Inside College Hockey has your list of what to watch for at the 2009 NHL Draft. Television coverage of Friday’s first round airs at 7 p.m. ET on Versus and TSN. Saturday’s coverage of the second-seventh rounds will air on NHL Network, beginning at 10 a.m. ET. A number of interesting issues and possibilities are worth keeping your eye on during this weekend’s proceedings.
* Harvard-bound center Louis Leblanc and Cornell’s Riley Nash
Keep an eye on future Harvard Crimson center Louis Leblanc. Many pre-draft rankings project him to be a first round pick, and Leblanc would be the first player destined for an ECAC Hockey team selected in the first round since Cornell’s Riley Nash was selected by the Edmonton Oilers with the 21st overall pick in 2007.
Leblanc played with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers in the 2008-09 season and had 28 goals and 31 assists in 60 games. He’s got good size, a strong competitive level and also sees the ice well and is adept at setting up teammates - the same factors that made Riley Nash a first round pick and helped him become one of the best players in ECAC Hockey.
Leblanc was drafted by Val d’Or in the 2007 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft but has steadfastly committed to Harvard, and has expressed his desire to get a degree from Harvard in multiple interviews during the last year.
* Which players could skip the college ranks altogether?
Last year, standout defenseman John Carlson, a first-round draft choice of the Washington Capitals who was ticketed for Massachusetts, ultimately spurned the Minutemen in favor of the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights. Our hunch is that a highly touted defenseman or two could follow the same path this year.
John Moore, a blueliner projected to go in the middle of the first round, seems to be the most likely defector. He’s committed to Colorado College next season, but the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers own his rights. As Chris Dilks of the Western College Hockey Blog wrote following last month’s OHL Draft, getting selected by Kitchener is better than London, but not by much-the Knights are notorious for poaching college-bound kids, and the Rangers aren’t far behind.
Minnesota Duluth-bound defenseman Dylan Olsen will probably don a Bulldog sweater for at least one season. Olsen, who played for Camrose of the Alberta Junior Hockey League last season, previously spurned the Western Hockey League in order to keep his college options open. He initially wanted to go to North Dakota, but couldn’t gain admission there, raising speculation that Olsen could completely bag the college route.
* Boston College-bound Chris Kreider’s draft stock
Boston College freshman-to-be Chris Kreider is as hard as any prospect in the entire draft to pin down. Prognosticators have the Phillips (Mass.) Academy forward pegged to go anywhere from ninth overall to the second round. At 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, Kreider has great size and he’s believed to be among the fleetest skaters in this year’s pool.
* Minnesota-bound Zach Budish and a year away from hockey during his draft year
The name of Edina (Minn.) H.S. standout Zach Budish appears in the late first round of most experts’ mock drafts. The two-sport star, who will suit up for Minnesota this fall, didn’t play hockey last season after blowing out his knee in a high school football game. Had he stayed healthy, Budish probably would’ve been among the top 15 picks Friday. A monster forward at 6-foot-3 and 229 pounds, a few draft watchers believe he could be the steal of the draft.
* Notre Dame-bound Kyle Palmieri’s dismissal from the U.S. NTDP
Like Budish, U.S. National Team Development Program forward Kyle Palmieri, bound for Notre Dame in 2009-10, is expected to go late in the first round. The Montvale, N.J., native, whose game has been compared to Chris Drury, was booted from the NTDP in March, however, causing him to miss out on the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, which the U.S. won. Some teams might view Palmieri’s dismissal as a red flag, but a source told INCH recently that the transgression was minor.
* The US National Team Development Program and the first round
The only 2008 first-round pick that came from the United States National Team Development Program was Colin Wilson of Boston University, and marked the first time in 10 years that the US NTDP didn’t produce multiple first-round picks. Three players were drafted in the second round (Philip McRae, Danny Kristo, Jimmy Hayes).
Previous years served as an absolute endorsement of the US NTDP model and its ability to attract and develop elite talent in respective age groups. The program produced five first-rounders in 2007 and six first-rounders in 2006.
As many as four US NTDP players project to be potential first round picks in the 2009 draft, including Minnesota’s Jordan Schroeder and US NTDP forwards Drew Shore (bound for Denver), Kyle Palmieri (Notre Dame recruit), and Jeremy Morin, who will play in the OHL for Kitchener next season.
