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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Draft summary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THRASHERS PICKS RoundNamePosition 1Zach BogosianD 1Daultan LaveilleC 3Danick PaquetteRW 4Vinny SaponariRW 5Nicklas LasuLW 6Christopher CarrozziG 7Zach RedmondD
I wrote in Saturday’s paper about Zach Bogosian, the defenseman from the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League, and Daultan Laveille, the center who is moving from Junior B to Michigan State.
Today, the Thrashers got five more young players. My story will focus on Vinny Saponari, the guy from Powder Springs. So here’s a little about the other guys, from a conversation I had with Don Waddell.
Danick Paquette: “He’s a tough, tough kid. He plays a very rugged style of hockey. He’s not going to be denied. He’s going to pay the price to play in the NHL, and he’ll play in the NHL for a long time.”
Nicklas Lasu: The two-way forward will come to the Thrashers’ development camp and return to Sweden to play one more year. The lack of a transfer agreement between the NHL and the international hockey governing body doesn’t make this a risky pick, Waddell said, because Lasu is Swedish. “If he’s ready to come and good enough to play, they all come over,” he said.
Christopher Carrozzi: He will play at least another year of major junior hockey and probably two. “You can never have too many young goalies. He just needs to play hockey,” Waddell said.
Zach Redmond: He was born in Traverse City and goes to school there at Ferris State. That gives him a connection to the Thrashers, who play in a prospects tournament there every year. But that’s not why Atlanta drafted him. “We know him as a college player,” Waddell said. “He has very, very good puck skills, reads the play well, good vision.” What stood out about Redmond were his stats as a freshman, six goals and 13 assists in 37 games for his CCHA team.
