Saturday, June 27, 2009

NHL Draft '09 Second Round Reaction

The Rangers selected center Ethan Werek with their second round pick - the one they got as compensation for Cherry. Werek spurned BU to play at Kingston of the OHL last season - one of Sean Avery's OHL squads. Werek nearly averaged a point per game for Doug Gilmour's squad despite his team coming in dead last. He is a tough kid who is willing to get his nose dirty to score and defensively capable of playing against the opposition's top players.

His father is Israeli but he turned down the chance to play for Team Israel in the hopes that he would get a shot at Team Canada. Can't imagine why ... the Canadian Jewish News put together a nice article about him.

Werek is certain not to make the team this season but is definitely not a long term project like our first round selection.

By the way, I am (rightfully) known as being down on the Rangers - I admittedly dislike the state of the franchise at the moment - but eternal optimist Jess of Prospect Park (someone who knows far more about the 16-20 crowd than any of us) mirrors my thoughts that picking Kreider was a bad move.

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