Draft Day 1 Notes and Observations

By Mark Fischel
Heading into the morning right before the draft, the NCRC was abuzz with many rumors of trades and declarations among pontificating beat writers as to whom their team will be selecting with their picks.

Shane and myself arrived very early in the morning to scope out and claim our spot on the press table, right in the front row! Elation turned to displeasure when we found out our neighbors at the table were all really big men, reducing the space available for us to work. Sitting amongst radio media, Television media, and beat writers for every team, the early morning quickly turned into the rumor pit.

Amongst the rumors that started our day out and quickly got us out of early morning stupor, was the unconfirmed news of Alexie Yashin going to the Islanders, Michael Peca going to Florida for the #4, Doug Weight going to Chicago for Daze, McCarthy, and Mark Bell. Dominik Hasek was rumored to be going to 7 different teams, Valerie Bure going to Chicago and Florida, and finally, Eric Lindros for Federov and Aaron Ward. Of course, most of these never happened, which brings us to……

Official trades of Day 1 of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft

- Ottawa trades C Alexei Yashin to the NY Islanders for the Islanders 1st round pick (2nd overall: Jason Spezza), D Zdeno Chara, and RW Bill Muckalt.

- Toronto trades C Igor Korelev to Chicago for Philadelphia’s 3rd round pick (88th overall: C Nicolas Corbeil)

- Montreal trades it 4th round pick (104th overall) to Chicago for D Stephane Quintal.

- Calgary trades its 1st round pick (11th overall) to Phoenix for its 1st round pick (14th overall) and a return of Calgary’s 2nd round pick (41st overall: C Andrei Tarutukhin)

- Florida trades the rights to C Jiri Dopita to Philadelphia for their 2nd round pick (56th overall:Traded to Calgary, G Andrei Medvedev)

- New Jersey trades St Louis’s 1st round pick (24th overall: D Lukas Krajicek) to Florida for their 2nd round pick (44th overall: C Igor Pohanka) and 2nd round compensatory pick (48th overall: F Thomas Pihlman).

- Calgary trades RW Valeri Bure and C Jason Weimer to Florida in exchange for C Rob Neidermayer and their 2nd round pick (56th overall: G Andrei Medvedev)

- Calgary trades G Fred Brathwaite, C Dan Tkaczuk, LW Sergei Varlamov and its 9th round pick (270th overall) to St. Louis in exchange for G Roman Turek and a 4th round pick (124th overall)

- Ottawa trades its 2nd round pick (60th overall: D Victor Uchevatov) to New Jersey for their 3rd round compensatory pick (81st overall: D Neil Komadoski) and 3rd round pick (94th overall)

- Washington trades their 2nd round pick (61st overall: D Andreas Holmqvist) to Tampa Bay for their 2nd round pick acquired from the Islanders, in the 2002 Entry Draft.

- NY Islanders trades it 3rd round pick (64th overall: D Tomas Malec) to Florida in exchange for for its 4th round pick (101st overall) and a 3rd round pick in the 2002 Entry Draft.

- Minnesota trades a 3rd round pick (79th overall: D Garth Murray) and their 5th round pick (139th overall) to the NY Rangers in exchange for their 3rd round pick (74th overall: D Chris Heid)

- New Jersey returns Phoenix’s 3rd round pick (78th overall: D Beat Schiess-Forster) in exchange for Phoenix’s 4th round pick (112th overall) and their 3rd round pick in the 2002 Entry Draft.

- Phoenix trades D Jyrki Lumme to Dallas in exchange for RW Tyler Bouck.

- Ottawa trades a 3rd round pick (94th overall: RW Eugeni Artukhin) to Tampa Bay in exchange for their 4th round pick (99th overall) and 7th round pick (218th overall).

- Calgary trades D Chris St. Croix to the NY Rangers in exchange for D Burke Henry.

Draft Notes

- Ilja Kovalchuk becomes the first Russian selected 1st overall, and only the 4th European selected with the top pick. Patrick Stefan, Roman Hamrlik, and Mats Sundin were the others.

- The 2001 Entry Draft included 13 European-born players in the first round, just missing tying the record of 15 Europeans selected in the first round from the ’99 and ’00 drafts.

- For the second time in NHL history, two goaltenders went in the top 10 picks. Pascal Leclaire went 8th and Dan Blackburn went 10th. Last years draft saw Rick DiPietro go 1st overall and Brent Krahn go 9th overall.

- Ohio State became the 3rd NCAA college to produce two first round picks, RJ Umberger (16th overall) and Dave Steckel (30th overall). Boston College saw Brooks Orpik (18th overall) and Krys Kolanos (19th overall) in 2000, while Michigan State saw Michael Stewart (13th overall) and Brian Smolinski (21st overall) in 1990.

- Re-entries included Kyle Wanvig to Minnesota (36th overall, 89th in 1999), Mike Zigomanis to Carolina (46th overall, 64th in 1999), Fedor Fedorov to Vancouver (66th overall, 182nd in 1999) and Craig Anderson to the Blackhawks (73rd overall, 77th in 1999)

Family Ties

Mikko Koivu – Brother of Canadiens Saku Koivu.

Tuomo Ruutu – Brother of Canucks Jarkko Ruutu and Senators prospect Mikko.

Marcel Goc – Brother of Devils prospect Sasha Goc

Brandon Nolan – Son of former Buffalo coach Ted Nolan.

Neil Komadoski – Son of former Kings and Blues player Neil Komadoski Sr.

Drew Fata – Brother of Flames prospect Rico Fata.

Until tommorow, this is Mark Fischel and Shane Malloy…..