For Immediate Release:
The St. Louis Blues would like to thank their many fans for their patience over these last few weeks leading up to the draft. As stated when I first became the new GM earlier this month, our goal for this season is to improve our ability to be competitive right from the start this year, while retaining as much of our youth as possible.
We are pleased to now be on the other side of the draft, having lost only one of our top 10 prospects listed in the 2005 Future Watch ranking (3rd overall). The young player we lost, Matt Carle, was replaced by an equally skilled player in Matt Keith.
The 9 players remaining from the 2005 Future Watch list are:
Marc Andre Fleury (8.5)
Alex Perezhogin (8.5)
Denis Grebeshkov (8.0)
Ryan Whitney (8.0)
Alexei Shkotov (8.0)
Patrick O’Sullivan (8.0)
Brad Boyes (7.5)
Tim Ramholt (7.0)
Jordan Smith (7.0)
Of course, this list does not include some very highly rated prospects that were not included in our Future Watch ranking, such as Patrick O'Sullivan, Chris Bourque, Brad Boyes, Eric Staal, Igor Radulov and Dany Roussin.
Adding to this group of top flight prospects are our selections from the 2005 draft. This draft certainly proved to be everything it was hyped up to be for the Blues:
Sidney Crosby: Not much can be said that hasn't already been. This guy will be the face of this franchise in the coming years, and we are completely thrilled to have him in our organization. True to his character, the first thing Sidney did after being drafted was call his good friend and former Rimouski linemate, Dany Roussin - who is currently fighting for a roster spot on the big club. Time will tell if those two can work their magic in the big leagues as well as they did in the Q!
Marc Staal: Younger brother of Eric, already a Blue, we are very pleased to welcome another Staal to St. Louis. Showing the same leadership potential as his older brother, Marc is without a doubt his own man. Give him a couple of years to fill out his 6'3" frame, and this steady defenseman will be a force on the blue line for years to come.
Niklas Bergfors: Rated as the 13th best prospect by ISS, we were somewhat surprised to see Niklas still available at the 17th spot. This guy is a workhorse with more than a little skill - as his 34 pts in 21 games with Sodertalje Jr will attest. At 5'11" and a sturdy 192lbs, Niklas is built for the CPHL style game.
Jeff Frazee: This is a guy that we had in our sights for a while. He put on a clinic for the US at the WU18 tourney, and helped them win it all. Acrobatic for a big man, he is always in the right spot and has ice in his veins.
Risto Korhonen: Risto might just be our steal of this draft. Rated #24 by ISS, we picked up up in the 56th overall position. Already blessed with CPHL size, Risto hits like a truck...unfortunately, he skates away about as fast. He'll be working on his skating for a little while, but we project him as a 3rd or 4th d-man at some point down the road.
Dylan Flatt: Dylan is a bit of a project at this point. Currently with Saskatoon of the WHL, Dylan is one tough customer. In 72 games he logged 19 pts, and 237 pim. We feel that Dylan is on the right track in terms of learning the defense position, and you can bet we'll be checking in on him from time to time.
In addition to these fine young men, we are very pleased to welcome Teemu Selanne, Martin Straka, Eric Desjardins, and Brett Hedican to our hockey club. These four players will provide leadership, experience, and a significant upgrade in both offence and defence.
While we would expect to make a few more moves before the season begins, I can assure you we would gladly go to battle with this group of players if the season were to start tomorrow.
Once again, I'd like to extend my personal thanks to all of our fans for their patience throughout last season. My thanks as well to all of the other CPHL GM's for making this first month both a challenging and rewarding experience.
Bring on 2005-2006!!
GM NoPants
St. Louis Blues
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