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2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Twelfth Overall

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall:  Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall:  Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)
9th Overall: Brayden Schenn, Ottawa Senators (5)
10th Overall: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Edmonton Oilers (6)
11th Overall: Ryan Ellis, Nashville Predators (11)

The Nashville Predators retain their original selection at 11th overall by the slimmest of margins in our reader poll. At the time of writing, Ellis edged out Dmitry Orlov by just one vote and earned just 22.6% of the total vote in one of the most wide-open polling sessions thus far in this series.

Drafted out of OHL Windsor, Ellis would remain in junior hockey for two more seasons to great success, recording a phenomenal 100 points in 58 games from the point in the 2010-11 campaign, winning CHL Defenseman of the Year and Player of the Year honors. He turned pro the following year, splitting the season between Nashville and AHL Milwaukee but losing his rookie designation by playing 32 games. In fact, Ellis wouldn’t become a full-time fixture in the Nashville lineup until the 2013-14 campaign, and it would be another few years until he cemented himself as a top-four fixture.

He did eventually get there, though, averaging over 20 minutes per game for the first time as a 25-year-old in the 2015-16 season. Once he did, however, he solidified himself as a premier two-way talent, routinely putting himself on pace for at least 40 points in a full season and logging significant time on both special teams units. He played a large role in Nashville’s run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, skating 23:26 per game and recording 13 points in 22 contests and a +4 rating.

Unfortunately, Ellis would run into significant injury trouble in the campaigns that followed. While Nashville captured the President’s Trophy in 2018 thanks to a spectacular 117-point campaign, Ellis was only available for the latter half of the campaign after missing the first 38 games due to a knee injury. He would play a full 82 games in 2018-19, but he missed 20 games with an upper-body injury in both 2019-20 and 2020-21 before they traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers the following summer. Ellis’ injury troubles, now well-documented, continued with the Flyers – after recording five points through his first four games, he exited the lineup with an injury later revealed to affect his psoas muscle. He has not played since, and Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones doesn’t believe he’ll ever return.

Because of that, Ellis’ 566 career NHL games aren’t all that much compared to his 2009 peers. Still, his 275 career points rank sixth among defenders from the draft class, and his +116 career plus-minus rating is fourth among all 2009-drafted skaters.

Now, after picking Hedman first overall in our redraft, the Islanders are on the clock again with the 12th overall pick, one they acquired from the Minnesota Wild on draft day after a series of pick swaps involving the Columbus Blue Jackets. They selected defenseman Calvin de Haan, who’s gone on to have a respectable NHL career and is still active, but he likely won’t be the pick in our next reader poll. Which brings us to the question: out of the candidates remaining, who would you award to the Islanders at 12th overall in our 2009 redraft? Vote in our poll below:

If you can’t access our poll above, click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Eleventh Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall:  Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall:  Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)
9th Overall: Brayden Schenn, Ottawa Senators (5)
10th Overall: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Edmonton Oilers (6)

PHR readers have opted to give the Oilers an addition on defense rather than offense with the 10th overall pick this time around, awarding them Ekman-Larsson with 30% of the vote. In doing so, the original top seven selections are now off the board, with Kane and Ekman-Larsson, our biggest fallers so far, dropping four selections each.

Unlike many other defenders, Ekman-Larsson’s development was not a slow burn. His best seasons came before his 25th birthday, consistently earning Norris Trophy consideration while holding down a top-pair role for the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes. He had captured a top-four role before his 21st birthday, playing in all 82 games during his sophomore 2011-12 season and posting 32 points while averaging over 22 minutes per game.

However, after four more seasons of producing like a top-flight defender, Ekman-Larsson began to show signs of decline. His point production waned slightly, and while his combined -53 rating between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons is much more a reflection of the team around him, his possession numbers were not nearly up to par with the more dominant two-way play he’d displayed in the years prior. The Coyotes named him captain in 2018 after the retirement of Shane Doan, but his play continued to slowly dwindle until the organization cut ties in 2021, dealing him, along with Conor Garland and other ancillary pieces, to the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks bought out the remainder of his eight-year, $66MM extension signed with Arizona in 2018 this summer, resulting in the largest non-compliance buyout in league history.

The 32-year-old defender will now try and turn things around nearly as far away from Vancouver as you can get in the NHL, signing a one-year, $2.25MM deal with the Florida Panthers in free agency. He recorded two goals and 22 points in 54 games for the Canucks last season, alongside a -24 rating and a career-worst -3% relative Corsi For at even strength.

Despite his downfall, Ekman-Larsson’s peak years with the Coyotes were much better than any defender the Oilers had to offer at the time, and drafting him could have easily changed the team’s trajectory throughout the early 2010s. Of course, that would mean losing out on Connor McDavid and the first-overall pick in 2015.

Now, we move to the 11th overall selection in 2009: the Nashville Predators. They’re likely happy with their original choice, Ryan Ellis, as he contributed in a top-four role for the better part of 562 games with the franchise before a psoas muscle injury cut his career short after a deal to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2021. However, do you think there’s a better player not yet taken in our series? Vote in the poll below:

If you can’t access the poll above, you can click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Seventh Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)

Rather than have history repeat itself by selecting Oliver Ekman-Larsson with the sixth pick, PHR readers instead opted to give the Coyotes a center with nearly 30% of the votes cast coming in for Kadri.

It took some time for Kadri to find his footing in the NHL but a breakout performance in the lockout-shortened 2012-23 campaign saw him secure a full-time role.  That year, he posted a 0.93 points per game average and it looked like Toronto had found a true impact center, a vacancy they had dealt with for several seasons by that time with the likes of Mikhail Grabovski, Tyler Bozak, and Matt Stajan playing big minutes in the previous seasons.

However, it took a while for Kadri to really take off as he wasn’t able to produce like a true top-line middleman with consistency.  In fact, it wasn’t until Auston Matthews arrived in 2016-17 that Kadri was able to reach the 30-goal mark, a milestone he then reached in back-to-back years.  Unfortunately for Toronto, discipline issues became too much of a concern and in the 2019 offseason, he was traded to Colorado with Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot as part of the package coming the other way.  Barrie lasted one season in Toronto before signing with Edmonton while Kerfoot held a middle-six role for each of the last four years and signed with Arizona last month.

Meanwhile, with the Avs, Kadri started slow, recording just 30 goals in his first two seasons combined, spanning 107 games.  But in 2021-22, he had a career year, exploding for 87 points; his previous career-high was only 61.  He then followed that up with an impressive playoff performance, notching 15 points in 16 games while helping lead Colorado to the Stanley Cup.

That made Kadri one of the more sought-after players last summer and while it took a while for Calgary to create enough cap room to sign him, a seven-year, $49MM deal eventually got done.  Year one didn’t go so well (as was the case for many Flames) as his production dipped to 56 points.  That’s still the third-best single-season mark of his career but they were undoubtedly hoping for a bit more from him as Calgary ultimately missed the playoffs.  With six years left on that contract, he should be a fixture in their lineup for a while.

While Ekman-Larsson was a franchise fixture in the desert for more than a decade, they spent a lot of that time also searching for a center and it certainly is interesting to wonder what might have been had Kadri been the pick for them.

In the meantime, we move on to Toronto with the seventh selection.  Obviously, their original pick (Kadri) is off the board so they’ll be getting someone new here.  Who should they take?  Make your selection using the ballot below.

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Free Agent Profile: Zack Kassian

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Zack Kassian had one of the lowest-scoring seasons we’ve seen in quite some time as he put up just two goals last season in 51 games with the Arizona Coyotes. This prompted Arizona to buy out the 32-year-old forward prior to free agency in a move that made sense, given the lack of production from the former 13th overall pick. Kassian lasted just a single season in the desert and never really seemed comfortable playing on a very bad Coyotes team.

This is Kassian’s first crack at free agency and unfortunately for him he is coming off a season in which he posted career lows in many statistical categories. As mentioned earlier, he had just two points on the season, and posted a -18. His hitting was way down, which is one of the facets of the game he typically excels in. Kassian threw just 32 hits in 51 games last season, a dramatic drop from the 158 he threw the year prior with the Edmonton Oilers in 58 games. It’s not uncommon for physical players to see a decline in their 30’s, but the decline generally isn’t that steep.

Kassian deserves a ton of credit for battling several off-ice issues and resurrecting his career when it looked like it could be in trouble. At one point in 2015 Kassian bounced from Vancouver to Montreal to Edmonton in less than six months and looked like he could be out of the league. But, to his credit, he turned it around and even managed to post career highs in 2019-20 when he potted 15 goals to go along with 19 assists in 59 games. This run of good play prompted the Oilers to sign Kassian to a four-year contract extension in January 2020 worth $3.2MM annually. Unfortunately for the club and the player, Kassian struggled through the pandemic shortened 2020-21 season and hasn’t regained his footing ever since. Over the past three seasons combined Kassian has posted just 10 goals and 16 assists in 136 games, a drastic decline from his 2019-2020 numbers. The other issue that will work against Kassian is that he is strictly a 5 on 5 player. He has never been a regular contributor on the power play and hasn’t been a regular part of a penalty kill since 2018-19.

In a normal cap world, Kassian would have played out the final season of his contract with a salary that is well below his cap hit but given how poor his play was Arizona opted to move on and spread out that cost over two seasons.

Despite his struggles last season, it is still likely that Kassian will get an opportunity when training camps open in a few weeks. Teams are always looking for physical players, especially ones who can take a regular shift and will play under a reduced cap hit. Kassian checks all those boxes, which is a good indication that someone will give the Windsor, Ontario native a look to see if he still has anything to offer.

Stats

2022-23: 51 GP, 2-0-0, -18 rating, 50 PIMS, 25 shots, 37.5% faceoffs, 38.4% CF, 9:09 ATOI
Career: 661 GP, 92-111-203, -55 rating, 913 PIMS, 798 shots, 31.0% faceoffs, 48.2% CF, 12:37 ATOI

Potential Suitors

Kassian is still chasing hockey’s ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup. And after spending a dozen years in the league, he would probably prefer to spend his time chasing a championship with a Stanley Cup contender. However, given his status as a fringe NHLer at the moment, he likely won’t have the opportunity to be choosey. That doesn’t mean he won’t have a suitor, but it could mean that he would be playing on a weaker team, or a team that has a borderline chance of making the playoffs. But anything can happen, and even players that are past their best before date can catch on with good teams when it is least expected.

Let’s start out West in Edmonton. Kassian found his game almost eight years ago when it looked like his career was hanging on by a thread. It was there that he turned his intensity and physicality into effective NHL minutes on a team that was competitive for most of his run there. Kassian brought an edge that the Oilers severely lacked and gave them an option that they could plug almost anywhere in their lineup. But that was then, and this is now, and Kassian isn’t that player anymore. His body has broken down, as per normal with physical players when they hit the wrong side of 30. But Kassian could still help Edmonton, and it feels like the Oilers are always looking for bodies up front. Kassian couldn’t play in Edmonton’s top-9, but he could be a could fill-in for their fourth line if they aren’t able to find help between now and the start of the regular season.

Sticking with the West, the Colorado Avalanche were riddled with injuries last season. So much so that it looked like they might miss the playoffs entirely, however, a late-season rally secured their spot in the round of 16. But it was there that they were physically dominated by the Seattle Kraken and ousted in an exhilarating seventh game. The Avalanche were one of the lightest-hitting teams in the NHL last season, which on the surface isn’t the big of a deal given how skilled they are. However, the regular season and the playoffs are two different things and Colorado didn’t have an answer for Seattle in the postseason and really missed some of the grit they lost when Nazim Kadri departed last summer. Now, Zack Kassian is far from the answer to that problem, but he can offer Colorado something that is in short supply in their group, and it wouldn’t cost them more than a contract slot and a league minimum contract.

Finally, in the East, one team that could use a depth physical forward is the Buffalo Sabres. Coincidently, the team that took Kassian in the first round of the NHL entry draft some 14 years ago. The Sabres have a competent fourth line at the moment with Tyson Jost centering Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons, but injuries happen (see Jack Quinn), and Kassian could provide insurance to their Sabres if they were to lose any additional depth up front. The Sabres were also a team that didn’t throw the body around all that often-last year and with the talent that they have up front, they could likely place Kassian into a role that wouldn’t overextend him and could allow him to perhaps resurrect his career once again.

Projected Contract

Kassian enters free agency at a time when his free agent stock is very damaged. And while he has his shortcomings, he still offers a rare combination of physicality mixed with a bit of skill and could find success when he is sheltered in the right situation.

At this point in his career Kassian would be lucky to get a one-way contract for the league minimum of $775K. The most likely outcome for him will be a PTO with a team that is looking to add a 13th forward that offers some sandpaper and can chip in on the fourth line when a regular falls out of the lineup. A role like that would allow Kassian to play to his strengths and would offer longer windows of recovery for an aging player who has been banged up from years of throwing his body around with reckless abandon.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Peter Holland Signs PTO With Colorado Avalanche

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Peter Baugh of The Athletic is reporting that former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Peter Holland is attempting to make a comeback with the Colorado Avalanche. Baugh reports that Holland will be trying to return to the NHL after not playing hockey anywhere last season.

Holland last played professionally in the Swedish Hockey League for Djurgardens IF. He struggled offensively, posting just six assists as he cut his season short and played in just 15 games.

Holland hasn’t dressed in an NHL game since 2017-18 when he was a member of the New York Rangers. He struggled mightily that season as he posted just a goal and three assists in 23 games while playing in a bottom-six role. He then spent time in the AHL and Sweden before eventually landing in the KHL where he played for two seasons as a member of Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg.

Holland will be a long shot to make a very talented Avalanche team. He will be fighting an uphill battle after sitting out for a season and spending a half-decade outside of the NHL. But he is a talented player, while he never reached the level scouts thought he would when he was selected 15th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2009 NHL entry draft, he did put up several solid seasons as a member of the Maple Leafs.

Holland will join the likes of Nathan Beaulieu (Hurricanes), Alex Chiasson (Bruins), and Brandon Sutter (Oilers) who are all hoping to convert PTOs into NHL contracts for next season.

Edmonton Oilers Make Changes To Scouting Staff

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The Edmonton Oilers announced today that they have made several changes to their scouting staff as the team gears up for training camp. The club has named Rick Pracey as Director of Amateur Scouting while mutually parting ways with Tyler Wright.

The 52-year-old Pracey has been an amateur scout with the Philadelphia Flyers since 2014 and brings over 20 years of scouting experience to Edmonton. He has previously worked as a Director of Amateur Scouting with the Colorado Avalanche, a role he served in from 2008-14 during which time the team selected Tyson Barrie, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan O’Reilly, and Matt Duchene.

A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Pracey’s professional playing career was short-lived as he played college hockey in Canada for both the University of Windsor and Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as a one-year stint in the UHL. After his playing career was over, Pracey joined the Avalanche in 2001 in an amateur scouting role and built his career from there.

For Tyler Wright, he moves on after just over four years with the Oilers. The 50-year-old came over to Edmonton in July 2019 along with Ken Holland after working alongside Holland with the Detroit Red Wings for six seasons. He served as Director of Amateur Scouting for all four years and was in the same role with the Red Wings for over six years.

It will be interesting to see where he lands given that the move was a mutual one for Wright and the Oilers. Wright’s work likely went by the wayside this year as the Oilers drafted just three players in June’s NHL entry draft after trading away picks in the Mattias Ekholm and Kailer Yamamoto trades.

College Defenseman Will Francis Suffers Cancer Relapse

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In sad news, University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs defenseman Will Francis has announced via the teams official Twitter page that he has had a relapse of cancer that he has battled since March 2020. Francis released the statement earlier today that he had a relapse of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia that was discovered during a routine post-recovery checkup. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

Francis first discovered the cancer back in March 2020 during the height of the pandemic when a series of blood tests revealed that his white blood cell count was almost 20 times higher than normal. This result indicated that Francis had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which he battled for 848 days until July 2022, at which time he completed chemotherapy.

Francis heroically returned last season, dressing in 28 games for the Bulldogs posting a single assist and a -1 rating with 22 PIM. He is a former sixth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks from the 2019 NHL entry draft and was a standout stay-at-home defenseman with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL prior to being drafted.

Although he is once again going through a harrowing experience, Francis appears positive and optimistic about the future. He states in the release that he expects to be back on the Minnesota-Duluth campus this upcoming January and hopes to be on the ice with his teammates at the same time.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Second Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

Earlier in the week, we kicked off the 2009 Take Two series by polling PHR readers on their pick for first overall with the benefit of hindsight. Defenseman Victor Hedman jumped up to claim the number-one spot by a comparatively slim margin, capturing 53% of the vote. In past years, the choice has been rather clear, with PHR voters settling on the draft class’ best player by scores of 70% or more.

Now with Hedman off the board to the New York Islanders at first overall, John Tavares remains on the board, with the Tampa Bay Lightning picking at number two. At the time of the draft, there was no question about whether Tavares would fall. He was one of the few players granted exceptional status into the OHL as a 15-year-old and, given he was only five days away from being eligible for the 2008 draft, Tavares already had four full seasons of junior hockey under his belt with two 100-plus point seasons to show for it.

While the circumstances of Tavares’ departure in free agency from the Islanders for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2018 have soured the fanbase’s opinion on his time with the team, he’s inarguably one of the most talented players in team history and was the cornerstone behind their first-round playoff win in 2016, ending a decades-long streak without a series victory. The team’s captain for five seasons ended up with 621 points in 669 games as an Islander and ranks fifth in team history in Hockey Reference’s point shares system.

Among his 2009 peers, he currently sits as the all-time leader in goals, assists and points and is the only one with more than 1,000 career NHL games under his belt. Despite that, Tavares hasn’t taken home any major awards like Hedman – although Tavares was a Hart Trophy finalist in 2013 and 2015 at just 22 and 24 years old. If he had fallen to Tampa for whatever reason, may they have won more Stanley Cups with this core with Tavares in the fold along with Steven Stamkos?

That’s what we’re asking you today, PHR readers. Will Tavares fall yet another spot in your hindsight-influenced 2009 draft ranking, or will the Lightning select a second franchise center to complement Stamkos, who they selected first overall just one year prior? Vote in the poll below:

Click here to vote if the poll doesn’t display.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: First Overall Pick

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Hindsight is fantastic, allowing us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

As we find ourselves amidst the summer lull, it’s the perfect time to reflect on times gone by – the strategies that bore fruit and those that missed the mark. This sentiment resonates even with draft picks – where some early selections have blossomed into the cornerstones of their respective franchises, while others fell short of the lofty expectations. Having delved into the drafts of 2006, 2007, and 2008 in the past, it’s now an opportune moment to embark on a similar journey through a new NHL redraft series, focusing on the class of 2009.

The draft pool from this year stands out as notably robust, featuring an impressive tally of 39 players (and the count is ongoing) who have graced the NHL ice for a minimum of 500 games. Within this assembly, one can spot All-Star performers and, potentially, a small handful of players destined for the esteemed corridors of the Hall of Fame in the years to come. Conversely, a less fortunate facet also emerges, as five first-rounders failed to hit the century mark, keeping them out of the picture in the forthcoming series.

During the upcoming weeks, as we anticipate the commencement of training camps, we will delve into the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. In this quest, we invite the PHR community to make their choices, armed with the hindsight of each player’s career trajectory. A roster of players will be presented, and we will continuously update the first round as the selection process unfolds.

In the 2009 draft, the New York Islanders retained the first overall pick through a lottery win, granting them the privilege of making the top selection. At this pivotal juncture, the team confronted a crucial decision: opt for a cornerstone center or a cornerstone defenseman, much like the Tampa Bay Lightning the year prior. John Tavares and Victor Hedman emerged as the consensus top two prospects, with general manager Garth Snow looking to get the team back to relevance as quickly as possible after finishing last in their division for two consecutive seasons. Ultimately, the Islanders chose the former, and Tavares certainly became a cornerstone piece for them, leading the draft in games played (1,029) and in all major scoring categories. It’s worth noting that Hedman, though, would’ve been a very fair pick with hindsight in mind, as he’s manned a formidable Lightning blueline to four Stanley Cup Finals throughout his tenure and leads all 2009-drafted defenders in scoring by a wide margin. Armed with retrospective wisdom, the question arises: Did the Islanders’ decision to take Tavares give them the best shot at success before he departed for the Toronto Maple Leafs in free agency in 2018, or would Hedman get the team closer to a championship by now?

With the first pick of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, who should the New York Islanders select? Make your voice heard below.

App users, click here to vote.

Buffalo Sabres Sign Zach Benson To ELC

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The Buffalo Sabres announced today that they’ve signed their 2023 first-round pick Zach Benson to an entry-level three-year contract. Benson was the Sabres’ top selection at 13th overall in last month’s NHL Entry Draft and was seen by some scouts as one of the top playmakers in the entire draft. Benson’s ELC will pay him an NHL salary of $855K to go along with a $95K signing bonus. He will carry an annual cap hit of $950K at the NHL level, and should he play in the minors, he would receive a salary of $82,500.

The 18-year-old forward dressed in 60 games this past season with the Winnipeg ICE of the WHL posting 36 goals and 62 assists while finishing the season +68. The native of Chilliwack, British Columbia, set career highs in every offensive category and finished third in scoring with 98 points. Benson had incredible chemistry with another Sabres prospect, Matt Savoie, who was drafted by Buffalo with the number nine pick just one year ago. Savoie and Benson led the ICE this past season, posting a combined 193 points while leading both the power-play and penalty-kill units.

Benson turned a lot of heads at the Sabres development camp just three weeks ago, and in an article from The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn, he wondered if Benson was already the Sabres’ top prospect. There were some scouts who were surprised to see him slip to the 13th pick, and Fairburn wondered if he is a star in the making for Buffalo.

While scouts were always impressed with Benson’s puck skills, there was always the underlying concern about his size. Benson stands just 5-foot-10 and weighs around 170 pounds, so it is possible that his puck skills might be impeded when he eventually plays against bigger and stronger players. However, Benson has plenty of time to fill out his frame and should be able to develop more strength on the puck over time.

Benson’s entry-level deal was always something that was going to happen, and now his attention will turn to cracking the Sabres NHL lineup. It’s something that could happen sooner than later if he continues to develop the way he has recently.

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