Isles make Tavares top pick
MONTREAL – The New York Islanders kept everyone guessing, including John Tavares himself, right up until they made the high-scoring center the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft.
The Islanders chose Tavares, an 18-year-old junior star with the London Knights, with the first overall pick Friday night ahead of 6-foot-6, 220-pound Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman, the top-ranked European prospect.
The Tampa Bay Lightning took Hedman and the Colorado Avalanche followed with forward Matt Duchene, the first three selections going as expected.
The Philadelphia Flyers made the biggest trade of the night by acquiring All-Star defenseman Chris Pronger from Anaheim in a multiplayer trade.
Tavares, a 6-foot, 185-pound native of Oakville, Ont., led the Ontario Hockey League with 58 goals this season and broke Peter Lee’s 33-year-old league record of 213 career goals.
“He’s an offensively gifted hockey player,” Islanders general manager Garth Snow said. “Whether it’s shooting the puck or distributing it, he sees the puck at a different level than any other young player that I’ve seen in this draft.”
Snow kept the team’s draft intentions a closely guarded secret right until he announced Tavares’ name to the Bell Centre crowd. He was the team’s fourth No. 1 pick overall, and the first since they made Rick DiPietro the first goalie selected first overall in 2000.
“Yeah, I had no idea, just like everybody else,” Tavares said.
Snow also made a pair of deals with Columbus and Minnesota, packaging draft picks to trade up from a second first-round pick at 26th to the 12th choice overall, where he selected Oshawa Generals defenseman Calvin de Haan.
In exchange for Pronger and center Ryan Dingle, the Ducks reacquired right wing Joffrey Lupul and received defenseman Luca Sbisa along with two first-round draft picks and another conditional pick.
After Duchene was picked third by Colorado, his favorite team growing up, Atlanta selected center Evander Kane of the Vancouver Giants, followed by Los Angeles, which chose Brandon Wheat Kings center Brayden Schenn, the younger brother of Toronto defenseman Luke Schenn, who went fifth overall to the Leafs last year in Ottawa.
The embattled Phoenix Coyotes delivered the first surprise of the first round when they drafted Swedish defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson with the sixth pick.
Toronto took center Nazim Kadri, Tavares’ Knights teammate, with the seventh selection.
Right wing Scott Glennie, Brayden Schenn’s Brandon linemate, was chosen eighth by Dallas. Ottawa drafted 6-foot-5, 220-pound defenseman Jared Cowen of the Spokane Chiefs with the ninth pick, followed by Edmonton, which took Swedish center Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson to complete the top 10.
The Minnesota Wild, which dealt its No. 12 pick to the Islanders, made defenseman Nick Leddy of Eden Prairie, Minn., the top American drafted with the No. 16 selection, which they acquired from New York in their trade of draft picks along with the 77th and 182nd picks overall.