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Wild Draft 2001

Written by: Mike Wolf on 06/22/2001 Subscribe to HF's RSS Feed

A look back at last year's draft and then take a look at this year's draft.

Last year's draft was a good draft and could turn into a great draft if some of the players that didn't make the NHL this year make the team in a few years.

In drafting Marian Gaborik and L. Sekeras it was a good draft already. Maxim Sushinsky was exciting as they come, but he couldn't handle America and went back to Russia. Peter Bartos played well at times and should make the team next year. There 2nd round pick Nick Schultz is exciting and could turn out to be a top 4 defenesman. Mark Cavosie made the world juniors team, and has all the speed in the world. Eric Johansson scored 44 goals but is known more for his defense.

Doug Risebrough drafted 3 players that could play in the NHLin his first of drafting, how many will he draft this year? And that's what I will look at now. Doug Risebrough has many options that he can choose from:

Option 1- Taking a center with the number 6 pick in the draft, The draft is deep with centers and that's the wild's main need. The wild could take any of these players, Stephen Weiss, R.J. Umberger, Alexander Svitov, Mikko Koivu, and Tuomo Ruttu. My guess is Stitov, and Koivu will be gone, so Wiess would be the center of choice.

Option 2- A LW or RW, Stanislav Christov is the only worthy forward taking at this pick. and he should be taken by then.

Option 3- A goaltender, if they take a goaltender the man is Dan Blackburn, Doug Risebrough is in love with this guy, if he's there he's the Wild's number one pick.

Option 4- Taking a defenseman, In taking a defeseman we could go 2 ways offense or defense, Dan Humhuis for the offense and Mike Komisarek for the defense. I think the wild should take Mike Komisarek with this pick. He has to much up side to him.

Option 5- Trading the pick for a couple of first rounders or a lot of 2nd and 3rd rounders. I don't like this idea because we could be giving up a star player for a couple 3rd liners. (and we all know Minnesota has enough of those)

Option 6- Trading some of the players that played on the team last year,Sergi Krivokrasov, Stacy Roast, and Pavel Patera come to mind, but we could only get a fourth rounder at most for any one of these players. If the Wild want to trade Jamie McLennan we could pick up a second rounder for sure.

"With the 6th pick in the 2001 NHL entry draft, the Minnesota Wild select Dan Blackburn"

The team might get Cory Stillman or Kyle Wanvig in the second round, and local boy Tim Jackman in the third round. The Wild have 5 picks of the first 100 picks so they should pick up some solid players.

There are a few reasons why the Wild will take Dan Blackburn with their first pick. A goalie is the most important position in all of sports. Blackburn has all the skills to be a top goalie in the league. He should be ready in a few years when the wild are becoming a playoff team, it's a deep draft and can get offensive help in the later rounds, and the wild have a lot of young centers in there system, Michael Bros, Brian Passmore, Dan Cavanaugh, Shawn Carter, Eric Johansson, Steve Aronson, Rickard Wallin.


Copyright 2001 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.

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