Draft Day 2006

It was the first draft day of the new NHL and it did not disappoint. In a bit of a surprise there were no trrades in the first 15 picks, despite a ton of speculation of teams trading up. The 1st 15 picks I have listed below...

1 St. Louis D - Eric Johnson US National 2 Pittsburgh C - Jordan Staal Peterborough (OHL) 3 Chicago F - Jonathan Toews North Dakota (WCHA) 4 Washington C - Nicklas Backstrom Brynas (SWE) 5 Boston C - Phil Kessel Minnesota (WCHA) 6 Columbus C - Derick Brassard Drummondville (Q) 7 NY Islanders RW - Kyle Okposo Des Moines (USHL) 8 Phoenix C - Peter Mueller Everett (WHL)
9 Minnesota C - James Sheppard Cape Breton (QMJHL) 10 Florida C - Michael Frolik Kladno (CZE)
11 Los Angeles G - Jonathan Bernier Lewiston (QMJHL) 12 Atlanta C - Bryan Little Barrie (OHL)
13 Toronto F - Jiri Tlusty Kladno (CZE) 14 Vancouver RW - Mikel Grabner Spokane (WHL) 15 Tampa Bay G - Riku Helenius Ilves Jr. (FIN)

** Prediction: Besides the top 5 picks, who should all be solid players, the dark horse in the draft I think was Mikel Grabner from Austria. In the new NHL he could be a scoring machine!