DETROIT — The NHL brought to the Finals the six top-rated North American prospects eligible for the June 20 draft. The players, all from major junior teams, went into the Penguins’ and Red Wings’ dressing rooms after the morning skates and were introduced at a Monday luncheon.
Sarnia Sting center Steven Stamkos is expected to go to the Tampa Bay Lightning with the first pick. The other five North American prospects are defensemen: Zach Bogosian of the Peterborough Petes, Drew Doughty of the Guelph Storm, Tyler Myers and Luke Schenn of the Kelowna Rockets, and Alex Pietrangelo of the Niagara IceDogs.
Schenn, a 6-foot-2, 216- pounder, has been compared in some scouting reports to Adam Foote, and Schenn said Monday he had watched Foote in the playoffs.
“He keeps the game very simple and he’s very physical,” Schenn said. “And from what I hear, forwards don’t like playing against him. He’s a proven winner, won Stanley Cups and played for Team Canada. I definitely like the way he plays.”
The top choices belong to Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Atlanta, St. Louis, the New York Islanders, Columbus and Toronto. The Avs don’t have a first-round pick after trading it to Columbus, part of the price for acquiring Foote.
Franzen returns.
The Penguins and Red Wings each made one significant lineup change for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Red Wings inserted center Johan Franzen, who sat out most of the Western Conference finals and Game 1 of the Finals with concussion symptoms, and made winger Darren McCarty a healthy scratch.
The Penguins put veteran winger Gary Roberts back in the lineup, making Georges Laraque a healthy scratch.
Changing channels.
Game 2 was the final NHL telecast of the season for the national cable network Versus. The U.S. coverage switches to NBC for the rest of the series.
Memorial Cup.
None of the six prospects played in the Memorial Cup, the four-team tournament that crowns the champion of Canadian major junior hockey. Three leagues operate under the Canadian Hockey League umbrella, and one of the handful of U.S.- based franchises — the Spokane Chiefs, co-owned by former baseball star George Brett — won the tournament, knocking off the Kitchener Rangers 4-1 in Sunday’s championship game. Kitchener also was the host team of the tournament.
Also, Drayson Bowman of Littleton had six goals in the tournament for Spokane, and he had the winning goal in the championship game. Bowman, 19, was in his third season with the Chiefs. Carolina drafted him in the third round last year.
