Postdraft Winners and Losers

Here's a look at some players who had a good day on Saturday, and a few that didn't have such a good day on Saturday.

Winners:

Trevor Lewis- Lewis went higher than anyone expected when the Kings traded up to number 17 to get him. The only downside is that this probably puts some undue pressure on Lewis to perform well at Michigan. He likely wouldn't have been that high if he hadn't played all season with Kyle Okposo.

David Fischer-Montreal had the opportunity to take Ty Wishart, who most felt was the best defenseman in the draft, after Erik Johnson, but instead traded down so they could take Fischer

Michigan State defenseman- Michigan State has been pretty quiet in the draft the past few years, but this year was a good year for the Spartans. Defenseman Jeff Petry and Michael Ratchuk both went in the early second round, and forward/defenseman Ryan Turek was selected with the first pick of the fourth round.

Blake Geoffrion- The former Tennessee native was picked by the hometown Preds in the NHL draft. I believe he'll be the first local to play for Nashville when he does.

Jeff Zatkoff- His great play last season helped him move up enough to be the first collegiate-affiliated goalie to be drafted.

Kevin Quick-I'm surprised we haven't heard more about this kid as a 2007 recruit. He was the first uncommitted college prospect to be taken in the draft, beating out Aaron Marvin by 11 picks.

Jase Weslosky- It was probably reassuring for St. Cloud fans that Bobby Goepfert's successor was taken over highly touted goalie recruits like Minnesota's Alex Kangas, Colorado College's Richard Bachman and Denver's Marc Cheverie.

Troy Mattila- He was the only player from the NAHL to get drafted.


Losers:

Nigel Williams- Williams seemed bound to either go very high or very low. He ended up falling out of the first round and into the late second round.

Brian Strait-A lot of people had him in the first round of the draft, but he slipped all the way to the start of the third round. I can't believe no one was willing to use a second round pick on him. I think a lot of teams will regret that a few years from now.

Mike Forney-Injuries killed his draft stock. He got hurt at the Minnesota State High School tournament, causing him to miss some games against quality competition, and couldn't play in the U18 championships due to a leg injury. Teams weren't willing to gamble on him without seeing him play more against quality competition.

Kevin Montgomery-He was supposed to be one of the best defenseman on the NTDP team, but was the 6th defenseman taken from the NTDP team in the draft.

Derrick Lapoint- He ended up sliding to a spot way lower than where he was projected to go.

Jan-Michael Juutilainen- A lot of people had him as kind of a wildcard to maybe go as high as the first round of the draft, but he wasn't taken until the 6th round.

Ryan Flynn-A tough year dropped him all the way down from being a potential second round pick, to a sixth round pick.

Billy Sauer- He was dangerously close to not being drafted at all. I think he was unfairly punished for being thrown into the starting job at Michigan a year too early.