At #1 overall, Prince George picks Slovakian defenceman Martin Marincin, a '92 who was a 2nd round pick of the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. His stats.
At #4 overall, the Oil Kings scoop up 17 year old Czech defenceman Marek Hrbas, who spent last season in the USHL. His stats.
At #7, Portland hopes to hit the Swiss jackpot again as they pick Sven Bartschi, a late-birthdate '92 forward who is eligible for the 2011 NHL draft. Going Swiss worked out well for them last year with Niederreiter. Here's Bartschi's stats.
With the #10 pick, Seattle picks up 6'2", 205lb German forward Marcel Noebels, a '92. His stats.
Vancouver has the #13 pick thanks to a trade last year with Regina. With the pick, they take 17 year old Slovakian forward Marek Tvrdon, a 6'3", 195 pounder. His stats.
At #16, we have a trade; the pick originally belonged to Prince Albert but now belongs to Tri-City so there must have been something that just trasnspired there. The Americans use the pick on 17 year old Russian defenceman Nikita Nesterov. Stats here.
With #19, Edmonton picks their 2nd import of the day and it is Latvian forward Kristian Pelss, who was a 7th round pick of the parent Oilers on Saturday. Stats on Pelss here.
Kamloops picks at #22 and they take a German forward (Germans seem popular today), Bernhard Keil. His stats are here. He's a '92, who is 6'2" and 205 lb....or so the Germans would have us believe.
With #25, Kelowna picks a 19 year old Norwegian, Andreas Stene. His stats are here.
At #28, Moose Jaw has picked 17 year old Slovak forward Michal Hlinka. Stats here.
At the #31 spot, Swift Current takes 17 year old Czech defenceman Richard Nedomlel. His stats are here.
With the #34 pick, acquired from Red Deer, Seattle drafts 6'4" Swiss defenceman Dave Sutter. He is from the tiny Swiss village of Vikingen and is one of seven hockey-playing brothers. Stats here.
At #37, Vancouver picks their 2nd import of the day, going to Sweden for 19 year old forward Casper Carning. He is 6'3" and 215lb but said to be "very friendly". Stats here.
With the #40 pick, Medicine Hat has picked up Sebastien Owuya, a big Swedish defenceman who was a 6th round pick of the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday. His stats here.
Kootenay has announced that they will pass on their picks, 43rd overall and 103rd overall. The Ice have no imports on their roster (since Dominik Pacovsky will not be back) so that means they'll use no imports next season.
Update: Kootenay has traded the 43rd pick to Brandon, so they won't be passing on it after all.
With the #43 pick, Brandon picks up 19 year old Danish forward Mark Mieritz. Stats here.
At #46, Lethbridge appears to have traded their pick (which they acquired from Portland in the Sbisa deal) to Regina. The Pats have picked 18 year old Swedish defenceman Ricard Blidstrand. Stats here.
We'll see what this means for Lethbridge. They previously announced that they would not bring Ville Kolppanen back, so they do have an opening still.
With #49 overall, Spokane has picked 17 year old Czech forward Marek Kalus. Stats here.
At #52, Everett picks up Finnish forward Jesse Huhtala, a 17 year old. Stats here.
#55 now and Tri-City has added their 2nd new import of the day, late-birthdate '92 defenceman Nikita Kardashev from Belarus. Stats here.
#57, Saskatoon makes their first pick of the day and it is 19 year old Slovakian center Andrej Stastny. Stats here
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With the #59 overall pick, Medicine Hat picks up Finland's Patrik Parkonen, a smallish 17 year old defenceman. Stats here.
Last pick of the first round now; at #60, Calgary takes 17 year old Czech forward Dmitrij Jaskin. Stats here.
To the 2nd round:
At #61, Saskatoon uses Prince George's pick to take their 2nd import of the day, Czech winger Matej Stransky. Stats here.
With #64, Kelowna uses Edmonton's pick to take 18 year old Slovenian forward Gal Koren. Stats here.
#67 has Lethbridge making their first pick of the day and it's 17 year old Russian forward Alex Kuvaev. Numbers for him here.
At #91, Swift Current makes their 2nd pick of the day and it's Slovakian winger Juraj Roznik. Stats here.
And the last pick of the entire draft, #120, goes to Calgary, who pick 19 year old Slovakian goaltender Juraj Holly. His stats are here.
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I'm not sure what to make of the Ice decision to go with no imports next year. Their official explanation is that they have 19 players returning and there was no guarantee that they'd be able to get an import who could crack their lineup. That makes sense; it actually is fairly unlikely that at #43 they would be able to get an impact player. And drafting an import means you must have an opening on your 50 player PPL for the new import, which means you have to drop one of your North American prospects if you're already at 50 players. Maybe the Ice did not want to drop any of their local prospects just to take a chance on a longshot Euro. If you believe your list is deep in quality prospects, this all makes a lot of sense.
That said though, the import draft is a free player, and some (although not many) players from it become impact players....I'd be tempted to make a pick just on that off-chance that you hit the home run.
That said though, the import draft is a free player, and some (although not many) players from it become impact players....I'd be tempted to make a pick just on that off-chance that you hit the home run.
