It’s a truism that evaluating an NHL draft takes time. The number generally put forward is something in the five-year range, long enough for the prospects selected to have completed their junior/college/European careers and played a professional season or three. There isn’t a management group in the NHL that doesn’t pay lip service to that idea.
That’s why the NHL emergence of Nino Niederreiter, four years after he was drafted, isn’t a major surprise.
Yet Niederreiter, the fifth overall pick at the 2010 draft, isn’t still playing for the team that selected him so high. That’s because the New York Islanders dealt the 6’2”, 209-pound winger to Minnesota over the summer.
Everybody knows that sometimes top prospects take time. So why would the Islanders move Niederreiter so early in the process? In answering that question, it is important to remember that four years is a long time to wait for a fifth overall draft pick.
The Islanders hoped that Niederreiter would be able to help the team immediately. He got nine NHL games in his first post-draft sea ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
How the Minnesota Wild Stole Nino Niederreiter from the New York Islanders
January 14th, 2014 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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