Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

NHL Draft Short Notes

06/24/2017 at 6:46am EDT

CHICAGO (June 23, 2017) – Following are notes from the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft, held Friday at United Center:

DEVILS SELECT HISCHIER WITH FIRST OVERALL PICK

The New Jersey Devils selected center Nico Hischier (Naters, Switzerland) with the top pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, making him the highest-drafted Swiss-born player in NHL history:

Pick # Player Team Pos. Birthplace Year
1 Nico Hischier NJD C Naters, CHE 2017
5 Nino Niederreiter NYI RW Chur, CHE 2010
9 Timo Meier SJS RW Herisau, CHE 2015
11 Kevin Fiala NSH LW St. Gallen, CHE 2014
13 Sven Baertschi CGY LW Bern, CHE 2011

Hischier also became the seventh player from outside North America chosen with the No. 1 overall selection in the NHL Draft – and first since 2012:

Year Player Team Pos. Birthplace
1989 Mats Sundin QUE C Bromma, SWE
1992 Roman Hamrlik TBL D Zlin, CZE
1999 Patrik Stefan ATL C Pribram, CZE
2001 Ilya Kovalchuk ATL RW Tver, RUS
2004 Alex Ovechkin WSH LW Moscow, RUS
2012 Nail Yakupov EDM RW Nizhnekamsk, RUS
2017 Nico Hischier NJD C Naters, CHE

Hischier (Halifax Mooseheads) became the 11th player from the QMJHL taken with the No. 1 overall pick – and sixth in the last 30 years:

Year Player Team Pos. QMJHL Team
1987 Pierre Turgeon BUF C Granby
1993 Alexandre Daigle OTT RW Victoriaville
1998 Vincent Lecavalier TBL C Rimouski
2005 Sidney Crosby PIT C Rimouski
2013 Nathan MacKinnon COL C Halifax
2017 Nico Hischier NJD C Halifax


GOLDEN KNIGHTS MAKE FIRST THREE NHL DRAFT SELECTIONS

The Vegas Golden Knights, who on Wednesday made 30 picks in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, made their first three selections in the NHL Draft, all in the top 15: center Cody Glass (No. 6), center Nick Suzuki (No. 13) and defenseman Erik Brannstrom (No. 15).


RECORD NUMBER OF FINNISH PLAYERS SELECTED IN FIRST ROUND

Six Finnish-born players were selected Friday – Miro Heiskanen (No. 3, DAL), Juuso Valimaki (No. 16, CGY), Urho Vaakanainen (No. 18, BOS), Kristian Vesalainen (No. 24, WPG), Henri Jokiharju (No. 29, CHI) and Eeli Tolvanen (No. 30, NSH) – a record for the first round of the NHL Draft. The previous mark of five was set in 2002.

Breakdown of first-round selections by birthplace: Canada (11), Finland (6), USA (6), Sweden (4), Czech Republic (2), Russia (1) and Switzerland (1).


14 LEAGUES REPRESENTED IN OPENING 31 PICKS . . .

Players from 14 different leagues were selected in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft:

WHL: 7
OHL: 5
SWEDEN: 4
CZREP, FINLAND, QMJHL, USHL: 2
AJHL, H-EAST, HIGH-MN, NCHC, NTDP, RUSSIA, SWEDEN-2: 1


. . . DID YOU KNOW?

The Colorado Avalanche selected defenseman Cale Makar (Brooks) fourth overall, making him the highest-drafted player in NHL history from the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He surpassed current Avalanche forward Joe Colborne (Camrose), who was picked by the Boston Bruins at No. 16 overall in 2008.


FIRST-ROUND BLOODLINES

Nolan Patrick (No. 2 overall, PHI): His father, Steve, was selected in the first round (20th overall) of the 1980 NHL Draft by the Buffalo Sabres and played 250 NHL games with the Sabres, New York Rangers and Quebec Nordiques from 1980-86. His uncle, James, skated in 1,280 games with the Rangers, Hartford Whalers, Calgary Flames and Sabres.

Elias Pettersson (No. 5 overall, VAN): His brother, Emil, was selected 155th overall by the Nashville Predators in the 2013 NHL Draft and spent the 2016-17 season in the Swedish Hockey League with Skelleftea and Vaxjo.

Lias Andersson (No. 7 overall, NYR): His father, Niklas, was selected 68th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1989 NHL Draft and skated in 164 career NHL games across five seasons with the Nordiques, New York Islanders, San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators and Calgary Flames.

Owen Tippett (No. 10 overall, FLA): His cousin, Mitchell Stephens, was selected 33rd overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2015 NHL Draft.

Callan Foote (No. 14 overall, TBL): His father, Adam, is a two-time Stanley Cup champion (1996 and 2001 w/ COL) who patrolled the blueline for 1,154 career NHL games with the Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Joshua Norris (No. 19 overall, SJS): His father, Dwayne, was drafted 127th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1990 NHL Draft and appeared in 20 games with the Nordiques and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from 1993-96.

Pierre-Olivier Joseph (No. 23 overall, ARI): His brother, Mathieu, is a forward who was selected 120th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2015 NHL Draft and competed at the 2017 Memorial Cup with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL.

Ryan Poehling (No. 25 overall, MTL): His uncle, Stan Palmer, was drafted 177th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1977 NHL Draft. His older brothers, twins Jack and Nick, played alongside him at St. Cloud State in 2016-17.

Morgan Frost (No. 27 overall, PHI): His father, Andy, is a popular radio host in Toronto and served as the Maple Leafs public address announcer at the Air Canada Centre from 1999-2016.


DAY 1 TRADES

* Arizona traded D Connor Murphy and C Laurent Dauphin to Chicago for D Niklas Hjalmarsson.

* Arizona traded D Anthony DeAngelo and its 1st-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft (7th overall) to NY Rangers for C Derek Stepan and G Antti Raanta.

* Chicago traded LW Artemi Panarin, LW Tyler Motte and NY Islanders’ 6th-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft (previously acquired, 170th overall) to Columbus for LW Brandon Saad, G Anton Forsberg and Columbus’ 5th-round pick in 2018.

* Chicago traded its 1st-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft (26th overall) to Dallas for Anaheim’s 1st-round pick in 2017 (previously acquired, 29th overall) and Dallas’ 3rd-round pick in 2017 (70th overall).

* Columbus traded RW Dante Salituro to Minnesota for C Jordan Schroeder.

* Philadelphia traded C Brayden Schenn to St. Louis for C Jori Lehtera, St. Louis’ 1st-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft (27th overall) and a conditional 1st-round pick in 2018.

* Pittsburgh traded C Oskar Sundqvist and its 1st-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft (31st overall) to St. Louis for RW Ryan Reaves and St. Louis’ 2nd-round pick in 2017 (51st overall).

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

Email Paul anytime at [email protected]