Entry Draft Notes

Entry Draft Notes
By Meredith Martini, Featured Writer

BEFORE THE DRAFT
The NHL's annual entry draft is a time of great excitement for the teams, the players, and their families. It's an event for fans too, and Pittsburgh planned a few extra events to involve them, such as a hockey clinic for area youngsters taught by Joe Thornton, Paul Mara, Eric Brewer and Jason Ward, and a public introduction for several of the top prospects at an arts festival in Point State Park.
"It's been great, they've done a real good job down in Pittsburgh, I can't say anything but good things about them," says the Sudbury Wolves' Mara, who was one of the first prospects to arrive in Pittsburgh. "With the activities they're doing, it's been really nice for me."

Roberto Luongo
Photo by Zippy the Wonder Chimp

Not all the prospects arrived in town early enough to take in all the events; at least one player barely made it to the Meet the Prospects event. "I just got here two hours ago so this is pretty much new for me," says Val D'Or Foreurs goaltender Roberto Luongo. "I just went to the presentations [at Point State Park] and that was quite something, really had some fun."
But the purpose behind early arrival in town, for both the teams and the prospects, had much more to do with business than pleasure, as the teams interviewed as many of the players as possible, trying to whittle down the possibilities.
"Generally interviews have been going pretty well," Mara says. "It's so hard to say which team's going to take you with trades and everything, so I haven't gotten any signs from any team."
"[I've] just been running around the whole time," says the Erie Otters' Jason Ward. "No indications from anybody, just taking it step by step right now."
Indeed, that seemed to be a common thread as the teams hid their cards well from their prospective players. "I can't tell from anything they say, it's pretty general," notes Prince Albert Raiders goaltending prospect Evan Lindsay.
"I don't think anyone's getting any strong feelings, I think [the teams] want to keep it in tight quarters and when it comes to their selection they'll make it known," explains Boston College's Jeff Farkas, the highest rated collegian in the draft.
Of course, the most common factor among the prospects seemed to be nerves, as in, plenty of them. "Definitely it's a nerve-wracking situation, it's a dream to get drafted and the dream's getting closer and hopefully I'll get drafted by a good team," says Ward.
"I wouldn't say I'm nervous," says Farkas. "I'm just a little bit anxious."
"[I'm] just kind of anxious to get it over with, but not that nervous," explains Lindsay, who has a game plan for overcoming his draft day nerves. "I think I'll just go to breakfast early, and get it over with, and hope it doesn't take too long." Breakfast or the draft?
Luongo might have the most unusual situation of the group, as he was facing the possibility of becoming the highest drafted goaltender in history. "I'm feeling pretty nervous about it but it's not really about getting drafted as the highest goaltender, just getting drafted," he thinks. "I can't do nothing about it if I'm going to be the highest goaltender or not, it's up to the teams."
And when you get down to it, it is all up to the teams.
AFTER THE DRAFT
The Point State Park gang did very well at the draft, thank you very much. Taken with the fourth pick, Luongo was indeed the highest drafted goaltender in NHL history in a very deliberate move by New York Islanders GM Mike Milbury; as Milbury also controlled the number five pick and could just as easily used that pick for Luongo. While Mara - and a lot of others - believed he was destined to become a member of his hometown Boston Bruins, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Bruins to the punch and selected Mara with the seventh pick. Ward slipped out of the top ten, but went to the Montreal Canadiens with the eleventh pick. The Calgary Flames used their second round pick to take Lindsay, while the Toronto Maple Leafs used their first pick of the draft (they lost their first and second round picks in trades) to take Farkas in the third round.
Former LCS Hockey features Mara and Ward did well at the draft; another former feature, the Kitchener Ranger's Vratislav Cech, didn't have quite as much luck. Despite being rated as a potential first round pick, Cech fell to the middle of the third round before the Florida Panthers called his name. Cech had no problem with his draft position though, because he's more than happy with the team he joins.

Vratislav Cech
Photo by Meredith Martini

"It's awesome," he says of his selection by the Panthers. "Right now I'm happy with what team picked me, I can't wish anything better."
Cech attended the draft with his mother; his father made the trip from the Czech Republic at Christmas so his mother got the 'honors' of the 20-hour flight this time around. Despite being chosen and thus free to leave the building, Cech stayed through the end of the draft to lend support to his friend, countryman and Kitchener teammate Michal Podolka, who was rated as a sixth-round prospect but never heard his name called.
After spending twenty minutes with the Panthers at the draft, Cech was to meet with them again the next day, and will be in NHL training camp this fall. "I'm supposed to go to the summer training camp, it starts July 7th and finished up July 25th, and after that I go to Miami training camp," lists Cech, who is ticketed to return to Kitchener for another season. But July in Miami? Sounds...hot.
As for the other LCS Hockey feature subjects, Brett Gibson and Vadim Sharapov just plain did not have good days; while a member of the Erie Otters' brass indicated the Montreal Canadiens had promised to select Gibson, they didn't: neither did anyone else. Sharapov was also completely passed over in the draft, and neither player opted to attend after being discouraged by their final rankings. They had company; several players rated in the third through sixth rounds never heard their names called despite a solid reputation among scouting staffs. Gibson will return to the Otters and Sharapov likely will as well in the hopes of getting a shot next year.
TRY, TRY AGAIN
Several well rated players never signed contracts with the teams that drafted them in 1995 and returned to the draft with highly mixed results. Former Canucks draftee Todd Norman returned to the draft but was passed over; former Avalanche fourth-rounder John Tripp went back in the pool and moved his stock up to the second round, when the Calgary Flames selected him. Other players were drafted more or less in the same round but by a different team, as the Edmonton Oilers selected former Ottawa pick Kevin Bolibruck and the Carolina Hurricanes plucked Shane Willis from Tampa's clutches. The most ironic redraft, however, was Brad Larsen. Larsen was originally selected two years ago by the Ottawa Senators, who upon failing to sign him traded his rights to the Colorado Avalanche for Janne Laukkanen. Larsen went on to captain Swift Current and perform admirably for Team Canada in the World Juniors tournament but never signed with Colorado either. Unfortunately for Larson, Colorado doesn't give up easily - they drafted him again! No word on whether he'll sign with them this time or not.
TIME WON'T GIVE ME TIME
Something the NHL may need to work on in future drafts is preventing abuse of the time limits for making a pick. The host Penguins were particularly guilty in this category, using more than their originally allotted time, plus their five minute timeout, plus dragging the timeout beyond five minutes before finally making their first pick; the Penguins then continued this pattern and used more than the allotted time for eight of their nine picks. The draft, which ran nearly two hours overtime, could attribute a full hour of that time to the Penguins alone. Other teams also abused the system, which obviously needs either an overhaul or enforcement - listening, Mr. Burke?
DIE, SCALPER SCUM!

Entry Draft Ticket

Tickets to the first round of the draft were free, but had to be requested through the mail many moons ago and no, I didn't get one. The tickets were officially all gone. However, there were plenty of tickets being given away outside the Civic Arena and to the Neanderthalian scalper who wanted $20 for a free ticket, all I can say is Pfffbbbttt! Got one for free, ha ha. So did the rest of us.
HOT HOT HOT
Pittsburgh's weather was somewhat cooperative for the events of the weekend - no rain, but boy was it hot. The temperature soared into the mid-nineties each day with accompanying humidity, much to the discomfort of all and particularly the prospects. Hey, would you want to march around outside in a hockey sweater on a hot day?
FRIDAY IN THE PARK
The NHL's 'meet-and-greet' the top prospects, held in the city's Point State Park on Friday afternoon and touted as an event for the fans, turned out to be an almost exclusively media event. The 19 chosen prospects were hustled over from the Hilton Towers, introduced onstage to those in attendance (about half media and family members), hustled into a pen reserved for the media for interviews, and rushed back to the hotel for photographs. (One questions the wisdom of marching the players hither and yon in the extreme heat for an hour, then sending them for photos, but I digress.) The players weren't hurried enough, however, as the fans who were in attendance still managed to meet most of the players and get photos and autographs. The selection of players turned out to be very accurate as well, as the first 11 players drafted were from the Point group and 16 of the players brought to the Point were taken in the first round (the exceptions were Evan Lindsay, drafted by Calgary in the second round; Jean-François Fortin, picked by the Capitals in the second round; and Jeff Farkas, drafted by Toronto in the third round).
YOU MUST NOT BE DRINKING ENOUGH
Some teams made draft selections which might make one wonder what they had to drink the night before, particularly when it came to goaltending. The New York Islanders, thick on defense and goaltending, used their top picks on, you guessed it, defense and goaltending. Trade bait, anyone? The Washington Capitals, with a dozen NHL experienced and/or ready defensemen in the system, used their top two picks to take more defensemen. No word on where they'll shoehorn in the new guys. The Penguins needed just about everything - goaltending, defense, and centermen. With a dozen quality players in the aforementioned categories available, the Pens used their number one pick on - a right wing. That really helped. With the controversy surrounding Dominik Hasek, it wasn't really surprising that the Sabres would use their first pick on a goaltender. What was odd was that in Mika Noronen they selected one of only three European goaltenders Central Scouting even found worth mentioning. The selection was even odder considering Buffalo's recent history with Finnish goaltenders - heard from Markus Ketterer lately? First ever Swiss top pick Michel Riesen made it clear before the draft it would take a lot of money to convince him to leave his club team, so who selected him? The perpetually strapped-for-cash Edmonton Oilers. So to all of these teams - what WERE you thinking?
CLOTHES MAKE THE PROSPECT
Preparation is key for the draft. Naturally, Hartford/Carolina didn't pay heed to that piece of advice as they didn't have jerseys ready for their prospects and instead tossed their selections a plain white sweater with the NHL logo on it. Given the simplicity of their new logo, I can only suggest to Carolina that next time they should give me a couple of Magic Markers and the sweaters and I'd have a logo on there in minutes.
FAMILY AFFAIR
The draft is an event for families but this year went a little overboard in that department. Among the family ties:
Dallas GM Bob Gainey drafted his son, Steve, from the Kamloops Blazers.
Edmonton drafted the Erie Otters' Patrick Dovigi, who is cousin to Phil and Tony Esposito.
Colorado drafted Wade Belak in the first round of the 1994 draft; they took younger brother Graham in the second round this year.
San Jose's Jeff Friesen stopped by to see brother Terry be taken in the draft.
Tampa first-rounder Paul Mara is the younger brother of Blackhawks' 1994 pick Rob Mara.
Washington selected goaltender Curtis Cruickshank, whose cousin Mitch Lamoreaux is legend in the American Hockey League.
Most of the players in attendance were joined by immediate family and significant others, but some players did a little better than that. A contingent of nearly one hundred Erie Otters fans dropped in to cheer on Jason Ward and stayed to support Patrick Dovigi as well. Several of them continued to hang out long enough to applaud the Otters' Adam Nittel, who was chosen by San Jose in the fifth round. Smaller in number but larger in visual effect were the Windsor Spitfire fans who joined eventual second round Islanders pick Jeff Zehr in the stands: they brought letter cards and spelled out Zehr's name when he was called.