Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Flurry of trades produces NHL-high 14 picks for Lightning, with the focus on size.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 25, 2001
SUNRISE -- Trades, trades trades.
It seemed like you couldn't go 10 minutes Sunday during the second day of the draft at National Car Rental Center without Lightning general Rick Dudley swinging a deal.
That's an exaggeration, of course, but not by much. The Lightning even traded to get the draft's last pick, No. 289 overall.
Tampa Bay had five picks scheduled for rounds four through nine. By the end of the day, the Lightning had made five trades, had 10 selections -- giving the team a draft-high 14 for the two-day event -- and picked up Avalanche defenseman Nolan Pratt.
"The depth of this draft was absolutely astounding," Dudley said. "We're pretty excited."
Getting Pratt seemed to put an exclamation point on the day.
"He's just what we need," Dudley said. "He's that big, miserable defenseman we were really looking for."
The Lightning acquired Pratt, 25, for its sixth-round pick (184th overall). Dudley said the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder will find immediate work on the back line.
Dudley said he will re-evaluate the defense before determining if Pratt qualifies as the veteran stay-at-home player he indicated he would acquire in the off-season.
Pratt did not play in the Stanley Cup final. He had a goal and two assists with 40 penalty minutes and was plus-2 in 46 regular-season games.
Tampa Bay could not have gotten any bigger Sunday if it had given its players shots of growth hormones.
"We stated this year we had to get bigger and faster," Dudley said. "We have been hammering that into the (scouts), and it paid off."
The smallest player taken was 6-3, 176-pound Russian wing Ilya Solarev. The biggest: 6-7, 234-pound defenseman Arthur Femenella, a New York native playing for Sioux City of the United States Hockey League. In between were 6-4, 193-pound right wing Aaron Lobb from London of the OHL and 6-3, 195-pound defenseman Paul Lynch of the EJHL's Valley Junior Warriors.
Dennis Packard, a 6-5, 214-pound left wing, was taken in the seventh round (219 overall) even though he may not be available for three years. The 19-year-old will be a sophomore at Harvard majoring in psychology.
"We've got time," head scout Jake Goertzen said. "We've got quite a few guys who are ahead of him. But in two or three years, he may be right there."
The Lightning's massive scouting of Russia apparently paid off with the selection of three players noticed when Dudley and Goertzen were the only scouts at a post-season tournament in the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk.
The haul -- Solarev, 6-3, 196-pound left wing Dimitri Bezrukov and 6-3, 207-pound center Vitali Smolianinov -- gave Tampa Bay six Russians in the draft.
Tampa Bay wanted 6-4, 225-pound Swedish defenseman Henrik Bergfors so bad it traded its ninth-round pick in next year's draft to Colorado for the final pick.
Mr. Irrelevant? Dudley thinks not.
"We liked him a lot," Dudley said. "When you can get a 6-4 player with a ninth-round pick, you do it."