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Six years later, LA Takes a Flier on Ellerby |
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Hockey is a funny little world sometimes. Back before the 2007 Draft, the consensus top two defense prospects were Karl Alzner and Keaton Ellerby. After the top three picks (as expected) were forwards Patrick Kane, James van Riemsdyk and Kyle Turris, the Los Angeles Kings had the fourth overall pick of the Draft.
LA did indeed pick a defenseman, but it was neither of the expected candidates. Instead, they went way off the board and bypassed both Alzner and Ellerby to select Thomas Hickey.
Fast forward nearly six years. The Hickey pick didn't pan out for the Kings and he is now an Islander (finally making his NHL debut this year). Meanwhile, Ellerby didn't work out for Florida, struggling to stay in the lineup.
Today, the Panthers pulled the plug on Ellerby, and where does he end up? You guessed it... Los Angeles. Florida accepted a fifth-round draft pick from LA in exchange for the big defenseman.
Two thoughts here:
1) With the premium placed on defensemen of ANY demonstrable ability level or upside, the deal shows just how down the Panthers had gotten on Ellerby, and
2) This could be a classic case of a defenseman having severe growing pains in his initial organization only to put the pieces together when he moves to another club. Bill Meltzer made a player comparison that I agree with. In some ways Ellerby right now is similar to Philadelphia's Braydon Coburn during his struggling early years in the Atlanta organization -- a first-round draft pick who was very raw but had the size and athleticism to eventually become a solid NHL defenseman once he gained confidence and put the pieces together. It just didn't happen in a quick enough time frame with his first organization.
At the price of a fifth-round pick, this is pretty much a no-risk, high-reward pickup for LA.
Rumor blog to come. Stay tuned!
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