Twenty more players joined the ever growing list of players who have been drafted by an NWHL team last night following the conclusion of the 2017 draft. Here’s how the numbers looked once the four teams had made their selections…
A record Number of Americans were Drafted, with 13 coming from within the USA. Selections from above the boarder were down 25% as only 6 Canadians made the list. Meanwhile the first ever selection from the Czech Republic was made in Denisa Krizova who was drafted 13th overall by the Whale. Krizova becomes only the second player outside of the USA and Canada to be drafted. The other was the Swiss, Laura Stalder, drafted 20th overall in last year’s draft.
The Pride’s opening pick of goalie Katie Burt means that the 1st overall pick in each year has been a different position; a forward in 2015, a blue liner in 2016 and now a goalie to complete the set in 2017. The NWHL prospect tracker had Burt ranked 5th overall, meanwhile the projected 1st pick, Brittany Howard, dropped to 10th overall.
A goalie may have gone first overall, but goalies being drafted have been on the decline, 3 drafted two years ago, 2 last year and just the one this year. However, a record number of forwards, 14, were selected.
Hockey East and ECAC provided the vast majority of the talent for this year, with 11 players coming from Hockey East and 8 coming from ECAC.
18 of the 20 picks were from the NWHL’s own top 30 prospects tracker with only two unlisted players making it under the radar to make the cut.
The Boston region continued to churn out prospects with 3 players being selected from Boston College and Boston University. The joint highest number of players along with the Northeastern programme.
With the draft now concluded, it will be a waiting game to see how many of these 20 players sign with their respective teams. Things are already looking positive as a few of the players, including Lexie Laing, sister of Denna and Brianna, expressed an intent to play in the NWHL following the conclusion of their college careers.
