Green with envy

[Sin Bin]

Very good article comish. Just wanted to point out one little fact. Green was not the Caps first selection that year as they won the lottery and got Ovechkin 1st overall. He actually wasn\'t even their second pick in the first round as they drafted Jeff Shultz (27th overall) 2 spots ahead of Green at 29. While the Ovechkin pick was pretty much a no brainer (although Malkin was a close second) that 1st round draft is starting to look pretty good for McPhee and his scouts. Jeff Shultz is riding a 3 game goal scoring streak and his game is coming around slowly (as most big defenders do).

[The Comish]

Good pick up! I even had a copy of the 2004 entry draft. I should have changed the wording to say he was taken in the first round by the Caps. That\'s what happens when you leave an article until the last minute!

I had a look at the defensemen of the 2004 entry draft. Even though it\'s too early to tell who were busts, we are starting to separate prospects from NHL players.

Cam Barker, taken 3rd overall, in his best junior season had very similar numbers to Green. Of course Barker is a couple of inches taller and 20 pounds heavier and may have more raw talent than Green.

Ladislav Smid went 9th (Ana), Boris Valabik 10th (Atl), A.J. Thelen 12th (Min). Then came the best D pick so far; Andrej Meszaros 23rd (Ott). After that came Schultz 27th (Was), Mark Fistric 28th (Dal), Mike Green 29th and the last pick of the first round was Andy Rogers (TB ).

Outside of the first round there are two defensemen who stand out: Chris Campoli taken in the 7th round (227 overall) and Mark Streit in the 9th round (262 overall).

Of course Ovechkin and Malkin headline the draft, but some others will be making names for themselves in the very near future:

Stafford 13th overall
Radulov 15th
Zajac 20th
Wolski 21st

Others from the class of \'04 already have great names: Clayton Stoner, Josh Disher, Karri Ramo, Yutaka Fukufuji and Grant Clitsome come to mind.

[Sin Bin]

The Comish wrote:

Others from the class of \'04 already have great names: Clayton Stoner, Josh Disher, Karri Ramo, Yutaka Fukufuji and Grant Clitsome come to mind.

Now there are some names to be added to the list of great hockey names such as Bruce Shoebottom, Darren Rumble & John Winstanley.

[angus]

another 3-point game tonight.

[ultrawhiteness]

calgary boy doing us all proud. we build good d.