Thirty National Hockey League teams are preparing to take part in this weekend’s 2015 Entry Draft in Sunrise, Fla., and their top affiliates are ready and waiting for the next wave of young American Hockey League stars to begin their professional careers.
In 2014-15, more than 250 former first- and second-round draft picks were found on AHL rosters, including young standouts like Ryan Pulock, Mark McNeill, Chris Tierney, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Teuvo Teravainen Mark Pysyk and Sven Baertschi.
Fifteen first-round selections from last year’s draft in Philadelphia made appearances in the AHL in 2014-15 as well, including Toronto’s William Nylander (Toronto Marlies), Vancouver’s Jake Virtanen (Utica Comets), Detroit’s Dylan Larkin (Grand Rapids Griffins), and Los Angeles’s Adrian Kempe, who helped the Manchester Monarchs to a Calder Cup championship.
Other top picks to appear in the AHL this past season include 2013 picks Jonathan Drouin (3rd overall), Darnell Nurse (7th), Kerby Rychel (19th), Anthony Mantha (20th), Hunter Shinkaruk (24th) and Ryan Hartman (30th); 2012 picks Griffin Reinhart (4th), Matt Dumba (7th), Derrick Pouliot (8th), Slater Koekkoek (10th), Mikhail Grigorenko (12th), Radek Faksa (13th), Scott Laughton (20th), Malcolm Subban (24th) and Stefan Matteau (29th); 2011 picks Ryan Murphy (12th), Jamie Oleksiak (14th), J.T. Miller (15th), Nathan Beaulieu (17th), Matt Puempel (24th) and Vladislav Namestnikov (27th); and 2010 selections Jack Campbell (11th), Derek Forbort (15th), Joey Hishon (17th), Austin Watson (18th) and Emerson Etem (29th).
The Edmonton Oilers, parent club of the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, own the first pick in this year’s draft, which gets underway on Friday night at the BB&T Center.
|
First- and second-round picks (by year) |
|
| 2014 Draft | 20 |
| 2013 Draft | 25 |
| 2012 Draft | 40 |
| 2011 Draft | 41 |
| 2010 Draft | 34 |
| 2009 Draft | 27 |
| 2008 Draft | 19 |
| 2007 Draft | 14 |
| 2006 Draft | 6 |
| 2005 Draft | 7 |
| earlier | 20 |
