Ondrej Palat – Belfast
Ondrej Palat, a sterling all-around talent on left wing, has joined the Belfast Giants as the first player selected in the EURO League’s Season 4 draft. The 22-year-old from the Czech Republic doesn’t have much size, generously listed at 6-0, 180, but that’s about the only area in which he’s lacking. Palat projects to be one of the best forwards in the game, a possible superstar. The addition of Palat might necessitate a move to center for Lars Eller and it makes the resigning of Marcel Goc, the Giants’ only unsigned forward, less of an issue.
Olli Maatta – Stockholm
Finnish blueliner Olli Maatta is only 19 and he already has good size at 6-2, 206. He became the second pick in the draft and will fly over the Gulf of Bothnia, move over one Scandinavian country and join the Stockholm Eagles. Scouts like his physical attributes and the way he thinks the game. He won’t be confused with either of the Kronwall brothers because he’s not very aggressive, but there is a good chance he’ll play this season in Stockholm. He and Jake Muzzin will hasten the end of Anton Babchuk’s time in Stockholm at some point, although Babchuk is one of the few experienced defensemen on the team right now. General Manager Michael Sauer said he had a tough time deciding between Maatta and the slightly older and more developed Torey Krug for the pick, but in the end, Maatta’s potential and size won out.
Torey Krug – Prague
Krug didn’t have to wait long for his name to be picked. Prague, with its first of three Round 1 picks, snatched him up. Krug is small, but he does great work once his team sets up inside the opponent’s zone. He is agile and quick and is adept at moving laterally in the point position to create openings for his surprisingly hard shot. The Michigan-born Krug is expected to play right away for the Cats and he may be the best of four sure future stars who are 24 or younger on the Prague blueline: Krug, Justin Schultz, Dmitri Kulikov and Roman Josi.
Tyler Johnson – Milan
Milan went next and selected another American, 23-year-old Tyler Johnson, a center who plays a lot like Palat. In fact, the two learned the fundamentals of the game by playing together in the NHL with Tampa. Johnson doesn’t have the glistening talent Palat does, but he is basically a workaholic on and off the ice. Of the four centermen currently under contract in Italy, he might already be the best. The Guerriero have plenty of cap space to work with, so Johnson might see an experienced veteran ahead of him on the depth chart by the time free agent frenzy is over, but he will be a key cog in the Milan machine for years.
Oslo, under GM Chris Lee, is next to select at No. 5, and TSN’s Bob McKenzie sees them going for one of the four or five sumptuous young centers who are near the top of the rankings. Of the available players, goalies Frederik Andersen and Martin Jones are ranked highest by Central Scouting Bureau, but the Outlaws already have a good young goalie in the fold in Semyon Varmalov. Tomas Hertl, Zemgus Girgensens, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Leon Draisaitl are surely being talked about in the Oslo war room, Mckenzie said. Lee already acquired two great defensive prospects this off season when he sent veteran Ryan Suter to Gothenburg in exchange for Morgan Rielly, Eric Gelinas and a second-round pick. Oslo finished just 2 points out of the playoffs last year, so they could also be thinking of a more immediate payoff in someone like homegrown Mats Zuccarello Aasen, a native of Oslo. But with Suter gone, that decision seems less likely.
