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High Draft Picks Abound in AHL

October 20, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, MA ... The American Hockey League continues to feature the top young players outside the NHL, and a look at the 28 team rosters around the AHL shows that 168 players, or roughly one of every four, were selected in the first or second round of an NHL Entry Draft.

A total of 62 first-round selections and 106 second-round picks have already appeared on AHL rosters this season, including 17 top ten draftees. The San Antonio Rampage, off to a 4-0-0-0 start, are tops in the league with 11 high draft picks, led by first-rounders Stephen Weiss (4th in 2001), Lukas Krajicek (24th in 2001) and Petr Taticek (9th in 2002). The Rochester Americans also have 11, including Jiri Novotny (22nd in 2001) and Jason Pominville (55th in 2001).

Springfield, Lowell and Albany boast 10 first- and second-rounders apiece. The Falcons' roster features six former first-round draft picks, including Fredrik Sjostrom (11th in 2001), Igor Knyazev (15th in 2001) and Jeff Taffe (30th in 2000), who has eight points in four games to start the season. The Hamilton Bulldogs claim five former first-rounders, including 2001 selections Mike Komisarek (7th overall), Alexander Perezhogin (25th overall) and Alexander Svitov (3rd overall), who scored twice in a 4-3 overtime loss to Grand Rapids on Sunday.

The AHL is once again home to an impressive rookie class in 2003-04, many of whom were highly drafted by their NHL parent teams. The 2001 NHL Entry Draft yielded St. John's defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo (17th), Cleveland's Marcel Goc (20th), Philadelphia's Jeff Woywitka (27th), Albany's Adrian Foster (28th), Rochester's Derek Roy (32nd), Hartford's Fedor Tjutin (40th) and Worcester's Jay McClement (57th). Among the top picks in 2002 were Chicago's Kari Lehtonen (2nd), Milwaukee's Scottie Upshall (6th), Manchester's Denis Grebeshkov (18th), Norfolk's Anton Babchuk (21st) and Providence's Hannu Toivonen (29th), and Manitoba forward Ryan Kesler, who recorded his first four pro points against St. John's on Oct. 13, was the 23rd selection in 2003.

Half of the 128 players chosen in the first two rounds of the 2000 and 2001 drafts are continuing to develop in the AHL, including Jason Bacashihua (Utah), Brad Boyes (Cleveland), Peter Budaj (Hershey), Shane Endicott (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), Tomas Kopecky (Grand Rapids), Pascal Leclaire (Syracuse), Filip Novak (San Antonio), Mark Popovic (Cincinnati) and 2003 Calder Cup champion Kyle Wanvig (Houston).

ABOUT FACE ... After becoming the top development team for the Carolina Hurricanes, the Lowell Lock Monsters won a division championship in 2001-02, then dropped to a league-worst 54 losses last season. Now this year, with a dual affiliation in place, the Lock Monsters are off to a perfect 4-0-0-0 start.

Second-year pro Ryan Bayda has sparked Lowell's offense with six points in the four wins, all of which have come against opponents from within the Atlantic Division. Bayda, who skated in 25 NHL games with Carolina last season, recorded his first career hat trick on Oct. 13 to power the Lock Monsters' 4-2 win over Worcester.

Lowell, which failed to win as many as three straight games during the 2002-03 season, saw its current winning streak reach four when defenseman Tomas Malec, who played in the AHL All-Star Classic as a rookie last year, netted his first pro goal on Saturday, the overtime winner in a 2-1 victory over Hartford.

This season is Lowell's first as a shared affiliate of the Hurricanes and the Calgary Flames. The Flames' contributions have paid immediate dividends with the Lock Monsters, including forwards Jason Morgan, Matt Davidson, Robert Dome and Martin Sonnenberg and goaltender Dany Sabourin, who has combined with Carolina prospect Patrick DesRochers to stop 118 of 124 shots on the year (.952).

NET TRAFFIC ... The American Hockey League experienced a record amount of traffic on theahl.com last week, with more than 433,000 page views during the first full week of the 2003-04 regular season. Nearly half of the traffic was credited to the site's scoreboard and statistics pages, which this year are powered in real time by Pointstreak.

The AHL Internet Network, including the official Web sites of all 28 AHL teams, drew over 44 million page views from September 2002 to August 2003, including more than 10 million on theahl.com alone.

OFF THE ICE ... The Philadelphia Phantoms wore special Halloween-themed jerseys on Sunday and auctioned them off post-game, raising $24,250 for Phantoms Wives Charities... Any time the Syracuse Crunch score five or more goals during a home game this season, fans can redeem their ticket stubs for a $10 play at the nearby Turning Stone Casino Resort... Utah's loss to Chicago on Saturday came on Guaranteed Win Night at the "E" Center, meaning 6,254 free tickets to today's game against San Antonio... Future Hockey Hall of Famer Ray Bourque dropped the first puck at Sunday's Manchester-Hershey game at the Verizon Wireless Arena, and participated in intermission activities that raised $2,000 for the local Toys for Tots program.

ETC. ... Kari Lehtonen, the second overall pick in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, made his pro debut on Saturday night and made 41 saves in Chicago's 3-2 overtime win over Utah... Kent McDonell recorded his first NHL goal with Columbus on Saturday night, then scored both goals for Syracuse in a 2-1 overtime win at Philadelphia on Sunday... Travis Scott, who once made 64 saves in a game in 1997, turned aside 56 Cincinnati shots in San Antonio's 4-2 victory on Thursday night... Manitoba's Fedor Fedorov, younger brother of Anaheim's Sergei Fedorov, leads the AHL in scoring with 10 points in six games... Rookie Greg Watson, a second-round draft pick in 2001, tallied his first four pro points in Binghamton's 8-2 rout of Worcester on Saturday... Bridgeport has scored exactly one goal in five straight games, but earned its first win of the year with a 1-0 blanking of the Senators on Sunday... With its 0-2-1-1 start, Albany is now winless in its last 14 regular-season games (0-8-4-2)... Rookie Dimitri Patzold made 19 saves in his pro debut as Cleveland shut out Grand Rapids on Friday, 2-0, ending the Barons' own winless skid at 14 games (0-12-1-1)... Matt Herr, an AHL All-Star in 2002 and 2003, scored five goals in two weekend games for Providence... Seven of the 12 all-time meetings between Cincinnati and Milwaukee have gone into overtime... After Saturday's 2-1 loss in Lowell, Hartford is winless in its last 22 overtime contests (0-9-13)... Hershey is 4-0-1-0 in its first five games this season, the Bears' best start since opening 6-0-0 in 1982-83.

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