NHL Draft Preview

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Here's a brief look at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, which gets under way Friday evening in Ottawa and continues on Saturday.

2008 NHL Entry Draft
Location, Times
Where: Ottawa
When: Round 1, Friday 6pm CT, TV: Versus, TSN
           Rounds 2-7 Saturday, 9 AM CT, TV: NHL Network
The Draft
Overall, this is considered a deep draft with good players available as late as the second round and perhaps even the third round.

Sarnia Sting center Steven Stamkos is the top rated prospect and is expected to go first overall to Tampa Bay, unless the Lightning get a good offer for the first overall pick.

Although Stamkos is considered the top pick, the strength at the top of the draft is considered to be at defense. The belief is that four or five defensemen could go in the top ten and a total of eight or nine could go in the top twenty.

The draft is not considered to particularly strong at the goaltending position, but there are some good goaltenders available.

Stars' Picks
The Stars have five picks heading into the draft, staring with a 2nd round pick that is 59th overall. They don't have a first round pick nor a fourth round pick.

They traded their first round pick to the Los Angeles Kings at the 2007 trade deadline in the deal that brought defenseman Mattias Norstrom to Dallas. The fourth round pick was traded to Tampa Bay in the summer of 2006 for defenseman Darryl Sydor.

Here are the Stars' picks in the draft:

Round Overall
2nd 59th
3rd 89th
5th 149th
6th 176th
7th 209th
 
The European Issue
With the transfer agreement between the NHL and International Ice Hockey Federation expired and no new agreement on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how teams handle drafting Europeans.

Under the current CBA Europeans draft picks had to be signed within two years, just like players from North American major junior hockey.

No one is sure how it will all play out but without a transfer agreement there's a belief the rules could go back to the pre-lockout days when teams would draft a player from Europe, let him develop for a few years and then sign him when ever they wanted. That could lead to stockpiling talent in Europe again, which teams may do with later round picks. 

Trade Talk
The Los Angeles Kings hold the second pick in the draft and there was the thought they could make a deal - if the right one comes along - to move down. The latest out of LA indicates GM Dean Lombardi is split on moving the pick. The Kings have ten of the first 101 picks, so Lombardi is likely to be a popular guy among those looking to move up in the draft even if he keeps the second pick.

Pittsburgh doesn't draft until the fourth round (120th overall), so there is the belief the Penguins will be looking to move up.

As always, there are rumors and speculation about some big names getting moved during the draft. Florida's Olli Jokinen is one of the bigger names in the rumor mill heading into the draft. Jason Spezza and Evgeni Malkin have popped up in some of the wilder rumors involving that second pick of the Kings.

First Round Draft Order

1. Tampa Bay

2. Los Angeles

3. Atlanta

4.  St. Louis

5.  NY Islanders

6.  Columbus

7.  Toronto

8.  Phoenix

9.  Nashville (from Florida)

10. Vancouver

11. Chicago

12. Anaheim (from Edmonton)

13. Buffalo

14. Carolina

15. Nashville

16. Boston

17. Calgary

18. Ottawa

19. Columbus (from Colorado)

20. NY Rangers

21. New Jersey

22. Edmonton (from Anaheim)

23. Washington

24. Minnesota

25. Montreal

26. Buffalo (from San Jose)

27. Philadelphia

28. Los Angeles (from Dallas)

29. Atlanta (from Pittsburgh)

30. Detroit
Top Prospects from NHL Central Scouting
Texas Connection: Tyler Myers
Central Scouting's fourth ranked North American skater is 6'7" defenseman Tyler Myers, a native of Houston and a teammate of Stars prospect Jamie Benn of the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League.

Myers, who got into hockey after seeing a Houston Aeros game at age six, moved to the Calgary area with his family when he was ten.

But don't expect Myers, the tallest player in the draft, to suit up for USA Hockey at any international events like the World Juniors, World Championship or Olympics down the road. Myers, who received his Canadian passport in April, played for Team Canada at the U-18 World Championship in Russia it meant he would play for Canada at future international events.

This page is not affiliated with the Dallas Stars Hockey Club, the National Hockey League
or the National Hockey League Players' Association

Privacy Statement | Contact

Andrew's Poll

Username:
 
Password:
 
Not a subscriber? Sign up here.
Indicates Subscriber only content
Subscriber Page