Taking an idea from my HLOG sister, KMS2...I have decided to examine the Draft picks up until now. Starting with, the first draft we participated in, 2000.
Round 1 ~ 4th Rostislav Klesla
Round 3 ~ 69th Ben Knopp
Round 5 ~ 133rd Petteri Nummelin
Round 5 ~ 138th Scott Heffernan
Round 5 ~ 150th Tyler Kolarik
Round 6 ~ 169th Shane Bendera
Round 7 ~ 200th Janne Jokila
Round 8 ~ 231st Peter Zingoni
Round 9 ~ 278th Martin Paroulek
Round 9 ~ 286th Andrej Nedorost
Round 9 ~ 292nd Louis Mandeville
Our very first pick of all time is Rostislav Klesla. Since then he has played in 328 NHL games with 29 goals and 59 assists and 358 penalty minutes. Oddly enough this is the player that Dave King got fired for telling MacLean that he needed some time in the minors to devlop more...if only MacLean would have listened to him.
As far as Ben Knopp goes...I checked on hockeydb and apparently now he is playing in a German league. He has never played a game in the NHL or the AHL. So there is that I suppose. After playing 61 games with the Blue Jackets in 2000-2001 Petteri Nummelin went and played 5 seasons with the Swiss-A League then came back to the NHL to play with the Minnesota Wild...and even played in their 5 playoff games this year. Scott Heffernan never played a game in the NHL instead he suffered a career ending concussion in 2002. Tyler Kolarik finished college then bounced around the minors for 2 seasons and decided to take a job in the financial field. Shane Bendera finished out the his WHL career in 2002 then had two professional seasons in the ECHL and UHL and now apparently lives in Edmonton and works as a carpenter...don't believe me Check it out. Janne Jokila who coincidently has the same birthday as me has never played in the NHL...but played the 2006-2007 season in Finland...now I don't know what he's doing. Peter Zingoni spent last season playing with the Philadelphia Phantoms. I am assuming he will be back there next year. Then there is Martin Paroulek's who after 2 years in the AHL left to go to the Czech league. Andrej Nedorost is still playing hockey over in Europe bouncing around from team to league. However, he did play 28 games with the Jackets in 3 different seasons. Louis Mandeville never played in the ECHL, AHL, or the NHL...he played in the CIS league...whatever that is. Anyway out of 11 kids that we drafted only TWO of them played in the NHL and a handful of them are still playing. It's kind of depressing when you think about it. Thanks for Klesla...I guess.
