If the Pittsburgh Penguins, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues had good drafts, the Boston University hockey team may be a force to be reckoned with in Hockey East and beyond this year.
Those six teams drafted a grand total of seven players from this year’s Icedogs squad – three sophomores and four incoming freshmen.
The story of the draft was Ryan Whitney. The sophomore defenseman was tabbed fifth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins, the highest BU draft pick since Ricky DiPietro was chosen first by the New York Islanders in the 2000 draft.
“It was pretty exciting,” Whitney said. “The whole thing was something I’ll never forget.”
Despite the Penguins’ struggles last year when they missed the playoffs, Whitney is glad to be going to the Team That Mario Owns, citing their past success as a large reason he’s excited.
And luckily for the Icedogs, they never had to worry about Whitney leaving, as he feels no pressure to make the jump from amateur to professional just yet.
“Their general manager said on TV and he told me that they wouldn’t pressure their college guys to leave early,” Whitney said. “It was never a factor.”
Two Terriers were selected in the second round. Sophomore forward Brian McConnell was taken with the 39th pick by Calgary, while freshman defenseman Dan Spang was San Jose’s choice with the 52nd pick.
The Vancouver Canucks picked freshman forward John Laliberte in the fourth round, and Columbus chose fellow rookie Jekabs Redlihs later in the fourth.
Sophomore forward Justin Maiser will be singing the Blues after St. Louis picked him at the 165 slot in the fifth round. Calgary finished out the Terrier draft class by selecting forward David VanderGulik, with the 209th pick, their second BU pickup of the selection process.
Whitney was the first American picked, as well as the first collegiate player. He notched four goals and 17 assists to finish as the second leading scorer among defensemen for BU, and had the team’s second best plus/minus at 16.
McConnell tied junior forward Frantisek Skladany at 26 points with 11 goals and 15 assists, while playing the whole season as either the first or the second line center. Both he and Whitney earned Hockey East All-Rookie Team honors.
Maiser was the team’s seventh leading scorer with 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists). He also earned Beanpot MVP honors after scoring two goals, including the game-winner, in the 5-3 championship game win over Northeastern University that gave BU its 24th Beanpot title.
BU has now seen seven of its players selected in the first round of the draft as Whitney joins former Terriers DiPietro, Jeff Kealty, Scott Lachance, Keith Tkachuck, Scott Young and David Quinn.
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