Top Prospects await draft day in Montreal
It’s been an anxious few weeks for some of the Canadian Hockey League’s top rated prospects for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
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It’s easier for players to put off thoughts of the draft during the hockey season when they can focus on helping their team win. But when the CHL season ended last month with the Windsor Spitfires winning the Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Quebec, all thoughts quickly turned to this weekend in Montreal.
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For Jared Cowen, the wait must have seemed like a lifetime.
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The big defenceman for the Spokane Chiefs was among the CHL’s top rated prospects after helping the Chiefs win the Memorial Cup a year ago, but his sophomore season was cut short when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in January.
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Despite missing the final four months of the season, Cowen is still one of the CHL’s top rated defencemen and expects to hear his name called early in the draft on Friday (7:00 p.m. Eastern on TSN).
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“I hope I made an impression on them (scouts) when I was still playing, so I’m not too worried about it,” Cowen told NHL.com. “They can always refer back to games to see before or tapes they have. They know what kind of player I am, they’ve seen me before. They know my style and what I’m like.”
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John Tavares of the London Knights is the top rated North American prospect and the odds-on favourite to be the first overall pick of the New York Islanders while Matt Duchene of the Brampton Battalion, Evander Kane of the Vancouver Giants and Brayden Schenn of the Brandon Wheat Kings are also considered top-five picks. Cowen, Zach Kassian of the Peterborough Petes, Dmitry Kulikov of the Drummondville Voltigeurs, Scott Glennie of the Wheat Kings and Carter Ashton of the Lethbridge Hurricanes are also players that could be among the first 10 players selected on Friday.
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For Tavares, the wait has also felt like a long one. The Oakville, ON native played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League first with the Oshawa Generals and then completing this season in London. He was granted exceptional status to play in the OHL as a 15-year-old and with his late September birthday, he wasn’t eligible for the draft until this year.
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Tavares may become the third straight player from the OHL to be selected fort overall following Patrick Kane of the Knights in 2007 and Steven Stamkos of the Sarnia Sting last June. Canadian Hockey League players have been selected first overall in five of the past seven drafts.
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Meanwhile, Kulikov, Tyson Barrie of the Kelowna Rockets and Ryan Ellis of the Windsor Spitfires have had the shortest wait among the top prospects since the end of their seasons. Kulikov helped the Voltigeurs advance to the semi-final game of the MasterCard Memorial Cup while Ellis and Barrie met in the championship game.
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“Whenever you’re thinking about it, it’s pretty cool, knowing that you have a chance to be drafted in the NHL, there might be a team out there for you,” said Ellis, who helped the Spitfires win the Memorial Cup for the first time in team history. “It’s an awesome experience to go through; just growing up as a kid and finally realizing the level you’ve gotten to, the opportunities you have to continue your NHL career and your hockey career. It’s just a lot of fun being a part of this.”
Photo of Jared Cowen by Aaron Bell/CHL