The Rangers took Carl Hagelin, the wildcard of this incoming class since we know pretty much nothing about him. There were a couple things in the Rangers draft article that were interesting, though.
Drafting in the sixth round, the Rangers chose University of Michigan recruit Carl Hagelin, a Swedish left winger who scored 24 goals and 55 points in 40 games for the Sodertalje Under-20 team. Hagelin had been asked to play for Sodertalje's top team in the Swedish Elite League, but he declined the offer in order to protect his NCAA eligibility.
Hagelin, picked 168th overall, was not ranked by any of the major scouting services, but the 18-year-old was a favorite of the Rangers scouting staff and was seen often by Christer Rockstrom, the team's chief European scout. He will get a chance to adjust to the North American game when he arrives in Ann Arbor this fall to play for the same Michigan program that produced Rangers forward Jed Ortmeyer.
I didn't know that he had been asked to play in the Swedish Elite League. It's kind of telling about his desire to play in North America that he passed up that opportunity to retain his college eligibility.
Another Rangers-related tidbit that Russian5 pointed out over at The Yost Post: At least according to Larry Brooks (Read: MAJOR grain of salt), talks between the Rangers and Jed Ortmeyer haven't been going all that well. It's surprising to me that they wouldn't want him back. He's not the best player in the world or anything, but there aren't too many people who work harder than he does (coming back from that embolism), he blocks a ton of shots, he's great on the PK; he's the type of player that you need. I'd love to see him in a Wings jersey, but the (strange) signing of Maltby pretty much eliminates that need.
Scott Luce, the director of scouting for the Florida Panthers, had this to say about Matt Rust:
Center Matt Rust (4th round, 101st pick), 5-9, 192 pounds: “A very good skater who had more of an offensive side prior to joining the US Under-18 Team, where he took on more of a defensive style. He brings a complete game. He’s very good on the draw (faceoffs). No, he’s outstanding on the draw.”
My reaction: Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy! Faceoff guy!
Mike Komisarek signed for 2 more years with Montreal. Hopefully he'll have to sign a new contract before he gets to play with Mad Max Pacioretty.
Canadiens blog Eyes on the Prize comments on the selection.
Habsworld.net chimes in as well.
All Habs has some things to say as well.
The Blues comment on Aaron Palushaj in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
One common denominator in the Blues' picks is that several of the players are headed to lofty college programs next season. They include Cole to Notre Dame, Palushaj to Michigan, Fairchild to Minnesota, Erstad to Wisconsin and Nill to Michigan State.
"If we didn't think a program was a good program (the player was heading to), we wouldn't go there," Davidson said. "At the end of four years, we may have something."
....
The Blues took Palushaj with the pick they got in a trade Friday with San Jose. Palushaj scored 22 goals and had 67 points in 56 games for Des Moines in the United States Hockey League.
"He comes to play every night," Blues scout Mike Antonovich said. "If there's a knock on him, it might be his skating, but I didn't see it. I think he's going to play hard and score."
Palushaj was asleep when the Blues picked him.
The chief scout for the Ottawa Senators was "adamant" that they take Louie Caporusso.
The Ottawa Citizen isn't thrilled with how the Senators handled the Andrew Ebbett situation.
Unless you have the desire to see Matt Rust dance in his underwear to Glamorous by Fergie don't click this link and fast-forward to 3:56. He is in fact G-L-A-M-O-R-OUS. I definitely didn't need to see that. (Via SporTech Matter)
There's not a whole lot else out there, so I offer up one final link:
Bill Simmons doesn't know anything about hockey, but his draft diary was pretty good (WCH begs to differ). He makes fun of Bettman a lot so even though the jokes were kind of stale, it's still funny.
2 comments:
The fact that he had no perspective whatsoever on hockey wrt the players being picked made that Simmons' diary really grating. His outsider's perspective would have been welcome if he had any intention at all of not being a douche about the whole thing. But he skewered Kane despite admittedly knowing nothing about him. What the hell is that other than a hack job?
That's very true. Very, very true.
I was kind of in shock when I saw "NHL Draft Diary" in his column today.
He was a douche about it--the stuff about Kane pissed me off as well (that kid is a GREAT hockey player)--but I still had a couple of good laughs in there.
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