NHL draft around the corner
Published 1:48 pm Monday, June 21, 2010
The NHL draft is almost here, taking place Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles. The first round takes place at 4 p.m. Friday and will be televised on Versus. Rounds 2-7 are Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
Everett doesn’t have a sure-fire first rounder this year, but the Tips have three players who are considered strong bets to get picked. Let’s begin with their spots in the NHL Central Scouting Bureau’s final rankings. Goaltender Kent Simpson is ranked third among North American goaltenders, while defensemen Alex Theriau and Radko Gudas are ranked 77th and 91st, respectively, among North American skaters.
These rankings serve as a guideline for when they might be drafted, but shouldn’t be taken too literally. According to the CSB, Theriau’s ranking puts him in the third round and Gudas’ puts him in the fourth, but that’s without accounting for international skaters or goalies (I’m not sure why they label the rankings that way as it seems misleading). From what I’ve heard Theriau is considered a later-round selection, while Gudas is a wild card. Gudas played so well last season, but has been passed over twice in the draft and is two years older than most of this year’s draft class, so when he’ll go is a mystery. As for Simpson, I’ve heard around the third round, but predicting how the goalie situation will play out at the draft is difficult because there’s no telling what the demand for goalies is going to be from year to year.
More to come later this week as I try to squeeze draft information in while covering the AquaSox home-opening series.
