When hoping to make a career out of the sport you love, you must step into the most competitive amateur and junior leagues to catch the attention of scouts.
At the first round of the NHL draft on Friday, the WHL and OHL proved to be the two leagues the scouts and pro teams are most impressed with.
The OHL was well represented from the beginning of the night with three of their players (Hall, Seguin, and Gudbranson) picked in the top three draft spots. The WHL was right behind them with the No. 4 through No. 6 picks (Johansen, Niederreiter, and Connolly).
It wasn’t until pick No. 9 by the Minnesota Wild that teams stepped out of the apparent comfort zone of the two above leagues when they picked a European player. Overall, 16 out of the 30 players drafted in the first round were from OHL and WHL teams.
The Portland Winterhawks proved to be the most “popular” drafting pool with two of its players drafted in the first five first round picks.
Center Ryan Johansen was picked up by the Bluejackets in the No. 4 spot. He was ranked No. 10 by Central Scouting in the final rankings.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Melissa Bauer-Herzog
OHL and WHL Dominate First Round of NHL Draft
June 26th, 2010 by Melissa Bauer-Herzog Leave a reply »
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