Winterhawks Well Represented at 2013 Draft/ Highest Hawks Picked History

Seth Jones was widely considered to be a slam dunk pick for Colorado Avalanche at Sunday's NHL draft in Newark, New Jersey. It now seems that Patrick Roy, the former Goaltender and current Coach of the Avs is influencing the organization to pass on Jones and takes Halifax's Nathan Makinnon at #1. Roy saw a lot of Makinnon, while GM (and owner) of the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts. Florida would be grateful if Colorado chooses to pass on Jones.

If these reports are incorrect and Jones does go #1, to Colorado or to anyone they choose to trade the pick to, he would be the first Winterhawk's player in NHL draft history to go #1.

Also looking to be drafted sometime early on Sunday are Nic Petan and Oliver Bjorkstrand. Petan is hoping that his Memorial Cup exposure combined with his great outing at the top prospect game last winter makes him a first round pick. Some mock drafts have him going 30th to the defending cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.

Bjorkstrand could be in for a longer day then the other two as a lot of mock drafts have him going in the later stages of the second round. A couple things probably factor against Bjorkstrand and could push him even later in the draft and those are his lack of size and the fact that most scouts have not got to see him play very much (just one season in North America).

Not to be forgotten is Brandon Burke, who has a strong chance of being drafted in the later rounds. His pedigree, being the son of former NHL Goalie and possibly the top Goalie coach in the NHL: Sean Burke, may factor strongly in a team taking a chance on a Goalie and picking him up somewhere in rounds 5-7.

Also, draft eligible for the first time but not likely to be drafted (listed in order of possibility of getting picked):
-Preston Kopeck
-Kirill Vorobyev
-Layne Viveiros

Winterhawks picked in the top 3 of the NHL Draft:

Wayne Babych

3rd Overall

Gary Nylund

• 1978 Wayne Babych RW(St. Louis): Drafted after Bobby Smith and  Ryan Walter. Played 519 NHL games for 4 different teams putting up 438 career points. Brent Peterson and Larry Playfair also were picked in the first round from the Hawks that year.
• 1982 Gary Nylund D(Toronto): Drafted after Gord Kluzak and Brian Bellows. Played 608 NHL games for 3 different teams putting up 171 career points and 1,235 carrer PIMs. Ken Yaremchuk and Jim Playfair were also selected in the first round from the Hawks that year.



Glen Wesley

• 1987 Glen Wesley D(Boston): Drafted after Pierre Turgeon and Brendan Shanahan. Played 1,457 career NHL games for 3 different franchises putting up 537 career points. He won the 2006 Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes. Dave Archibald was taken 6th overall by Minnesota that year out of Portland.

2nd Overall

Perry Turnbull

• 1979 Perry Turnbull LW(St. Louis): Drafted after Rob Ramage and before hall of famer Mike Gartner. Played 608 career NHL games for 3 different teams putting up 351 career points and 1,245 career PIMs. Keith Brown was taken 7th overall that year from the Hawks by Chicago.
• 1980 Dave Babych D(Winnipeg): Drafted after Doug Wickenheiser and before hall of famer Denis Savard. Played 1,195 career NHL games for 5 different teams, putting up 723 career points. He was on the 1994 Vancouver Canucks that came within a game of winning the Stanley Cup. 

So if Colorado is paying attention to Winterhawk history and really who wouldn't? They have to realize that not a single one of the 5 Hawks taken in the top 3 have ever become big busts and two of them(Wesley and Babych) played over 1,000 NHL games and were big time defensive stalwarts for years.