BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The New York Rangers took an extremely active stance in building their future in the second round of the NHL Entry Draft on Saturday.
The only surprise came in who they took with their first pick of the second round. They took a goalie.
Who the Rangers chose was 17-year-old, Olaf Lindbom, who is of no relation to former Wolf Pack player, Johan Lindbom. The goaltender pick last played with the Djurgarden IF program in Sweden on the J-18 and J-20 teams where he played in both regular season and post season games.
In twenty regular season games, Lindbom posted a 3.10 GAA. In his three post season matches that number escalated to a 5.61 GAA. He played five playoff games with the J-18 team where he logged a 1.20 GAA.
In the third round, the Rangers had two picks. With the first, the team selected Swedish defenseman Jacob Ragnarsson from Almtuna IS (Sweden-Allsvenskan). Ragnarsson is a left-handed shot and played in 47 games where he had four goals and 13 points playing on a team coached by his father, a former NHL’er, Magnus Ragnarsson (San Jose).
Ragnarsson also played one game for the J-20 Elite team.
The Rangers second selection in the third round (88th overall) was also a defenseman. The Rangers selected 18-year-old, Joey Keane, no relation to former Ranger, Mike Keane. The draft pick is a much-needed right-handed shooting defenseman. He played with the Barrie Colts (OHL) where he posted solid numbers 62-12-32-44 and a solid plus-45. Keane was a leader on the team and was an assistant captain.
With the fourth round, the 101st pick overall, the Rangers went with a Swiss defenseman in Nico Gross, who played for the Oshawa Generals (OHL).
In his second season of major junior and playing in 58 games, Gross had 14 points with 10 of them coming on assists.
Gross has international experience as well. On the U-18 Switzerland Team at the IIHF U-18 championships, Gross was the team captain. Physically, he stands 6’1 and weights 195 lbs.
In the fifth round, the Rangers continued their year’s preference for the international by taking a Finnish player in 18-year-old right winger, Lauri Pajuniemi, who plays for the TPS Turlu (Finland-FEL). He posted two goals and seven points in 32 games. He played 14 games for their TPS Turku junior league team where he tallied three goals and 10 points in 14 games.
The Rangers selection in the sixth round, (163rd overall) went to another player from Sweden to draft another 18-year-old defenseman in Simon Kjellberg. He’s the son of former NHL’er, Patrick Kjellberg (Nashville).
The younger Kjellberg skated for Rogle BK J-20 team in 43 games the left handed shot has four goals and nine points.He has a younger brother Joel who is playing BK system.
The Rangers last selection was the next to last player drafted overall. They took Riley Hughes from St. Sebastian’s Prep school (MAPREP) who also played two games with Sioux City (USHL). He is a 2019-20 commit to Northeastern (HE). His father Kent was a Division III player at Middlebury (VT) College.
In summation, the Rangers 2018 picks include six defenseman, three forwards and a goalie .
SELECTIONS BEYOND THE RANGERS
A few other noteworthy draft selections.
In Dallas, the first English born and trained player was taken by the Arizona Coyotes. He is Liam Kirk an 18-year-old left handed shot that went in the seventh round (189th overall). He played last season in a pro league with his hometown team. The team wears an orange jersey and is known as the Sheffield Steelers (England-EIHL).
He was the captain of Great Britain’s U-18 national team. The U-20 team is ranked in the IIHF Division II, Group A and was part of the squad that produced an upset at the IIHF Group A Division II level. They defeated Hungary 3-2 in the gold medal game earning a promotion to Division I, Group A.
Kirk could conceivably play, depending on his training camp, in either Tucson, for an ECHL team -though Arizona is presently without an ECHL affiliate – or hook up with a USHL junior team to develop among his peer group.
One Connecticut-based player got the call at the draft table.
Rearguard Peter Dilaberatore of Salisbury Prep (CT-PREP) was taken by the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the sixth round (180th overall). A left-handed shot. Dilaberatore is 18-years-old and is a Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) commit for 2019-20.
Family relations day was on hand during the draft as well.
Twelve sons of former players and coaches were drafted in Dallas. The first to go was in the second round when Matthias Samuelsson, the son of former Nighthawk and NHL’er, Kjell Samuelsson. He is certainly genetically like his father weighing in at 218 pounds on a 6’4 frame.
Samuelsson is going to join his older brother, Lukas, at Western Michigan (NCHC) next fall. The assistant coach at Western Michigan is former Whaler/Nighthawk/UCONN player, Todd Krygier. This year, Samuelsson played with the US Development program in the USHL. In 23 games, he had four goals and 14 points. Samuelsson played another 58 games with the U-18 national team where he contributed 11 goals and 20 points and 113 PIM.
Then it was Jack Drury’s turn. The son of ex-Whaler, Ted Drury, and the nephew to current Hartford Wolf Pack GM and Rangers Assistant GM, Chris Drury, who was sitting nearby at the Rangers table when the selection was made, was taken by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round (42nd overall). Father and Uncle both played at Fairfield Prep in their youth where their number 18 is retired.
The younger Drury played with Waterloo (USHL). This in his second season there and improved dramatically. He wore the C and scored 24 goals, had 41 assists for 65 points. That was good for fourth best in the league. He also achieved the second longest consecutive game-scoring streak of 23 games in USHL history. The 18-year-old is following in his Dad’s footsteps and heading to Harvard University (ECACHL) in the fall.
In the third round, the first pick (63rd overall) saw Jack McBain, the son of former New Haven Senator and NHL’er Andrew McBain, selected by the Minnesota Wild. The BC bound McBain was drafted by two junior leagues in 2016, the Barrie Colts (OHL) in the first round (20th overall) and Lincoln (USHL) in the seventh round (107th overall).
Tyler Madden, who played at Avon Old Farms several years ago, was next getting chosen in the third round (68th overall) by the Vancouver Canucks. His father John, known for his play in New Jersey, is the head coach of Cleveland (AHL). The younger Madden split last year with the Central Illinois Flying Aces and Tri-City Storm (USHL) and is heading to Northeastern (HE) in the fall.
Riley Sutter went in the third round (93rd overall) to the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals. He is the son of former NHL’er, Ron Sutter. That makes it a complete six pack of the NHL-playing Sutters. They have had at least one son drafted in the NHL for a grand total of 12 Sutters drafted in the NHL. The newest Sutter draftee is also the 11th to play junior hockey in the WHL.
In the final round, the seventh, Krygier, the aforementioned ex-Whaler/Nighthawk/UCONN player, saw his twin sons get selected by two different NHL teams.
Christian Krygier,18 years-of-age, is a left-handed shooting rearguard. Krygier was taken 196th overall by the N.Y. Islanders from the Lincoln Stars (USHL). In 48 games, his team had just had eight assists and 137 PM. He and his brother Cole were drafted by London (OHL) in 2016,but both are University Wisconsin (Big 10) commit for next season.
Cole was taken five spots later 201st overall by the Florida Panthers. He too played with Lincoln. In 58 games he had three goals and 17 points and 107 PIM.
NOTES:
The only player trade of the day came when former Nighthawk, Don Waddell, the President/GM of the Carolina Hurricanes, got Dougie Hamilton and Michael Ferland from Calgary for Elias Lindholm (son of former Nighthawk, Mikael), Noah Hanifin and prospect, Adam Fox.
Premature media reports stated that New Canaan native, and current Montreal captain, Max Pacioretty, was going to San Jose, but he will be filling out of change address card before the NHL free agency opens on July 1st with one year left on his deal.
Two more AHL players have signed for Europe.
Austin Ortega, who split the season equally between San Diego and Utah (ECHL), skates to HC Vaxjo (Sweden-SHL). Meanwhile, Bryce Gervais departs the Chicago Wolves (AHL) to EHC Olten (Switzerland-LNA).
That makes 35 players and 18 teams in the AHL have lost one player so far.
Samuel Morin, who played a lot of the season in Lehigh Valley, signed a three year extension deal with the Flyers for $700K per year one way money,
The Canadiens dealt goalie prospect, Hayden Hawkey, to the Edmonton Oilers for a sixth round pick in the 2019 Draft. Hawkey just graduated from Providence College (HE) where he helped the Friars reach the NCAA East Regional Final before losing to Boston University.
Congrats to the NHL for handling with great humility and care, the honoring of the Humboldt Broncos. In case you missed it, a little over two months after the awful bus crash in Saskatchewan. On Friday, before the draft NHL commissioner Gary Bettman presented the EJ McGuire Award to the team. McGuire, who was the Wolf Pack’s first head coach, passed from an extremely rare form of bone cancer in 2013.
TSN announced the very first home to their 2018-19 SJHL season will be broadcast live September 12th in Humboldt against the Nipawin Hawks the team they were traveling to play in their SJHL playoff series that fateful day. The game will be carried on The NHL Network at 6:30 Eastern time.
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