The Warriors had two players selected in the NHL Draft this past weekend.
Joe Cannata by the Vancouver Canucks – Round 6, No. 173 overall
Vancouver has been on Cannata’s trail since last fall.
Every scout comes to the press box well before faceoff to steal some line charts. I always make sure to nod and give them a hello. After a while, nods turn to conversations and you start talking to some of these guys and you get a feel for who they’re looking at, etc.
Scouts were all over Matt Jones two years ago; it was clear he was gone by February. Vancouver really liked Cannata from the start, so my “prediction” – which was right on the money, by the way – isn’t all that impressive; I had some help.
The Canucks have had success drafting goalies out of Hockey East (there was that Cory fellow at BC a few years ago). Cannata is likely a long-term project for them. It’s all a matter of depth, but Cannata could conceivably still play his entire collegiate career.
The only thing that threatens that is Vancouver’s incredibly thin depth when it comes to goaltending prospects. Julien Ellis was drafted in 2004 and never panned out – he struggles in the AHL. Morgan Clark was drafted last summer and has been, well, really bad in the WHL, posting an abysmal .855 save percentage last season.
But the Canucks did leave Schneider in school for three years, and he is considered their future franchise goalie. A lot may depend on what Vancouver does with current starting netminder Roberty Luongo, who is one of the best in the game. If he walks in free agency, and Schneider steps into the starting role in Vancouver, the Canucks may want Cannata to step in with Manitoba (AHL).
But remember, Schneider was pulled out of BC early and really struggled in his first year as a pro in the AHL. That might also be weighing heavily on Vancouver’s mind.
It does seem as if the Canucks value the development that the college game can do for a player. Cannata got better as the year went along last year.
Kyle Bigos by the Edmonton Oilers – Round 4, No. 99 overall
Bigos was a bit trickier to to project because he wasn’t in a Merrimack uniform last year, so it was tough to have my finger on the pulse as to who was looking at him.
The Oilers have quite a history of drafting NCAA players lately, picking a few Jr. A and Minn-HS players since 2005. However, from what I can tell, not many of them stay four years. A comparable pick to Bigos is Cody Wild, who the Oilers selected out of Providence; Wild stayed three years at PC. In fact, most of the mid-late round picks Edmonton has had in the last four years have stayed in college for three years, so that’s a good barometer in terms of Bigos’ time at Merrimack.
Of course, a sophomore year with 40 points and stellar ‘d’ could change all that in a second.
Bigos is a big kid (6-foot-5, 235 pounds) and will be an immediate presence on the Warriors’ blue line next year. Bigos, along with the returning Fraser Allan, Pat Bowen and Karl Stollery should really anchor the top-4 rotation. Even after that, there is Brandon Sadlowski, who had his best season as a junior, and Adam Ross, who was the best defenseman on the ice more than once last year.
There is also Simon Demers, a promising French-Canadian prospect who will be a RS freshman next season; Demers is a puck-mover.
All that with Cannata as the last line of defense (and a healthy Andrew Braithwaite), and this could be one of the best defensive teams the school has had in the Hockey East era. And remember, this is a program that has set defensive records the last two years in a row.
Mike McMahon