NHL Draft Recap

Continuing the trend over the past four years, two players with Gopher ties were selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft in Montreal over the weekend. Incoming freshman Nick Leddy (a.k.a. Mr. Hockey) was taken 16th overall by the Wild and 2008 WCHA Rookie of the Year Jordan Schroeder was taken 22nd overall by Vancouver. Leddy and Schroeder's first round selection give the Gophers four first round picks on their 09-10 roster; Pat White ('07 Vancouver) and David Fischer ('06 Montreal) are the other two.

New Wild GM Cliff Fletcher certainly made a name for himself by selecting a MN native in the first round, but will passing on Schroeder come back to haunt him? Let's hope that Leddy has a much more productive career than the only other MN native to be selected by the Wild in the first round...AJ Thelen (12th overall in '04) who is currently playing in the ECHL and has only one AHL game to his credit.

Saturday was also a busy day for incoming Gopher freshmen as Zach Budish (2nd round, Nashville), Josh Birkholz (3rd round, Florida) and Seth Helgeson (4th round, New Jersey) were all selected. Budish likely would have been a mid first round pick but a knee injury suffered while playing football in the fall derailed his senior season at Edina. Both Birkholz and Helgeson played in the USHL last season; Birkholz with the Clark Cup runner-up Fargo Force and Helgeson with Sioux City.

Over the past four years, a total of 23 Gopher players/recruits have been selected in the NHL entry draft including 8 first round picks.

Thanks for reading,
Go4Hockey

Welcome

Welcome to Gopher Hockey Blog-your source for everthing that is Gopher Hockey. In the coming months (and years) I will be posting on everything from recruiting classes to national championship celebrations and everything in between. Come back often and SKI-U-MAH!!

Thanks for reading,
Go4Hockey