Minnesota hockey players who will be 18 years old on or before September 15, 2014 and not older than 20 years old before December 31, 2014 are eligible for the National Hockey League entry level draft this year to be held this weekend at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.  All over the web, one can find prognostications on who will be drafted in all seven rounds or 210 picks.

Draft age is not a single year, but a two year plus eight and a half month sliding window.  As an example of that, in last year’s draft two Minnesota brothers, Jonny and Mike Brodzinski, were drafted.  Jonny was born in June 1993.  He was 20 years old when drafted.  His brother Mike was born in May 1995 and was 18 years old before September 15, 2014.  Mike was also drafted.  Both went in the same draft to different teams.

This year, to be eligible, a player has to be 18 before September 15, 2014 meaning he had to be born in Jan-Sept 1996 ; or a player had to born after December 31, 1993, or a 1994 or 1995 player.

The draft can make for odd situations for different teams.  Ryan Norman, Shattuck Prep’s leading scorer from Maplewood MN for the past two seasons, has an October 1996 birthday.  He should be ineligible for the draft this year.  However his teammate this past season, Chase Phelps Eagan MN, is eligible for the draft with an April 1996 birthdate. 

In the 2013, 53 USA borne players were selected, 15 of the 53 had ties to Minnesota.  It is tough to predict what players the NHL scouts and gm’s will draft with their seven draft choices for 2014; even tougher to predict what players with Minnesota connections will be drafted.  This is a YHH’s shot at the top 10 Minnesota players likely to be picked in the upcoming draft.

#1. Austin Poganski/Tri-City Storm/St. Cloud Cathedral/St. Cloud MN-Poganski skated youth hockey for the St. Cloud Association.  He was the #2 scorer on the St. Cloud Cathedral varsity as a ninth grader.  The 6’1” 200lbs Poganski skipped his senior year at St. Cloud Cathedral last season to play junior hockey for the Tri-City Storm in the USHL.  He made the top 20 selects as part of Minnesota Hockey’s High Performance program and has played on USA Hockey’s U17, U18, and U19 teams the past two seasons as well as playing for the Storm.  In 2013-2014, Poganski posted 31 points (19 goals) in 55 games with the Storm.  He will play for North Dakota next fall.  He is an offensive minded player.  

#2. Jack Dougherty/USA Nationals/St. Thomas Academy/Cottage Grove MN-Dougherty is a lanky 6’2” defenseman that will only get stronger.  Dougherty started out playing youth hockey for the Park-Cottage Grove Association.  He played two seasons for St. Thomas Academy and posted 24 points (21 assists) for the Cadets his junior year.  Both seasons, St. Thomas Academy won Class A State Titles.  As part of Minnesota Hockey’s High Performance program, Dougherty was invited to play on USA hockey teams in the 2012-2013 season.  Last season, Dougherty played junior hockey as part of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.  He played in 90 games.  In his career, he has posted 83 points/18 goals playing in 152 games for St. Thomas Academy, playing Upper Midwest High School Elite League Hockey, USNTDP Juniors, U.S. National U18s, and USA U18s.  He will be skating for Wisconsin in Big 10 hockey in 2014-2015 season.

#3. Shane Gersich/USNTDP Juniors/Holy Catholic Family/Chaska MN-Gersich posted an amazing 159 points/74 goals in 67 high school games for the Fire before leaving Holy Catholic Family last season to play for the USA U18 team in the USHL.  In his first season on the USA team, he posted 32 points/16 goals in 61 games.  He has committed to play hockey for the University of North Dakota in the 2015-2016 season.  He is fast and has a high velocity shot with a quick release. Gersich was drafted #1 overall in the 2012 USHL draft by the Omaha Lancers.

#4. Keegan Iverson/Portland Winterhawks/Breck/Minneapolis MN-Iverson started playing hockey in the St. Louis Park Association, but has moved fast in the hockey ranks.  He played two years, starting as an eighth grader, for Breck’s varsity.  Iverson posted 55 points (23 goals) in 47 games for the Mustangs and journeyed to the Xcel twice to play in the Class A State Tourney.  After his ninth grade season, he joined the Portland Winterhawks in the Western Hockey League and split the 2012-2013 season playing for the USA U17 team and the Winterhawks.  Last season, he posted 42 points (22 goals) in 67 games for the Winterhawks.  Now a 6’ 210lb center/wing, Iverson plays a solid game, both offense and defense.  He is an early 1996 born player and will be draft eligible in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

#5. Dylan Malmquist/Edina MN-Some hockey games just stick in your memory.  At the 2010 Peewee A state tourney championship game, Elk River had just scored late in the game to take a 3-2 lead over Malmquist’s Hornets.  Malmquist took the ensuing faceoff and just willed himself to score; beating a tough Elk defense to tie the game.  Then he went back to center ice and did it again.  Edina won the state title 5-3.  All he has done since is to improve his play and grow stronger.

#6. Zach Yon/Roseau MN-As a peewee, Yon (with Alex Strand) led the Roseau team to the 2009 Peewee A State Title beating Woodbury 6-1.  In the semifinal game that year, the peewee Rams beat an Edina team that had Dylan Malmquist, Miquel Fidler, Chase Phelps, Mark Kaske, Chase Jungels, Tyler Nanne and goalie Andrew Rohkohi on its roster 4-3 in overtime.  The two teams made it to the state as seniors last March.  Roseau’s varsity featured 10 of the Ram peewee state champs, but the Rams could not get by Lakeville North.  Edina, led by the only three players from that peewee A team (Malmquist, Nanne, and Rohkohi), won the state title.  Yon had an outstanding career with the Roseau varsity playing in all 75 regular season games from sophomore to senior.  Yon posted 179 points (91 goals) in those three seasons and will join the University of North Dakota in the fall of 2015.  A hard shot and a clever puck handler, the solid Yon should go in this draft and end up on a USHL team next season. 

#7 Jack Glover/USA Hockey/Benilde-St Margaret’s/St.Louis Park MN-Glover is the second player on this list that started out playing youth hockey for the St. Louis Park Association.  His development has followed a more conventional route.  After playing Bantam A’s for St. Louis Park, the then tenth grader, Glover, joined the Benilde-St. Margaret’s varsity team for their championship run to the 2012 Class AA title.  Glover posted 16 points (14 assists) in 22 regular season games that season.  He joined the USA Hockey National Development program in 2012-2013 and has played junior hockey the past two seasons on USA Hockey teams.  Glover is another rangy defenseman who can score and works well on the power play. 

#8. Jack and Nick Poehling/Lakeville North/Lakeville MN-Jack and NIck share the same birthdate and should be 18 by the end August this year.  They, with their brother Ryan (who just made Minnesota Hockey's HP-15 selects), lit up the Minnesota Hockey High School scene last year and since all three have opted to go to St. Cloud State.  If selected in this draft, the Poehlings would among the youngest taken.  They may play a year at juniors before going to St. Cloud.  In either case, the hope here is that the Poehlings play for the Lakeville North Panthers next season and maybe swat a few Hornets (this corner of YHH is opposed to “three-peats”).

#9. Daniel Labosky/Tri-City Storm/Benilde-St. Margaret’s/Edina MN-YHH first sawing him playing on a Edina peewee B team as a first year peewee.  He was already executing a neat breakout and beating the defense down the ice, but what caught our eye is that he more often gave up the clear shot to draw the goaltender’s attention and feed a teammate.  Then he would turn and check the nearest defender.  Labosky has played in 178 games in the last five seasons.  He has scored 220 points; 163 assists.  Next season, Labosky will be playing for Colorado College.

#10. Jake Randolph/Omaha Lancers/Duluth East/Duluth MN-Two seasons ago, the Duluth East native made to move to the Omaha Lancers in the USHL and had a good season posting 44 points (13 goals) in 64 games.  This past season, he had a great season, posting 86 points (60 assists) in 60 games to lead the USHL in scoring.  With a March 1994 birthdate, this is Randolph’s last year of eligibility, and he should go in the draft.  Randolph’s father is Mike Randolph, longtime coach for Duluth East’s hockey team.  Randolph led his father's Greyhounds in scoring in his sophomore and senior years; he was the #2 scorer as a junior.

Sentimental  Pick: Chase Perry/Wenatchee Wild (NAHL)/Andover/Andover MN-Minnesota borne goaltenders are hard to find in the NHL.  Who knows Alex Stalock?  Stalock spent two seasons on the US National Development team, two seasons in the USHL, three seasons at UMD, and four seasons playing minor league hockey before playing hockey for the San Jose Sharks last season. The St. Paul MN born goalie played for the South St. Paul Packers varsity and is the only Minnesota goalie in the NHL.  That makes Chase Perry/Andover a sentimental long shot to go in the 2014 NHL draft, but YHH would love to see that happen.  Perry is the start of a line of potentially great Minnesota goalies coming through the Minnesota Youth Hockey programs.  With the falloff of goaltenders nationally, Alex Stalock may be joined in the NHL by more Minnesota goalies in the next few years.  Chase Perry posted a 15-12-6 record for the Wenatchee Wild on the NAHL this past season.  He gave up an average of 2.3 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on net.  Perry skipped his senior year at Andover to play in the NAHL.  He will play for Colorado College this fall.