to be a scorer one day,” said Niederreiter, who believes he can make the Islanders roster this fall. “At the moment, I think I’m a two-way player with some skills and also defensively. At the end, I just want to be a goal-scorer.”
Forward Brett Connolly went sixth to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who weren’t worried by his recent injury problems. The Carolina Hurricanes pulled a mild surprise at No. 7, grabbing Kitchener center Jeff Skinner, a former figure skater who has more goal-scoring potential than concrete achievements.
The Atlanta Thrashers took Russian forward Alex Burmistrov with the eighth pick, and the Minnesota Wild grabbed Finland’s Mikael Granlund at No. 9. The New York Rangers used the 10th pick on tough Moose Jaw defenseman Dylan McIlrath, who was rated much lower than still-available defensemen Fowler and Brandon Gormley by most scouting services.
The Dallas Stars chose the draft’s first goalie with the 11th pick, selecting Jack Campbell from the U.S. national development team.
Fowler was projected as a top-five talent by most observers, yet he fell all the way to No. 12, where the Ducks eagerly added him to a roster badly in need of talented defensemen. Fowler accepted his new jersey from Scott Niedermayer, the recently retired defensive star and Fowler’s model for his game.
“It’s hard when you’re projected as a top pick and you slide, but it’s something to use as motivation,” Fowler said. “Who knows why it happened? I’m just glad I landed where I did.”
The host Kings made the first trade of the draft, moving up four spots to No. 15 to grab U.S. national team defenseman Derek Forbort, who is headed to North Dakota this fall. The 6-foot-5 Minnesota native rose rapidly in scouts’ estimation over the past year with his performance on the strong U.S. team.
“It’s pretty cool to go to the hometown team,” Forbort said. “Hopefully I’ll get to see the facility and find out what the situation is like while I’m in town.”
The Pittsburgh Penguins made local history with the 20th pick when they chose right wing Beau Bennett. The native of nearby Gardena is the highest-drafted California born-and-trained player in NHL history.
The Ducks then chose Etem, a speedy forward from Long Beach who plays for Medicine Hat in the WHL. Etem had a huge contingent of family and friends in the Staples Center stands.
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