The Edmonton Oilers selected Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Friday with the No. 1 pick in the National Hockey League draft.
The 18-year-old Red Deer Rebels’ centre was the top prospect heading into the draft and the front-runner since the Oilers, who finished the season with the worst record in the NHL, won the draft lottery April 12 and the right to pick first from this year’s crop of junior players.
“It would be a huge honour to go first but I just want to go to a team that wants me there,” Nugent-Hopkins said before the Oilers announced their pick.
“If it’s Edmonton that would be great, because it’s such a young, talented team with lots of promise for the future.”
The Hyphenated One – or RNH as he’s often called by the media – would have no problem playing under the microscope in a hockey mad Canadian city.
“I’ve thought about the pressure that would come from being a first overall pick in a Canadian city quite a bit, and I’d love to have that,” he said. “I always feel I play better under pressure.”
“If I go to Edmonton, I’m sure Taylor Hall (last year’s first overall) could help me out and give me some pointers. There’s lots of other young guys there (Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi) who are going through what I’m going through. I could talk to them, too,” he said.
Starting square one with a young, rebuilding club is exactly what Nugent-Hopkins would like. “I joined a rebuilding Red Deer (junior) team last season and I really liked what we accomplished there in my two years. Edmonton’s going through the same thing, only in the NHL. The ultimate goal is to win a Stanley Cup and doing it in a rebuild … I’d like that,” he said.
The only knock on the playmaker who had 106 points in 69 games last season with the Rebels.
“I’ve had him at my three-on-three (summer) camp. He’s slick. He’s good,” said Perry Pearn, the Montreal Canadiens’ assistant coach.
The one knock on Nugent-Hopkins that at 174 pounds he might not be big enough to compete in the NHL.
“My side-to-side agility has always helped me because I know I’m not the biggest guy. When I go into the corner with a bigger guy, I try and get the puck and get out of there as fast as I can,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who has a spidey-sense of where the danger is.
“You almost never get a full-out hit on him in the corners or the middle of the ice,” said one longtime NHL amateur scout earlier this season.
Since 1989, every first overall forward pick has played in the NHL immediately, but Nugent-Hopkins is an iffy proposition because of his size. “I wouldn’t be disappointed if I had to play again in Red Deer … another year of junior wouldn’t hurt me,” he said.
He’s almost guaranteed to be on Canada’s world junior team for the tournament after Christmas at Rexall Place and the Saddledome in Calgary if he doesn’t make the NHL jump right away.
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