First round recap

Nathan MacKinnon of our Halifax Mooseheads is now a Colorado Avalanche. The Avs kept to their word that they would be taking a forward with their first overall pick and that Nate would be that forward. I had asked the question would two Mooseheads be picked in a row however, the second overall Florida Panthers decided to shake things up picking up Alexander Barkov of Tappara in Finland. MacKinnon's linemate Jonathan Drouin was picked at #3 by the other Sunshine State team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. So Seth Jones fall all the way to fourth overall to the Nashville Predators. To wrap up the top 5, the Carolina Hurricanes picked Elias Lindholm who played in Sweden this past season.

The Edmonton Oilers picked a defenseman for the first time since 1989 with their first round pick.

The number one ranked goaltender did not get picked in the first round.

Here is the first round selections

1. Nathan MacKinnon, C (Halifax, QMJHL) Colorado
2. Aleksander Barkov, C (Tappara, SM-liiga) Florida
3. Jonathan Drouin LW (Halifax Mooseheads, QMJHL) Tampa Bay
4. Seth Jones D (Portland, WHL) Nashville
5. Elias Lindholm C (Brynas IF, SEL) Carolina
6. Sean Monahan C (Ottawa, OHL) Calgary
7. Darnell Nurse D (Sault Ste, Marie, OHL) Edmonton
8. Rasmus Ristolainen D (TPS, SM-liiga) Buffalo
9. Bo Horvat C (London, OHL) Vancouver
10. Valeri Nichushkin RW (HC Dynamo Moscow, KHL) Dallas
11. Samuel Morin D (Rimouski, QMJHL) Philadelphia
12. Max Domi C (London, OHL) Phoenix
13. Josh Morrissey D (Prince Albert, WHL) Winnipeg
14. Alexander Wennberg C (Frolunda HC, SEL) Columbus
15. Ryan Pulock D (Brandon, WHL) New York
16. Nikita Zadorov D (London, OHL) Buffalo
17. Curtis Lazar RW (Edmonton, WHL) Ottawa
18. Mirco Mueller D (Everett, WHL) San Jose
19. Kerby Rychel LW (Windsor, OHL) Columbus
20. Anthony Mantha LW (Val-d'Or Foreurs, QMJHL) Detroit
21. Frederik Gauthier C (Rimouski, QMJHL) Toronto
22. Emile Poirier LW (Gatineau, QMJHL) Calgary
23. Andre Burakovsky LW (Malmo, Swe-2) Washington
24. Hunter Shinkaruk LW (Medicine, WHL) Vancouver
25. Michael McCarron RW (Western Michigan, USHL) Montreal
26. Shea Theodore D (Seattle, WHL) Anaheim
27. Marko Dano RW (HC Slovan, KHL) Columbus
28. Morgan Klimchuk LW (Regina, WHL) Calgary
29. Jason Dickinson C (Guelph, OHL) Dallas
30. Ryan Hartman RW (Plymouth, OHL) Chicago

Nathan number one!!

The Colorado Avalanche had the first overall pick and they were not bluffing when Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy said they would be taking a forward with their pick. Nathan MacKinnon of our Halifax Mooseheads is now apart of the Avalanche program. Congrats to Nathan and his family.

Next up is Florida at number 2.. Will there be two Mooseheads taken right after the other? 

World Juniors camp roster announced

The development summer camp roster for the 2014 World Juniors was released today and our three star players are on it. Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Zach Fucale have been invited to the camp which will be held in August. All three boys are set to be drafted in the first round at the NHL draft on Sunday.

Connor McDavid, the 16 year old sensation who was given an exception when he was drafted to the OHL at 15, is also invited to the summer camp. Matt Cade had this to say after the release about the young hockey player.

The camp will run from August 4-10 and will be one step for these junior hockey players in their quest to represent their country. The 2014 World Juniors will be played from December 26, 2013 to January 5, 2014 in Malmo, Sweden.

Congrats to Nate, Jo and Zach and the rest of the players. For the full list of invitees click here. The 2014 team will be coached by Brent Sutter it was announced on Wednesday.


Hopefully the three boys are invited to the 2015 camp as well and get to represent Canada at home. Toronto and Montreal will co-host the 2015 and 2017 World Junior Championships. 


Photo: Twitter, @TSNMattCade

Ivan Hlinka coaches announced

The bench bosses for the 2013 Ivan Hlinka tournament have been announced and our very own head coach Dominique Ducharme will be an assistant coach when play gets underway in August, Hockey Canada announced this morning. Dale Hunter, who coached the London Knights this past season, will be the head coach and DJ Smith, coach of the Oshawa Generals, will be the other assistant.

The tournament will be played in mid-August in Slovakia. Team Canada will be going for their 6th straight Gold Medal at the tournament.


In other news...

• Hockey Canada also announced the coaches for the 2014 World Junior tournament. Brent Sutter will be leading the way this Christmas with Benoit Groulx and Ryan McGill helping him out.
• Ryan Jankowski was named the head scout of Hockey Canada's Program of Excellence today as well and will be in charge of the U17, U18 and U20 programs.

NHL Draft preview

Note: This post will be updated throughout the week until Draft time so check back often and there will be more stories and information everyday.

2013 NHL Draft
June 30, 2013
4:00pm Atlantic time
NBC Sports Network
Prudential Centre, Newark, New Jersey

First round: 1. Colorado, 2. Florida, 3. Tampa Bay, 4. Nashville, 5. Carolina, 6. Calgary, 7. Edmonton, 8. Buffalo, 9. New Jersey, 10. Dallas, 11. Philadelphia, 12. Phoenix, 13. Winnipeg, 14. Columbus, 15. New York Islanders, 16. Buffalo, 17. Ottawa, 18. Detroit, 19. Columbus, 20. San Jose, 21. Toronto, 22. Calgary, 23. Washington, 24. Vancouver, 25. Montreal, 26. Anaheim, 27. Columbus, 28. Calgary, 29. Dallas, 30. Chicago

Will Seth Jones go #1? Or will it be our very own Nathan MacKinnon? Could a Russian go first overall for the second year in a row? Will a goalie be picked in the top 10 for the first time in 8 years?

All these questions will be answered on Sunday but for now lets see what the probability of them happening is.

JONES
Seth Jones has been a very good defenseman in the Western Hockey League for the Portland Winterhawks and was ranked #1 in the final CSS rankings.

Stories - Denver Post (June 18), Edmonton Journal (June 24), Canada.com (June 24), Rant Sports (June 23)

My prediction -  It is very tough to pick a defenseman first overall as normally you want to build a great team around the first overall pick. Because of this I predict Seth to go 3rd overall to Tampa Bay especially after the Bolts freed up some space buying out their captain Vincent Lecavalier earlier in the week.

MACKINNON
Nathan MacKinnon was the top forward for our very own Halifax Mooseheads the past two years and led the team to a Memorial Cup championship with a hat trick and 5 points against rival Jones. He is ranked #2 in the CSS rankings.

Stories - Denver Post (June 22), Mile High Hockey (June 17), Metro News (June 24), National Post (June 17), Metro News (June 27), Sportsnet (June 28)

My prediction - Nate is everything that a team could ask for in a center, he scores A LOT, has great passing abilities and skating skills, and is also pretty good defensively. At the age of 17, he has his good games and bad but who doesn't at the age? It will be interesting to see how he will play after spending the last 17 months pretty much joined at the hip with Jonathan Drouin. With him being the best center in this year's draft, I predict Nathan will go 2nd overall to Florida, he will be a great asset and he already knows how to play with Jonathan Huberdeau.

FUCALE
Zach Fucale is the number #1 North American goalie in this year's draft and he deserves it after the two years he's had with the Mooseheads.

Stories - The Chronicle Herald (June 25), Canada.com (June 26)

My prediction - Some people predict that Zach will go in the Top 10, others believe he will be picked later in the first round. The top 10 teams, as they stand now, all need great goaltending badly and therefore will probably pick him up as soon as they can. As Paul Hollingsworth said Friday morning on CTV Morning Live, the host city of this year's draft could really use a franchise goalie now that Martin Brodeur is thinking about leaving the game. I predict that Zachary will go 14th overall to Columbus, as they really need a good solid goaltender.

DROUIN
Jonathan Drouin started out this past season with a far chance of being picked in the first round, now after taking over when MacKinnon got hurt and having an awesome World Junior tournament, he has quickly moved up to #3 on the final CSS rankings.

Stories - Canada.com (June 25), The Hockey Writers (June 17), The Gazette (June 27), The Chronicle Herald (June 27)

My prediction - Colorado keeps saying that they will pick a forward and that they would pick Nathan MacKinnon, but I believe they need a good winger to balance out their talented centers they already have. Therefore, I predict that Jonathan will go 1st overall to Colorado.

NURSE
Darnell Nurse of the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds was not able to help his team past the first round but he has stayed in the top 10 in the North American rankings.

Stories - Rant Sports (May 30), National Post (May 30), NHL.com (May 31)

My prediction - I predict that Darnell will go 5th overall to Carolina, he seems like he would fit with that group of young guys.

BARKAROV
As the top ranked European skater at the end of the season by CSS, there is little chance I believe that he will go top 3. I predict Alexander will go 7th overall to Calgary who seem to have a lot of Euro players on their team.


June 27 - The players are in New York City now and a few of them visited Yankee Stadium today to the watch the Yankees and Texas Rangers game. Here are some pictures...

        Here is Nathan MacKinnon, Seth Jones and Jonathan Drouin on the big screen.

Final Central Scouting Services Rankings and Bob MacKenzie's Final TSN Rankings

Photos: Instagram accounts: Nathan MacKinnon, National Hockey League and Seth Jones

Herd Word

DRAFTEES
Mike Morreale twitted a picture yesterday of our top guns looking very "dapper", according to Halifax Mooseheads twitter who retweeted the picture, in their suits.

I must say they look very handsome in suits. It will be interesting to see where each guy goes in the NHL draft coming up on Sunday in Newark. Who do you think will be drafted first out of the Mooseheads players on June 30? Hit the comments below.

MACAULAY
Press release.

According to Andrew Rankin, Stephen MacAulay has been signed to a tryout contract by the Montreal Canadiens. MacAulay, who is from Cole Harbour, was drafted in 2011 by the St. Louis Blues but never signed with the team. He was invited to the Hamilton Bulldogs training camp last season but didn't make the team. He spent 5 years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, playing the first 4 and a half years with the Saint John Sea Dogs and finishing his career in Halifax. He helped the Mooseheads win the Memorial Cup this past season. He ahs a very impressive trophy record winning 4 Jean Rougeau trophies, 3 President's Cups and 2 Memorial Cups.

Lower Sackville native and former PEI Rocket player Ben Duffy was also signed to a tryout contract by the Canadiens. He was the regular season scoring champion this past season for the PEI Rocket who lost in the first round and played their last game as the Rocket on April 1st.

Good luck to both boys in training camp.

MACKINNON
There was a nice column in today's paper by Willy Palov talking about Nathan MacKinnon and former Herd player Freddy Cabina. A decade ago, Cabina was living with the MacKinnons as their billet child. He played three years with the Mooseheads and spent all three under the same roof as Nathan and giving the young boy tips about hockey. Freddy used to tell young Nate that he would be drafted first overall in the NHL draft one day and now that might actually happen.

Herd Word

DND DAY
It is DND Family Day here in Halifax with a few things happening today. There were kids out in the harbour riding around on skidoos at lunch time and the Memorial Cup trophy made an appearance at CFB Halifax.

NHL DRAFT
Earlier in the week, Joe Sakic made the statement that the Colorado Avalanche would not be taking Seth Jones first overall in the upcoming NHL draft and will instead chose one of three forwards. Willy Palov has a good article breaking down this new drama of the draft analyzing the statement that Sakic told the Denver Post. You can read that analysis here. On the other hand, Andrew Rankin has now reported that former NHL coach Doug MacLean would "be shocked if [Nathan MacKinnon] isn't No. 1". Here is that story.

MACKINNON
Talking about MacKinnon, he was in Toronto this week after spending the Monday night in Boston. He posted this picture on Twitter this afternoon mentioning that he was doing training.

ALBERTA
I would like to send my prayers and thoughts out to the city of Calgary and cities in Southern Alberta as they are struggling with flooding. According to pictures and Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun the water level of the flood, which started last week in Fort MacMurray, is up to Row 10 at the Calgary Saddledome. The Calgary Saddledome is home to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. According to the release, the dressing rooms are also flooded and there is one miilion dollars worth of damage so far.

Story of the flood first hit the news last Wednesday with Fort Mac having heavy rains for days in a row which caused the flooding. Obviuosly the weather travelled down to Calgary and Southern Alberta.

Press release.

Photo: Nathan MacKinnon's Instagram account