NHL draft

First round of the NHL draft is in the books, and 7 WHLers were picked in the first round:

#4 (Columbus) Ryan Johansen, Portland Winterhawks
#5 (NY Islanders) Nino Niederreiter, Portland Winterhawks
#6 (Tampa Bay) Brett Connolly, Prince George Cougars
#10 (NY Rangers) Dylan McIlrath, Moose Jaw Warriors
#23 (Buffalo) Mark Pysyk, Edmonton Oil Kings
#25 (Florida) Quinton Howden, Moose Jaw Warriors
#29 (Anaheim) Emerson Etem, Medicine Hat Tigers

So, congrats to the Winterhawks and the Warriors organizations for both having two players picked in the first round. Portland having two of the top five overall picks is really impressive and a further sign that that organization is turning it around.

Six other coulda-been-and-maybe-in-the-future WHLers were picked as well - at #14 overall, St. Louis took USHL forward Jaden Schwartz, whose rights are owned by the Tri-City Americans. At #15, Los Angeles took USNTDP forward Derek Forbort, whose rights are owned by Everett. At #19, Florida took Minnesota high schooler Nick Bjugstad, whose rights are also owned by Everett. At #20, Pittsburgh took BCHL sniper Beau Bennett, whose WHL rights belong to the Calgary Hitmen. And at #30, the Islanders took Minnesota high school forward Brock Nelson, whose rights also belong to Tri-City.

I'm surprised that Seattle goaltender Calvin Pickard did not get selected, especially since two other goalies did get picked in the first round. The selection of USNTDP goalie Jack Campbell as the first goalie picked wasn't really a surprise but the OHL's Mark Visentin as the 2nd goalie picked I think caught a few people by surprise.

Lastly, a cool fact that a lot of people don't know about #1 overall pick Taylor Hall? He was almost - almost - a WHLer. Hall was born in Calgary and lived there until 2005, when he was 13-turning-14 and his family moved to Kingston, Ontario. As a 13 year old he played AAA bantam with the Calgary Canucks, where his teammates included current WHLer Dan Iwanski. Had he remained in Calgary one more year, he would have been picked in the 2006 WHL bantam draft.