His Junior Steelers team finished a disappointing second. The 18-year-old Canadian center had 32 goals and 62 assists in 69 games last season for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. Blackhawks defenseman prospect Blake Hillman also plays for Denver.
Barrett was in Chicago for the draft and quickly donned a Blackhawks sweater and hat to celebrate the moment.
After dealing Niklas Hjalmarsson, Artemi Panarin and Tyler Motte before lunch, the Hawks swapped first round picks with the Dallas Stars, moving back from 26th to 29th to select Henri Jokiharju.
The Blackhawks used their first of two third round picks to draft Andre Altybarmakyan, a right-winger, who shoots left, from Russian Federation (in case the name didn’t give that away).
“Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane call my name, and it can’t be a better feeling”, Jokiharu said. Soderlund had a decent season in the Swedish Hockey League previous year, with three goals and four assists to his credit.
Hischier fits in nicely with Shero’s desire to put a faster team on the ice.
“The idea of varsity hockey at the University of IL has great appeal”, said IL director Josh Whitman. 31 players will find a new home with an National Hockey League organizations as they receive the call to the next level of their careers. The 18-year-old Barratt is from Bristol, Penn. In 31 games in the MHL last season, he scored 20 goals and notched 25 assists, and he also racked up 77 penalty minutes as he established a reputation as a pesky forward with offensive upside.
“Once we gathered all the information we felt comfortable that if he was there for us we were going to take him”, general manager Ron Hextall said. NY got the No. 7 pick in a trade with Arizona and selected center Lias Andersson, whose father Niklas played in the league.