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The host team is often expected to do something, anything, to please their fans on Day 1 of an Entry Draft. Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford attempted to deliver that by trading the Hurricanes eighth and the 59^th overall picks to the Columbus Blue Jackets for their fourth overall selection. The deal hinged on the condition that Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Cameron Barker were not available at fourth, which they were not, so the Blue Jackets agreed and opened the door for Rutherford to continue to build his dream first line, one year and one player at a time.

 

Andrew Ladd, LW (1985-12-12)

Round 1, 4^th overall – Calgary (WHL)

6’2”, 200 lbs

 

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
2002-03	Coquitlam (BCHL)	58	15	40	55	61
2003-04	Calgary (WHL)	71	30	45	75	119

 

The Hurricanes decided over a month ago that Andrew Ladd was definitely their man, but they also knew that there was no chance he would fall to their first round pick at eighth. Rutherford began negotiations with Columbus GM Doug MacLean, knowing that the price to move up to the top three would be too high, and the deal to get the Hurricanes the fourth overall pick was concluded the night before the draft.

 

Rutherford was quite pleased to pick the No. 1 ranked North American skater for the second consecutive year (Eric Staal in 2003 was the first), saying, “Players like Andrew Ladd, those are the type of players when you get in the playoffs and go for your good runs that are going to go the wall for you.”

 

“Ladd’s character is just impeccable. He’s a leader,” added Hurricanes Director of Amateur Scouting Sheldon Ferguson. “In Calgary they talk about him being like Darryl Sutter. Boy, if he’s half as good as Darryl Sutter, we’re in good shape.”

 

For Ladd’s part, he had an inkling of what was happening. “I'd heard a few things [about Carolina’s interest]. I wasn't 100 percent sure, but I was glad to see them move up [to fourth],” said the WHL’s leading rookie scorer. “I would have been happy to go anywhere. I think the first thing we wanted was an opportunity and I think that Carolina is a great place to have that opportunity to play.”

 

In an interview with Hockey’s Future in March, Ladd summed himself up as a player in this way: “A tough power forward who can drive to the net and get into the corners. I’ve got pretty good vision and I can always see my teammates. I pretty much have a very solid all-round game. My defense could be picked up a bit at times, though.” And that is essentially how scouts evaluate him as well.

 

An NHL scout told Hockey’s Future before the draft regarding the 18-year-old from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, “Ladd can either set it up or he can score. He has a lot of attack. He gets across the blueline and the puck is always going at the net, it might not go there directly but everything with him is geared to going to the net. He’s an offensive player because he creates offense.”

 

He’s known for being strong on his skates, difficult to move and defend against, especially 1-on-1, with all-around offensive skills, both scoring and playmaking. Ladd generates offense for his line mates and is an excellent forechecker, often creating turnovers to get his team back on offense.

 

Statistically, it was also an excellent year for the WHL rookie. He was tied for 12^th in overall scoring and was the leading scorer among rookies. Ladd was tied for third in short handed goals with 5, and he also chipped in with 7 power play goals for the Hitmen. He also led the WHL in plus/minus with a rating of +39. His 1.06 points per game for the regular season dipped only slightly to 1.00 in the playoffs where he had 1 goal and 6 assists in 7 games.

 

And then there are the intangibles and elements of character that don’t show up in stats. For instance, Ladd is a physical, unselfish player who stands up for his teammates. Ranked second by the CSS at the mid-term, Ladd worked even harder to make it to first overall for North American skaters for the final ranking.

 

Ladd might not be the next Lemieux, as some have labelled first overall selection Ovechkin, but many expect him to be the next Brendan Shanahan or Gary Roberts. And that’s what Rutherford and the Hurricanes were banking on when they gave up their two draft picks to select Ladd.

 

Hurricanes fans can officially begin salivating over thoughts of Ladd with Staal as his center when the next season eventually begins. And for Ladd, he hopes for the same after playing Junior B two years ago, Junior A last season, WHL, and then, possibly, in the NHL next. “I've seen him (Staal) play a few times and he's an amazing player. I have a chance to hopefully grow into a line with him,” Ladd said at the draft.

Justin Peters, G (1986-8-30)

Round 2, 38^th overall – Toronto (OHL)

6’0”, 209 lbs

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	W	L	T	GAA	Sv%	SO
2002-03	Toronto (OHL)	23	6	11	1	3.12	.905	0
2003-04	Toronto (OHL)	53	30	16	6	2.65	.910	4

 

Most teams take at least one goalie in every draft, but if the Hurricanes were to select a goalie at all it was expected to come on Day 2 with the organization so strong between the pipes. The Hurricanes either hold the rights to, or have under contract: Cam Ward, Rob Zepp, Kevin Nastiuk, Antii Jokela, Craig Kowalski, Daniel Manzato and Daniel Boisclair. Despite that depth, with a couple potential NHL’ers among them, the Canes took the last of the top echelon goalies available in the 2004 Entry Draft with the 38^th overall pick.

 

Peters had a superb season with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, falling a little short of David Shantz and the Mississauga IceDogs in six games in the OHL Eastern Finals, perhaps cementing Shantz above Peters in the minds of most scouts. However, both had similar numbers in the regular season and playoffs, but Shantz was also a rookie while Peters just completed his second year.

 

Peters finished the regular season with a 2.65 GAA and .910 save percentage with the second highest win total in the league at 30 in 53 appearances, where 6 of those were ties. In the playoffs, Peters picked up his play and had the second best GAA with a 2.00 mark, and he was tied for the third best save percentage at .922. He also had 4 playoff shutouts, just one behind playoff leader Shantz.

 

“There were four or five goalies who went ahead of Justin, but we put him right in the class with any of them,” said Ferguson at the draft. “This kid is as good of a young goaltending prospect as there is.”

 

In January Peters was invited to the CHL Top Prospect game as one of the four top goalies in the CHL, and in the week ending April 11^th he was the player of the week for his strong playoff efforts. By season end Peters had broken five of the modern-era goaltending records for the Majors including most minutes played, most wins, most points in a season and best career GAA and point total, while tying Andy Chiodo in a sixth category for most shutouts in a season (4), which didn’t include his four in the playoffs, also a team record. He even scored an empty net goal in the deciding game win over the Sudbury Wolves March 30^th, the first OHL goalie to do that since Fred Brathwaite managed the feat in a playoff game in 1993 when he played for the Detroit Jr. Red Wings.

 

“It was a great year for goaltenders, and Justin was certainly in that group with all the other kids who went ahead of him. He’ll compete with any of them as he moves forward,” said Ferguson, adding, “He gives us some depth. Along with Cam Ward we’ve got two great young goaltenders.”

 

Peters is a big butterfly goalie who possesses excellent agility and instincts in the net. He’s a good skater and is strong playing the puck on shoot-ins. He plays consistently well and always gives his team a chance to win, occasionally even stealing games outright for them. Peters will return to the Majors for 2004-05 to compete in his third year in the OHL and second as a starter.

 

Casey Borer, D (1985-7-28)

Round 3, 69^th overall – St. Cloud (WCHA)

6’ 2”, 197 lbs

YEAR	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
2002-03	Nat. U-18 (USA)	49	2	4	6	42
2003-04	St. Cloud (WCHA)	32	0	9	9	18

 

The 69^th overall pick in 2004 began the year as Washington’s third round pick, which they traded to Colorado in the Steve Konowalchuk deal October 22^nd, which the Avalanche then traded to Carolina along with Chris Bahen for Bob Boughner on February 20^th. With that pick, the Hurricanes selected the top CSS ranked defenseman out of the WCHA. In the CSS final rankings, Borer was 52^nd for North American skaters, and the ISS had him 124^th overall.

Borer is a defensive defenseman with good size. Despite his lack of offensive production he shows remarkable confidence with the puck with the ability to make good outlet passes. He is solid positionally and his skating is good. He sees the ice and follows plays very well and he is good in one-on-one situations, containing opposing players quite well. Borer doesn’t shy away from the physical play and can deliver solid checks. One area he could use improvement in is clearing bodies in front of the net.

The Hurricanes entered the draft in need of defensemen, especially with the trading away of Tomas Malec a week before the draft in the deal that brought Martin Gerber to town, and the always steady Borer was their first pick of the draft intended to address this. He’ll have another three years of development with St. Cloud before the Hurricanes can hope to utilize him, but he was already in their top pairing as a rookie.

 

Brett Carson, D (1985-11-29)

Round 5, 109^th overall – Calgary (WHL)

6’4”, 220 lbs

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
2002-03	Moose Jaw/Calgary (WHL)	58	4	10	14	32
2003-04	Calgary (WHL)	71	5	27	32	49

 

Depending on who you ask, you might get a different evaluation of the almost 6’5” tall blueliner with the Calgary Hitmen. Many cite his skating as a trouble area and point out his awkward style as reason why teams should have been cautious drafting him, but then, at the CHL Top Prospects skills competition in January, Carson won the fastest lap competition. The critics point out that this is because he’s strong on his turns and that makes up for his poor straight ahead skating. Others say that with legs as big as his, once he gets going it’s easy to cover a lot of ice quickly, which is more important than looking good doing it.

 

Carson considers himself a two-way defensemen with good offensive upside who is good at joining the rush. Some agree that he has some offensive upside, and he did well on the second unit power play time that he did get, but many say that his best offensive year in the CHL was mostly due to good fortune and not better than average offensive skills.

 

Others say that the big defenseman is fairly physical in his own end, but that he lacks the mean streak to really remove opponents from the play, and still others say that his play in his own end is solid and almost without fault.

 

The one thing all scouts agree on is that Carson gets the job done and is a dependable blueliner. A defenseman who can be relied upon but who is not spectacular by any means. That might sound like a slight but it’s far from it. Every team needs a few guys like that, and Carson comes in a nice big package and has shown he can do the job right after his third season in the WHL. Scouts also credit Carson with making good plays with the puck from his own end when under pressure from forecheckers. So with their second consecutive pick the Hurricanes added another defenseman who they hope will develop more of physical presence on the ice.

 

The diverging opinions and the seemingly limited upside with Carson can be pointed out as reasons he did not get picked until Day 2 after coming into the draft ranked 31^st by the CSS for North American skaters and 79^th overall by the ISS. He wasn’t expecting to be called at 109^th overall when Carolina, one of the teams he hadn’t spoken with, was on the clock.

 

“I had no idea that I was going to come here. When you’re looking at who is picking, you’re thinking ‘I haven’t had interviews with them’, but anything can happen, I’m just glad that it did,” Carson said after being picked.

 

He was also happy to be reunited with Ladd, his teammate this season and roommate when both attended the Top Prospect game.

 

“He actually came down to my room and said sorry to hear about not getting picked, but you know it’s going to happen and hopefully the Hurricanes pick you,” said Carson. “Me and Andrew are pretty good friends. He just looked forward to the opportunity to play with me again I guess. “

 

Dropping the 30 or 40 spots lower than expected was something that seemed to upset those around him more than anything. “[My parents] weren’t disappointed but they thought I was going to be, so they were pretty upset, but when I told them it wasn’t a big deal to me, they kind of lightened up and said you’ve just got to be proud, we’re proud of you. Just hearing that helps you get through it.”

 

Carson knows that the old cliché is true, that it doesn’t matter what position you are drafted in but what you do after you are part of an NHL organization. “If I was waiting another hour [to be picked] I would have been getting nervous again, but I’m just happy it’s over now and I only have one team to impress now, not 30.”

 

The dependable and hard working Carson is indeed looking forward to impressing the Hurricanes, saying, “[The draft] was a good experience and it’s just a start of all the hard work.”

 

Magnus Åkerlund, G (1986-4-25)

Round 5, 137^th overall – HV 71 J20

6’1”, 183 lbs

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	W	L	T	GAA	Sv%	SO
2002-03	HV 71 J20 (SJL)	7	n/a	n/a	n/a	3.17	.894	0
2003-04	HV 71 J20 (SJL)	26	n/a	n/a	n/a	3.28	.892	1
2003-04	Sweden (WJC)	1	0	1	0	4.10	.897	0
2003-04	Sweden (U-18 WJC)	5	2	3	0	3.40	.871	1

 

It was already a bit of a surprise that the Hurricanes used their second round pick for a goalie, but an organization can never really have too much goaltending. In Round 5 they did it again, selecting Magnus Akerlund. If all works out well with their goaltending prospects the Canes could be looking to make a trade down the road, or it might allow them to release goalies they feel are not up to snuff. The two new goalies in 2004 were perhaps a big reason for allowing Patrick DesRochers to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

 

“We’re going to keep drafting those goalies until we get the best in the league,” said Ferguson at the draft. “Hopefully it won’t be too long before one of these kids says, ‘I’m the guy’, and we can stop drafting goalies.”

 

Akerlund was considered the second best European goalie by the CSS and others heading into the draft, and at 137^th overall it became a case of him being the best player available almost without question.

 

“Sweden’s best player at the U18 in Belarus was their goalie, Akerlund. He kept them in games, they finished fifth because of him,” one scout told Hockey’s Future before the draft. Akerlund also played in one game for the Under-20 team in Finland as backup to Joakim Lundstrom. That game was against Team USA and he faced 39 shots, losing a 4-3 decision.

 

One of the reasons Akerlund fell to the fifth round was because his season with the HV 71 junior team was only fair, and also because even if he did play well at the Under-18 World Juniors, Sweden, as a team, did not perform well.

 

He wasn’t phased at the draft by dropping a few rounds lower than expected, saying, “There’s so many good players and lots of good goalies too. I would have liked to have been picked a little earlier, but that’s no problem.”

 

He also wasn’t too concerned when told of the overabundance of goaltending depth in the Hurricanes organization. “They have? Uh huh… I will have to work hard (laughing).”

 

Akerlund has one more year with HV 71 junior team, but he hopes to play in some games for the senior team as well, and it is likely he will appear with Team Sweden at the World Junior Championships. He is a fair sized butterfly style goalie who catches right handed. His lateral movement is very good and he possesses good reflexes.

 

Ryan Pottruff, D (1986-7-11)

Round 7, 202^nd overall – London (OHL)

6’2”, 198 lbs

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
2002-03	Strathroy (WJRB)	41	5	17	22	100
2003-04	London (OHL)	51	3	5	8	48

 

Pottruff had a pretty good rookie campaign with the best regular season team in the OHL, earning an assist in his first career OHL game on September 19^th. In October he broke his hand and ended up missing 12 games, setting his development back somewhat.

 

He has good size and should develop with more ice time next season. The London Knights often tried to utilize him as a pugilist in 2003-04, and it’s unclear if the former Junior B all-star will develop into a well-rounded defensive defenseman or a tough guy on the blue line at this point.

 

At the time of the draft he was 17 years old, so he will have a few more years before it is clear what Pottruff is really capable of as a defenseman, but it would be somewhat surprising if he made it above the ECHL level in his career.

 

Jonas Fiedler, RW (1984-5-29)

Round 8, 235^th overall – Plymouth (OHL)

6’2”, 177 lbs

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
2002-03	Plymouth (OHL)	63	7	21	28	59
2003-04	Plymouth (OHL)	63	18	28	46	83

 

In the final two rounds of the draft the Hurricanes picked up a few overage Czech fish that had been tossed back into the water. The first of these was Fiedler, who was originally drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the third round of the 2002 Entry Draft after a decent OHL rookie campaign where he collected 20 points in 68 games. The following season he showed little progress, and even after his most productive OHL season in 2003-04 the Sharks didn’t see enough from him.

 

Peter Karmanos heads the three-man ownership group of both the Hurricanes and Plymouth Whalers and Jim Rutherford, also part of the ownership trio, oversees the Whalers organization, and so the Hurricanes have long shown a preference for Whalers players. With Fiedler they obviously knew enough to give him a shot in the eighth round.

 

Fiedler is a decent player, but even at 20 years of age he is a bit small and got knocked around from time to time. With less than .5 points per game in his three years in the OHL and a career plus/minus rating of +9 after an even rating this season, perhaps it takes someone on the inside to see the upside in Fiedler. He has shown himself to be feisty from time to time, occasionally dropping the gloves, and he has decent skills in other areas. He also did well in the Czech Jr. league before being drafted by the Whalers in the 2001 CHL Import Draft.

 

It would either appear that the Hurricanes know something about Fiedler that others do not, or it might simply be that Karmanos or Rutherford had plans to pick Fiedler up late if he was still available. At the very least, he might be a good roster fill in for the Florida Everblades (ECHL) next season.

 

Martin Vagner, D (1984-3-16)

Round 9, 268^th overall – Gatineau (QMJHL)

6’1”, 186 lbs

 

YEAR	TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
2002-03	Hull (QMJHL)	53	1	12	13	98
2003-04	Gatineau (QMJHL) *	38	6	12	18	85
2003-04	Czech Rep. (WJC)	7	0	0	0	14

* Hull Olympiques were renamed Gatineau Olympiques for 2003-04 after a regional amalgamation within the area

 

Re-drafted Czech No. 2 is Martin Vagner, originally selected by the Dallas Stars in the first round of the 2002 Entry Draft. Vagner looked to be a good first round pick up after the 2001 season that was his rookie year in the QMJHL. He had 34 points (6 goals, 28 assists) in 64 games for the Hull which was good enough for second in the Q for rookie scoring among defense. The Olympiques had selected him third overall in the CHL Import Draft in 2001, and it immediately looked like a good pick.

 

However, Vagner had an extremely disappointing 2002-03 season where he saw his points per game drop to a mark of .25, and then this season Vagner missed a large number of games while he sat out with a shoulder injury. His overall point production totaled 31 over the past two seasons, three short of his rookie year tally. He also had a mediocre World Junior Championships for the Czech Republic team in 2004, earning no points and 14 minutes in penalties in 7 games and in a tie for the team-worst -2 rating.

 

The Stars tried to come to a contract agreement with Vagner but after he was a first round pick in 2002 he set his contract standards higher than they were willing to go and they elected to receive the compensatory draft pick instead. Heading into the draft, Stars GM Doug Armstrong said it was possible that they might re-select Vagner in a later round, but with him still available at 268^th overall, and with the Stars selecting five defensemen on draft day, it’s clear that they were not going to bother with Vagner again.

 

For the ninth round, Vagner is not a bad pick. He should be humbled enough now that he might have more that he wants to prove, especially to the Stars, and his points per game in 2003-04 when he was not injured was very close to the mark he set in his rookie year.

 

He isn’t overly large, having dropped about 20 lbs since his rookie year according to Central Scouting, but Vagner is a skilled defenseman with good skating and passing along with a pretty good shot. He can also play physical, but one knock against him is that he sometimes takes bad penalties. Vagner positions himself well in his own end and overall he has very good hockey instincts and smarts.

 

Vagner still looks to have the potential to be a decent two-way defensemen even as a pro, and the Canes might have picked him up to try him for a spot with the Lowell Lock Monsters (AHL) or Everblades next season.

 

Final Analysis

 

The Hurricanes are not known as a good drafting team. Outside of the first round they have not had a lot of success finding NHL players. They have made some good second through fourth round selections in some years such as Eric Cole and Josef Vasicek (both from 1998), but every team needs to strike a little bit of gold in the later rounds, and that just isn’t something the Hurricanes have been good at. To make things worse, the team fired their only full-time European scout before the draft and do not plan to replace him. They also fired other full-time staff as soon as the season was over in order to cut costs.

 

Starting with Rutherford’s first year as President and GM in 1994, when the team was still in Hartford, he’s been at the helm for the selection of 91 players. Of those 91, he has taken 13 from the Plymouth Whalers club (called the Detroit Jr. Red Wings when Rutherford was in charge there). Those 13 make up an astounding 14 percent of all picks drafted under Rutherford -- and he even shied away completely from Whalers players in the 2002 and 2003 drafts. Of those 13 players, two of which were second round picks, Mike Rucinski is the most notable NHL’er with 26 games played, and he was taken in the ninth round in 1995.

 

In total, those 13 players have 47 total games of NHL service, only 3.36 games per player. The Plymouth Whalers have indeed had their share of great players pass through their dressing room. Bryan Berard, Robert Esche, Justin Williams (who the Canes acquired via trade this year) and Fred Brathwaite are some of the players who have suited up for the OHL franchise. There have been other good players there too, but somehow they all were missed in favor of others who would not play in the league.

 

Coming into the 2004 draft, the Hurricanes biggest organizational need was for forwards who could score. In Ladd they get someone who can do this, but he is really an all around power forward, not a skilled forward who will approach 100 points in the current NHL. There is no doubt that Peters is a great goalie and very likely will be a starter in the NHL one day, but there were still a few skilled forwards left in the draft at that point who might better have served the organization. It’s hard to argue with taking the best player available, though, and the Canes might be able to turn a goalie prospect or two into a proven scoring forward down the line with a trade.

 

Just to be sure they have undeniable depth in net they took Akerlund in the fifth, a highly rated Swede who has an outside shot of making the show one day. Starting with Casey Borer, half of the Canes picks were defensemen, three of which were really defensive defensemen with only Vagner having a chance of being a two-way blueliner. The Hurricanes came into this draft with a real need for offense, or big impact forwards, and they have left it the same way. They needed more than Ladd to build up this area, and Fiedler doesn’t alleviate the deficiency.

 

Optimistic Caniacs can soon turn their attention to the 2005 draft where they can hope that the team will not be content with just landing a right wing for Staal and Ladd to play with, and perhaps more will be done with the extra picks they acquired for 2005 that were exchanged for equivalent ones in Raleigh at this draft.

 

DJ Powers and Holly Gunning contributed to this article.