2009 NHL Entry Draft: Overview

The 2009 draft is over and I find myself pleased with most of the decisions made by the organization in Montreal. Thankfully they didn’t do anything stupid like many fans feared. When the draft ended Saturday afternoon my initial gut feeling was that they had a very strong draft. After review and further examination that gut feeling was vindicated. But we should all acknowledge that judging a draft less than a week after it happened is less than ideal and very difficult. We’ll know in four or five years how this draft really turned out. But with that said, I feel like the team added three almost certain NHL players (Duchene, O’Reilly and Elliott) and a few other potential steals.

Before the draft I wanted the team to accomplish several things:

• Find a way to get additional draft picks
• Don’t trade away or do anything stupid with #3 pick
• Build forward prospect depth
• Draft a goaltender
• Don’t reach for “boom or bust” prospects

So how did the Avalanche do in this regard?

Unfortunately they were unable to add additional draft picks. With such a deep draft adding a middle second round pick would have been great. But perhaps because of that teams weren’t willing to get rid of picks as easily as years past. Maybe trading Svatos wasn’t an option they were willing to consider. Either way, it was disappointing to see them sit on their hands and not make moves to acquire additional draft picks.

Thankfully, the Avalanche did not do anything stupid with the #3 pick. Some fans were concerned with comments made by Rick Pracey leading up to the draft where he seemed to indicate the team would not be opposed to moving down. But as I expected that was a bluff, they had Matt Duchene as their guy at #3 for months. A no brainer.

They did not address their need for forward depth as much as I would’ve liked. Yes, they did select centers Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly with their first two picks (both players I am excited about) but the rest of the draft they loaded up on more defensive prospects and goaltending. They didn’t draft a winger in what I feel is clearly an area they need to build depth.

They did address their obvious need for goaltending by drafting a goaltender with both their fifth and sixth round selections. It seemed like a reach when they selected Kieran Millan from Boston University with their 124th selection, especially with projected second round pick Oliver Roy still on the board. But on the flipside there must have been a reason Roy had slipped so far. Still, this was really the only pick all weekend I really was not a huge fan of. They obviously see something in him that others don’t because his potential seems to be as an AHL goaltender. It just seemed like a pick that you could’ve got a little later in the draft. But if they reached for Millan, they did anything but with their sixth round pick. With their 154th selection they drafted Brandon Maxwell. Maxwell was the starter for Team USA at last year's Under 18's, where they captured the bronze medal. He was outstanding in the tournament posting a 4-0-1 record with a .926 save percentage and 2.21 goals against average. Maxwell will be playing hockey next season for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers. A great pick.

The only prospect that could be qualified as a boom or bust pick was above mentioned selection of Kieran Millan. But that is not to say they didn’t have the opportunity to draft these types of players. The obvious “boom or bust” prospect of the draft was sitting there at 33 and thankfully the team passed. Bruising Minnesota center Zach Budish was available and certainly would’ve been a popular choice. He has great upside but is coming off a torn ACL and many criticize his skating ability. Instead the team went with reliable, hard working center Ryan O’Reilly from the Erie Otters. I will get into this selection more later this week but the team opted for a sure thing and a player who fills an obvious need rather than some prospects with more pure offensive talent.

My more in depth pick-by-pick analysis will be out later this week and I will begin posting prospect bios with scouting reports in the coming days.