So who IS Benoit Pouliot? TSN’s Bob McKenzie calls him a “classic late bloomer.” A relative unknown going into last season, he was an 11th round pick in the OHL draft by the Sudbury Wolves as a 16 year old. But he blew up this season, earning the league’s Rookie of the Year award after leading all rookies with 67 points in the 2004-05 season. He has great ice vision, outstanding speed and hands, and at 6’2” and 180 lbs, he is developing into a big, powerful forward.
Some scouts have questioned Pouliot’s heart, saying he still doesn’t realize how great he can be and consequently doesn’t always play up to his incredible potential, but Jacques Lemaire is the perfect coach for a player like that. Many scouts said the same thing about Marian Gaborik when he was drafted #3 overall by the Wild in their inaugural season, and he has become the team’s franchise player.
Pouliot fell to the Wild thanks to a little luck. While most projections had Pouliot going either 2nd or 3rd in the draft, Anaheim surprised people by selecting RW Bobby Ryan with the 2nd overall selection, a player many experts thought Minnesota would take at #4. With Ryan off the board, Carolina looked to address a gaping hole in their roster by drafting defenseman Jack Johnson, who played for Shattuck St. Mary’s in Faribault. Johnson was the preferred pick for many Wild fans, but after drafting Brent Burns two years ago (and subsequently moving him back to his natural defensive position) and then selecting A.J. Thelen last year, Minnesota’s needs were greater at forward anyway. So in the end Carolina probably did the Wild a huge favor by selecting Johnson instead of Pouliot.
Minnesota’s growing stable of good, young players makes it unlikely Pouliot will crack this lineup this season, especially in the new CBA environment which credit’s players with a year of NHL service time if they play in just one NHL game in a season. However, if Pouliot should continue to progress during training camp, it’s not impossible to believe Minnesota could keep him around when the season begins. If that happens, though, it will have to be because Lemaire and company think he will be an everyday contributor and not a project player to be brought along slowly like some other first round picks have been in the past.
Once Minnesota got Pouliot in the stable, they focused their attention on their selection near the end of the second round. With the 57th pick, Minnesota took LW Matt Kassian from the WHL. Kassian is a big boy (6’3”, 232 lbs) who logged just 6 points in 69 games last season, but amassed a whopping 172 PIM in those games. He was only ranked 103rd in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings, but Minnesota saw something in him that they believe will make him an important part of the club’s future, so they pounced on him while they could. This pick will be watched with great curiosity by Wild fans.
In the third round, Minnesota went with goalie Kristofer Westblom of the WHL. Westblom was an impressive 12-2-4 with a 1.81 GAA and .919 save percentage in 18 games during his rookie campaign. He also stepped up in pressure games, going 3-1 with a 1.91 GAA and .932 save percentage in four playoff games. He was the 17t ranked goalie going into the draft according to Central Scouting.
Other picks included WHL centers Kyle Bailey and Morten Madsen in the fourth round, and defensemen Anthony Aiello and Riley Emmerson in the 5th and 7th rounds respectively. Madsen played in Sweden and was the 17th ranked European prospect according to Central Scouting, though it was considered a VERY poor year for European players, as evidenced by the fact that not a single Russian skater was selected in the draft’s first round.
TRADE MADE
Minnesota also made a trade in the draft, sending one of its 4th round pick to the Ottawa Senators for center Todd White. White scored 29 points in the 2003-04 season, after logging a career high 60 points in 2002-03. For his career, the 30 year old center has 144 points in 230 games. He has also played for Chicago and Philadelphia.
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Many Thought Pouliot Was Draft's #2 Player
The 2005 NHL Entry Draft will be remembered as the Sidney Crosby Draft. The best player to come out of the draft went not to the team with the greatest need, but the team with the greatest luck. And surprisingly, it wasn’t the New York Rangers.
Yet despite the focus on Crosby in this year’s draft, Minnesota Wild Assistant GM Tommy Thompson and company are hoping Wild fans will remember this as the Benoit Pouliot Draft. That’s because Minnesota landed Pouliot, whom many scouts had pegged as the second best player in the draft. "He is a highly skilled player that has the potential to be a good, solid member of the Wild for many years and is the type of player that will excite our fans," noted Thompson after the draft Saturday.
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