Meanwhile, the Draft and yesterday's trades! The Preds had a productive day which will further strengthen us we move forward. We resolved the 3-man logjam in goal with the trade of Chris Mason to the Blues and have now placed our bets with Dan Ellis and 6' 5" Pekka Rinne whose time for the NHL is here. I have a feeling that It will be an interesting season in goal.
After trading our 9th pick for the Islanders' 7th (which they had previously received by exchanging their 5th for Toronto's 7th) we landed the consensus favorite of Pred fans I talked to: Colin Wilson, a strong center with great hockey sense and a solid bloodline. He'll contribute sooner rather than later and I believe that this pick will pay great dividends for us.
Then, after another interesting exchange with Ottawa, giving them our 15th for their 18th, the team surprised me by taking Chet Pickard, the goalie who, according to THN, shares many physical and metal qualities to Carey Price. Plus, he was Carey's understudy for two years. He is big, strong, and unflappable. A quote by our GM, David Poile (from Brand
on Felder's HB blog): “At 15 we wanted Pickard, but we got lucky and got him at 18 after the trade with Ottawa. Some days it works out and today these were the 2 guys we wanted in the 1st round. I shook Pickard’s hand and he has huge hands. He has comparisons to Olaf Kolzig’s size. We are
very excited to draft him.”In addition, Colin Wison and Chet Pickard, along with their respective families, are best friends. This is good - the more I find out about these two picks, the brighter the picture becomes. I haven't read or seen much outside comment yet, but the analysis I've encountered so far is very positive.
More draft tomorrow and free agents just around the corner with lots of rumors. There is much more to come. It's going to be a fun summer even without any games being played.
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