2020 USHL Entry Draft Recap
The Phase 2 (or "Entry") draft is hard to cover in general let alone as one person writing about the game. It includes players drafted at all ages, from all over the world, many of whom hail from junior leagues whether that is Canadian Jr. A, Tier 2 or below in America and even Major Junior. I don't watch much non-USHL junior hockey, so I've just included some general details. Click here to see my Futures Draft recap, which is more substantial.
This year's NTDP group was a notch below the standard we’ve come to expect and the draft reflected that as the league is apparently expecting quite a few players from the program to spend another year in junior hockey. Three of the first four picks were from the program -- Owen Gallatin (UMD) to Madison, Hunter Strand (Notre Dame) to Tri-City and Tanner Latsch to Des Moines. None had more than twenty points on the year for the 18s. Big defender Daniel Laatsch (Wisconsin) went 7th overall to Sioux City. NTDP 18 goaltender Noah Grannan (Wisconsin) went in the third round to Sioux Falls along with NTDP 18 forward Daniyal Dzhaniyev (Penn State) to Madison. All in all, ten players from the program’s older team were picked, the aforementioned six in the first three rounds with four more coming in the tenth round or later. I've heard that the late round flyers on NTDP players are informed by teams expecting those players to consider another year in junior.
There's also the fact that the Coronavirus may impact college campuses and junior hockey differently. Harvard, for example, may take longer to open campus (and re-start their athletic operations) than the USHL does. In that case, a pick like Cambridge-bound forward Matt Beniers — who Chicago took in the tenth round — could be big. He’s already emerged as a 2021 NHL draft prospect.
There were a ton of players from junior hockey taken. CJHL Rookies of the Year and prospects from other junior leagues highlighted the first few rounds, as well as a few prospects from high school and AAA hockey. The CJHL Rookies of the Year were both forwards: OJHL-Buffalo's Matteo Constantini (Sioux City) and SJHL-Flin Flon's Tristan Lemyre (Dubuque). Muskegon selected BCHL-Surrey's Cristophe Tellier and re-united a pair of skaters in the process — currently rostered forward Christophe Fillion spent four-plus seasons on a team with Tellier prior to this season apart. Youngstown's first round pick was forward Adam Eisele from NAHL-Fairbanks, a Mankato recruit who was named to the NAHL's All-Rookie Team.
There were two players picked out of AAA hockey in the first round, both forwards with good size: Shattuck Prep ‘02 Winter Wallace (Michigan State, to Lincoln) and Thunderbirds 16 forward Kieran Cebrian (Tri-City) — the only '03 to go in the first two rounds.
Dexter (prep) saw two players go late in the first round, UMass committed defenseman Mike Adamson (Sioux City) and big BU-committed forward Doug Grimes (Cedar Rapids).
There were three goalies picked in the first round, and sixteen taken in the first six rounds. The first rounders were OSU commit Matt Davis (Green Bay) from AJHL-Spruce Grove and two uncommitted names from the NAHL: former Minnetonka stand-out Charlie Glockner (Waterloo) from Amarillo and Rocky Mountain Rough Rider product Andrew Miller (Fargo).
By my count there were about thirty players picked out of 16 AAA hockey, seven of which came before the tenth round:
Tri-City, 10th overall: F Kieran Cebrian (Denver) - Colorado Thunderbirds 16
Cedar Rapids, 34th overall: F Patrick Johnson - St. Louis Blues 16
Tri-City, 97th overall: G Owen Millward - Fox Motors 16
Green Bay, 101st overall: D Will Staring - Shattuck-St. Mary’s 16
Tri-City, 102nd overall: F Drew Montgomery - Sioux Falls Power 16
Youngstown, 104th overall: G Owen Bartoszkiewicz - Oakland Jr. Grizzlies 16
Cedar Rapids, 110th overall: F Logan Morrell - Phoenix Jr. Coyotes 16
More notes…
These are some notes on teams that had a few selections and younger prospects or guys from high school hockey who went early…
Most of the players (170+) picked were born in 2002 or 2001. There were thirty-five players born in 2004 selected, thirty-three of which came in the tenth round or later. There were fifty-three players born in 2003 selected, seventeen of which came before the tenth round.
There were a few top high school programs that had big days. I was surprised to see many of the better (and older) players from top programs weren't already protected prior to the draft, but plenty were new to said programs as of this season. Shattuck saw eight skaters get selected from multiple different teams. Mount had four skaters picked, with defenseman Nate Benoit going in the fourth round to Tri-City. Lawrence saw four players (all '02s) go pretty early: UNH D commit Damien Carfagna (Green Bay, 3rd round) and PC commits Blake Humphrey (Sioux Falls, 4th), Cole Teleki (Waterloo, 7th). Uncommitted right shot defenseman Kyle Furey (Youngstown, 8th) was also picked out of Lawrence, the top-ranked team in prep hockey going into the playoffs. Salisbury, who won the New England Title, saw starting goaltender Nick Haas and new forward Sam Deckhut get selected — both played Rochester Coalition 18 in the fall. I interviewed their split-season coach Kyle Quick last month.
BCHL-Powell River saw four players picked, all by different teams, starting with defenseman Davis Pennington (UNO) in the first round to Muskegon… NAHL-Fairbanks had five players picked including first-rounder Adam Eisele (Mankato) and goaltender Mattias Sholl in the third, both to Youngstown… CCHL-Rockland saw two forwards go early, third-rounder Cole Craft (Lincoln) and fifth-rounder Simon Labelle (Madison)… OJHL-St. Mike’s saw six players picked, three by Dubuque (Ryan Alexander and Finn Brown), four by the eighth round… St. Michael-Albertville (MN-HS) late ‘01 forward Adam Flammang went 19th overall to Cedar Rapids… Hill (MN-HS) ‘01 forward Charlie Strobel (Minnesota) went 23rd overall to Waterloo, teammate Remington Keopple (‘02 G) went 50th overall to Des Moines… Eastview (MN-HS) late ‘01 forward Joshua Eernisse went 25th overall to Tri-City… AJHL-Drumheller late ‘03 RD Kent Robinson went 36th overall to Green Bay, teammate ‘01 LD Kiano Robinson went 41st overall to Omaha… Shattuck Prep ‘02 F Will Traeger (BC) went 54th overall to Lincoln… Avon late ‘01 F Tabor Heaslip (UConn) went 56th overall to Sioux City… OJHL-Whitby ‘03 LD Owen Simpson went 57th overall to Omaha… Grand Rapids (MN-HS) ‘03 D Easton Young went 64th overall to Muskegon… Northstar Christian saw two players get picked in forward Ben Strinden (Muskegon, 6th) and defenseman Jakob Stender (Fargo, 14th)… Notre Dame Academy (Wisconsin) saw two players picked, forward Sawyer Scholl (Green Bay, 11th) and defenseman Jacob Conrad (Sioux Falls, 15th)… Omaha picked two ‘01s from the WHL in the eighth round, forward Garrett Wright (Moose Jaw) and defenseman Nick Perna (Medicine Hat), followed by SKA St. Petersburg late ‘00 forward Ilya Altybarmakyan in the 9th, who posted 40 points in 50 games in the MHL for both of the past two seasons.
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