The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders selected 19-year old defenseman Darren Rowe of the North American Hockey League’s St. Louis Jr. Blues with their first round choice- number seven overall- in today’s United States Hockey League entry draft.
Including Rowe, the Riders would go on to take defensemen with three of their first four picks. In all, the Riders selected 14 players- six forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders.
Rowe, a native of Simi Valley, California, last season finished tied for eighth among NAHL defenseman in goals (9), tied for sixth in assists (27) and seventh in points (36).
The Riders went for another defenseman, Minnetonka (Minnesota) High School’s Nate Jensen, in round two. Jensen, 18, scored four goals and totaled 18 points in 14 games with the Skippers last season.
In the third round, the Riders took forward Cody Murphy with pick number 27. Murphy, who spent the bulk of last season with the Team Illinois midget program, did play two USHL games for the now defunct Ohio Junior Blue Jackets last year. The 17-year old Highwood, Illinois, native was previously selected by the Blue Jackets in the third round of last October’s USHL Futures Draft and in the fifteenth round of last May’s USHL Entry Draft. Murphy turned out to be- along with goatender Troy Grosenick and defenseman Frankie Simonelli- the first of three Team Illinois products selected by the Riders.
The Riders drafted Matt Tennyson- another California-born NAHL defenseman- in the fourth round with the fortieth overall choice. The 18-year old Pleasanton, California, product scored four goals and recorded 14 points in 58 games with the Texas Tornado last season. Tennyson will play his college hockey at Western Michigan.
Grosenick, 18, went to the Riders in round six with the fiftieth overall selection.
One pick later the Riders used a choice acquired from the Sioux Falls Stampede to take 19-year old forward Jared Rickford. The Skokie, Illinois, native was a Springfield teammate of Rowe last season. Rickford scored 19 goals and notched 43 points in 58 games with the Jr. Blues last year.
After scooping up Rickford, the Riders did not choose again until selecting forward Scott Winkler in round 12. The Riders’ first six selections brought the number of players on the Cedar Rapids protected list to 23 (the USHL regular season roster limit). Per USHL draft rules, teams that fill the first 23 spots on their protected lists are required to wait until all other clubs have reached 23 players, at which point all teams resume drafting until they have filled out their protected lists with 30 players.
Winkler, a dual Norwegian-Canadian citizen, scored 40 goals and totaled 92 points while playing 70 games for Kansas City’s Russell Stover midget program last season. The Colorado College recruit last month was rated one hundred seventy-sixth among North American-based skaters in the National Hockey League Central Scouting Service’s final rankings of players eligible for June’s 2008 NHL Draft.
The Riders took another European forward, Swede Tobias Nilsson-Roos, in the thirteenth round with the one hundred second overall selection. Nilsson-Roos, 20, has spent three years playing for Malmo IF’s under-20 team. The Malmo native scored 30 goals totaled 50 points in 41 games last season. Nilsson-Roos has already committed to play college hockey at Vermont.
The Riders dealt the USHL rights to forward Mike Merrifield- who had been on Cedar Rapids’ protected list- to the Green Bay Gamblers in exchange for the first pick of the fourteenth round (number one hundred seven overall), a choice the Riders used on Scottsdale, Arizona, defenseman Derik Johnson. Derik Johnson, 18, played for the P.F. Chang’s midget program last year, where he was coached by his father, former National Hockey League defenseman Jim Johnson.
The Riders tabbed Simonelli with their second pick of the fourteenth round. Simonelli, 15, notched two goals and eight points in 25 Midwest Elite Hockey League games last season. The Bensenville, Illinois, native was also drafted by the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers earlier this month.
In the fifteenth round the Riders dipped into the collegiate ranks to take Boston College goaltender Andrew Margolin with the one hundred twenty-sixth overall selection. Margolin, 19, did not see any game action for the NCAA champion Eagles last season. The Mahwah, New Jersey, native joined B.C. out of Taft School in Connecticut.
The Riders used their sixteenth and seventeenth round picks to take a pair of prolific Minnesota high school forwards. The Riders selected Coon Rapids High’s Zach Vierling with the one hunrdred thirty-eighth pick and tabbed Steve Zierke of Benilde St. Margaret’s School with the one hundred fiftieth choice. Vierling, 18, scored 26 goals and rang up 63 points in 23 games last season and was named to the All-Northwest Suburban Conference Team while also earning Associated Press Honorable Mention All-State honors. Zierke, also 18, scored 24 times and added a whopping 44 assists for 68 points in 31 games last year and was, like Vierling, an A.P. Honorable Mention All-State selection.
The Riders took 17-year old St. Louis Jr. Blues midget defenseman Brian O’Rourke with their final pick- the one hundred sixty-second overall choice.
The RoughRiders’ draft picks will take to the ice for the first time in Cedar Rapids at the team’s try-out camp May 30 to June 1 at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.