After Michael Bournival, a hustling left winger, was taken by Stockholm to open the third round of the draft, the next 9 or so picks came fast and furious. Six of the round’s 10 picks were proespects. Jon Merrill, a 21-year-old defenseman who can move the puck, was drafted by Minsk with the 50th pick,…
The teams have completed two rounds of the Season 3 draft and have entered the third and final round. Not too many of the players who have been selected in the last 15 or 20 picks will see their names on the back of a EURO team jersey later this month when Season 4 begins.…
Calvin De Haan looks like he’ll be a smooth skater, a good puck handler with a good work ethic when he gets a little older. Today the defenseman became a member of the Oslo Outlaws. The 22-year-old Canadian is Oslo’s second player to come in the draft. They took 20-year-old Czech Tomas Hertl with the…
Nine more teams made trades Sunday and Monday to bring the total of off-season deals to 10. One deal saw two big, tough, young forwards go from Helsinki to Frankfurt in exchange for Travis Zajac, a 29-year-old who becomes Helsinki’s second line center. Zajac is a good all-around player who never scored more than 39 points…
When Dion Phaneuf gets too old to hit people and intimidate, Radko Gudas will be there for the Munich Fox. GM Troy Huzy made the bearded Czech his team’s first pick in the EURO Draft, taking him 20th overall. Gudas hits everything in sight, but he also is capable of playing well positionally and he…
Prague drafted bookend 21-year-old wingers with back-to-back picks to take us to the 20th pick in the EURO draft. American Tom Nieto and Slovakian Tomas Jurco are both classified as snipers, they skate at about the same pace, they are roughly the same size and it appears they will grow up in the league together,…
Bern got younger in goal Sunday with the selection of Cam Talbot, formerly of the New York Rangers. The 26-year-old will be a solid backup for Mike Smith in the Bears goal and he comes cheap: $562,500 for this season and next. Bern, a team built for Season 1 by its original GM Adam Ross…
Tomas Hertl, a versatile, fast forward with size and scoring ability was selected fifth overall in the EURO draft by the Oslo Outlaws. The Prague-born Hertl can play wing and while he’s currently on a team with a good mix of ages, he looks to mature along with 24 and under forwards Tyler Seguin, Elias…
One of the best teams in the EURO league since its inception three seasons ago looks like it’s changing course. The Copenhagen Tridents, under the direction of GM Dylan Callow, has flirted with the Cup every year but has never been able to latch onto it. They had 108 points in Season 1 to finish…
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…
