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Making the Cut for 2009-10
Written by: Al Alven on 10/05/2009 
Los Angeles and St. Louis had led the way in 2008-09 with seven and six first-year players making the team out of training camp, respectively, but no team boasted more than three this year (Colorado, Detroit, LA, NY Rangers, San Jose, and Toronto all with three).
Last season, only two of the 30 teams did not open the season with a rookie on its roster (Buffalo and Colorado). This year, the number jumped to nine teams, with Anaheim, Boston, Calgary, Carolina, Chicago, Minnesota, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis not boasting a freshman.
Headlining the list this year was the quartet already dubbed the "Fabulous Four" -- the top players chosen at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. First overall pick, center John Tavares of the New York Islanders, is this year's most high-profile rookie. Tavares' long-awaited NHL debut comes after the Mississauga, Ontario native racked up 433 points (215 goals, 218 assists) in 247 games over four seasons with the Oshawa Generals and London Knights of the OHL.
He is followed by towering defenseman Victor Hedman of Tampa Bay, and centers Matt Duchene of Colorado and Evander Kane of Atlanta.
Another member of the '09 draft class to make an opening night roster was Colorado's second-round pick, Ryan O'Reilly, who together with Duchene forms a rare duo of 18-year-old pivots on the same team.
Another top draft pick - albeit from two years ago - who made the cut was forward James vanRiemsdyk of Philadelphia. A standout at the University of Hampshire the past two seasons, "JVR" made the Flyers after an outstanding camp/preseason and is expected to contribute right away on the contending team.
Speaking of collegiate players making the jump to the pros, Matt Gilroy, last year's Hobey Baker Award winner as the NCAA's top performer at Boston University, earned a spot on the Rangers roster and will compete for minutes on the Broadway backline.
Three rookie goaltenders made their debuts on opening night, if not in game action then at least in uniform. Seymon Varlamov, fresh off of a dynamic playoff run during which he established himself as the Capitals' starting goalie, is back for his first full season with the team.
Jimmy Howard, still technically a rookie despite having appeared in nine NHL games since the 2005-06 season, will back up Chris Osgood in Detroit. Swedish import Jonas Gustavsson will serve in a similar role behind Vesa Toskala in Toronto.
Below is a complete list of the rookies who made the opening night roster for each NHL team.
Anaheim: None
Atlanta: Evander Kane
Boston: None
Buffalo: Tim Kennedy, Tyler Myers
Calgary: None
Carolina: None
Chicago: None
Colorado: Matt Duchene, T.J. Galiardi, Ryan O'Reilly
Columbus: Nikita Filatov
Dallas: Jamie Benn, Tom Wandell
Detroit: Justin Abdelkader, Jimmy Howard, Ville Leino
Edmonton: Ryan Stone
Florida: Dmitry Kulikov, Shawn Matthias
Los Angeles: Davis Drewiske, Trevor Lewis, Alec Martinez
Minnesota: None
Montreal: Gregory Stewart
Nashville: Teemu Laakso, Mike Santorelli
New Jersey: Nicklas Bergfors, Matt Halischuk
NY Islanders: John Tavares, Joel Rechlicz,
NY Rangers: Artem Anisimov, Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy
Ottawa: Erik Karlsson, Peter Regin
Philadelphia: James vanRiemsdyk
Phoenix: None
Pittsburgh: None
San Jose: Jason Demers, Benn Ferriero, Frazer McLaren
St. Louis: None
Tampa Bay: Victor Hedman, James Wright
Toronto: Jonas Gustavsson, Jay Rosehill, Viktor Stalberg
Vancouver: Sergei Shirokov
Washington: Semyon Varlamov
Copyright 2009 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.
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