The 2010 NFL Draft has come on gone with 7 rounds of hope and promise for both the teams selecting and the players selected. None of that will be different for the NHL Draft that will happen June 25th in Los Angeles.

The question is how can people tell what player their favorite NHL team will select by what NFL teams selected. Did you hear what coaches and general managers of NFL teams said.

We took that best player available.

He was the player we targeted.

We had him much higher on our draft board than where we selected him. OR We had a much higher grade on him than where we selected him.

Player X has a big upside. OR Player X has a motor that won't stop. OR Player X is a big character guy.

He fits a position of need.

We are really excited that he fell to us. We didn't think he would be there when we selected at X spot.

Sound familiar? You will hear all those quotes from your team after they select their draft pick. You will also have a team that will shock and select a player that everyone else had much lower or questions if his game transitions to the top level of their profession. Just as Denver took Tim Tebow earlier than anyone thought he would go there will be a NHL team take a player they love that maybe no one else does. Do any of you remember Thomas Hickey? The 4th overall pick by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2007 draft was a guy that was ranked 26th on the final ranking by Central Scouting on just the North American skaters. That wasn't including European skaters like Lars Eller, Alexei Cherepanov or Mikael Backlund.

Just the same is the players that slide down the draft that most "experts" have much higher on the board but don't get selected until much later. Just like Jimmy Clausen or Colt McCoy who slides down there will be players that do the same. In the same 2007 draft the hot name coming into the draft was Angelo Esposito who was the 8th ranked North American skater by Central Scouting but a lot of people thought he was going to be a star in the NHL since he was 16. He even was compared to Guy Lafleur. Esposito didn't get selected until 20th by Pittsburgh and has since been traded to the Atlanta Thrashers. He has yet to play an NHL game.

Another player from that draft with a very high grade going into the draft but fell and fell was Maksim Mayorov who was the 4th rated European skater by Central Scouting but didn't get selected until the 4th round by the Blue Jackets. Mayorov has played a handful of games in the NHL for the Jackets and has been a very good player in the AHL. The question is will he ever make the next step.

So there you have it. Now you know exactly who your team will select in this year's draft. He is "a player that is going to make our hockey team better."

Fire The Cannon!

Eric Smith
Eric.Smith@HockeyBuzz.com

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