NHL Draft

Yesterday, the NHL Draft took place in Columbus. There were some surprises, and there were some trades.

In the Draft, the number 1 pick was held by Chicago. With many young players to choose from, they choose Patrick Kane #1 overall. Dale Tallon, Chicago's General Manager is optimistic that Kane can make the lineup i September. "We're going to be a young team so he'll get every opportunity to play," Tallon said. "He'll have 10 games before we make a decision so we're going to give him a good chance."

With the Number 2 pick, the Philadelphia Flyers bypassed Kyle Turris and went for a much tougher player in James van Riemsdyk. The Flyers GM wanted to get back to the basics, which for Philadelphia, is big and strong.

Number 3 was the Phoenix Coyotes pick, and they took, without hesitation, Kyle Turris. "I saw Wayne Gretzky stand up and bring a jersey up to the podium and I was just hoping and praying," he said. "It was pretty cool."

Los Angeles was next and took Thomas Hickey, a defenceman, even though Karl Alzner was the top rated defenceman in the draft. "I was sort of dozing off thinking of later picks and I sort of heard my name and thought it was maybe a mistake and maybe I just heard it wrong," he said. "I got a few nudges in my side and it still really hasn't sunk in yet."

Rounding out the top 5 were the Capitals, who picked Alzner. He will be a great addition to the Caps, who don't have any defencemen I can name.

Sam Gagner went next for the Edmonton Oilers. "I'm happy to be picked but I realize this is just the beginning, there's a long way to go," said Gagner. "There's a lot of work to be done."

A player that got picked later in the draft than expected was Angelo Esposito, who instead of being picked by Montreal as many expected, was taken 20th overall by the Penguins. The Montreal boy was passed by the Canadiens with pick 12, and went all the way down to number 20.

Other picks were:

Number 7 - Jakob Voracek
Number 8 - Zach Hamill
Number 9 - Logan Couture
Number 10 - Keaton Ellerby
Number 11 - Brandon Sutter
Number 12 - Ryan Mcdonagh
Number 13 - Lars Eller
Number 14 - Kevin Shattenkirk
Number 15 - Alex Plante
Number 16 - Colton Gillies
Number 17 - Alexei Cherepanov
Number 18 - Ian Cole
Number 19 - Logan Macmillan
Number 20 - Angelo Esposito
Number 21 - Riley Nash
Number 22 - Max Pacioretty
Number 23 - Jonathon Blum
Number 24 - Mikeal Backlund
Number 25 - Patrick White
Number 26 - David Perron
Number 27 - Brendan Smith
Number 28 - Nicholas Petrecki
Number 29 - James O'Brien
Number 30 - Nick Ross