Two of the top three picks in the NHL’s 2007 draft recently passed through Denver.
Both looked great.
On Friday, Buffalo-born Patrick Kane, the No. 1 overall pick, scored the Blackhawks’ only goal of regulation and then flashily beat Jose Theodore in the shootout to help Chicago knock off the Avalanche 2-1.
The shootout maneuver — actually a sequence that ended with him going backhand to forehand — brought this postgame reaction from Chicago coach Denis Savard, the Hall of Fame center: “Pretty scary move, huh?”
Kane said he had watched former major junior teammate Sam Gagner, now with Edmonton, use a similar strategy against a goalie with his catching glove on his right hand.
“As I was going down I thought I might try it,” Kane told reporters. “He went sprawling across on my move to the backhand and I had an open net.”
Six days earlier, the No. 3 overall choice in 2007, 18- year-old center Kyle Turris, had two goals as Wisconsin gained a bit of retribution for a controversial series-opening loss with a 7-2 rout of the University of Denver.
Turris, from the Vancouver, British Columbia, suburb of New Westminster, was the only NCAA player on Canada’s gold medal team in the World Junior Championships. When I talked with Turris in Denver, he emphasized he is enjoying the campus and hockey experiences in Madison, and wasn’t evasive about how long he planned to stay at Wisconsin before signing with the Phoenix Coyotes.
He genuinely doesn’t know. He was one of the youngest members of the 2007 draft crop, he’s a slight 6-feet-1 and 180 pounds, and both NCAA and the WJC competition is far above what he faced in Junior A with the Burnaby Express.
“What’s amazing is that even at the World Junior tournament, the difference between those 18-year-olds like Kyle and the 19-year-olds is noticeable,” Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said on the phone. “It’s really a 19- year-old tournament, and you could even see with the major junior kids that with the extra year, they’re just naturally stronger, they’re stronger on their skates and stronger in traffic. Those are the areas where Kyle certainly has some growing to do, but the hockey instincts are there, and that’s something you can’t teach.”
In the wake of the Islanders’ signing of Kyle Okposo, who left the University of Minnesota program in the middle of his sophomore season, and also New York general manager Garth Snow’s criticism of Gophers coach Don Lucia, the NHL has more fences to mend with the NCAA.
Maybe that’s part of the reason Maloney was adamant that going to NCAA hockey, and not major junior, was a wise route for Turris and also emphasized that he is a supporter of the NCAA programs as a developmental mechanism. He said the Coyotes, Turris’ family and everyone involved — including Turris’ Denver-based adviser, NHL player agent Kurt Overhardt — would re-evaluate the situation after the season.
It sounds as if Turris is likely to stick one more season with the Badgers.
Peter Forsberg.
I just threw out that name because everyone gets so excited around here every time “Foppa” is mentioned.
Well, there is this, too: Given the state of the Avalanche, the plot-thickener is whether Colorado still will have a realistic shot at a playoff spot by the time Forsberg makes a decision.
If it’s a “go,” it probably won’t come until after he plays for Sweden in an international tournament in his homeland from Feb. 7-10. He would have to be under contract by Feb. 26 to be eligible for the playoffs.
If the Avs seem out of the running, unless he can be sold on the idea that he could be riding into town to make a heroic attempt to get his former team back in the postseason picture, he would look elsewhere.
Turgeon honored.
Another former Avs center, Pierre Turgeon, who has remained in the Denver area with his family after his 2007 retirement, will be inducted into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Hall of Fame on April 2 in Montreal.
He had 116 goals in two seasons (1985-86 and 1986-87) with the QMJHL’s Granby Bisons, and he was the first overall choice in the 1987 draft, going to the Buffalo Sabres.
Turgeon’s final 20 NHL goals came in his two-season stint with the Avalanche, and his career numbers — 515 goals and 812 assists — mean he has a legitimate shot at being selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame at some point after he becomes eligible in 2010.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Sidney Crosby, C, Penguins
Initial guesses were that Crosby could be out at least a month, and up to six weeks.
In his three seasons, Crosby had missed only four games until Saturday night.
His absence also will take some of the luster off the Jan. 27 All-Star Game in Atlanta.
