Central Scouting Rankings

• A two-sport athlete, Budish suffered a torn ACL during football season in the fall of 2008 and was forced to sit his senior season of hockey. Despite his injury he is expected to attend the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2009.

• Before his injury, he played 15 games with Team Southwest in the Minnesota High School Elite League recording 27 points (14-13-27).

• As a member of the Edina High School hockey team in 2007-08, Budish recorded 63 points (26-37-63) in 30 games. He was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and to the All-Metro First Team.

• He was selected to represent Team USA at the 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.

• Budish is the youngest of four boys, all of whom have played hockey for the Edina Hornets. The oldest, Andy was a member of the 1997 State Champions while the two middle brothers, Josh and Jeff, both played football and hockey at Edina with Jeff going on to play hockey at St. Olaf College from 2004 to 2008. He currently wears number 22, the same number his brothers wore.

• He started skating at the age of two and played for the first time with Edina Mites at five years old, trying to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers. He credits his older brothers for having influenced his career the most -- “they have always pushed me to become better. They come to most of my games and point out things that I did well and things I need to work on. I watched them growing up and learned from them how important teamwork is and saw what it takes to win games.”

• Budish patterns his game after Joe Thornton - “because he is a big, strong forward who plays well in all areas of the rink” and his hockey hero growing up was Mike Modano “because he does everything well and has had a lot of success”.

• If he could invite any three people to dinner he would choose his grandpa Joe – “I never really got to know him as well as I wish I had”, Joe Mauer – “he is a great athlete who played multiple sports growing up and is from Minnesota so I have always looked up to him” and Herb Brooks – “he knew so much about the game of hockey”.

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BUDISH BLOGS FROM THE COMBINE


FAVORITES

NHL Team: Minnesota Wild or Boston Bruins
NHL Player: Alexander Ovechkin
Shootout move: “Come in from the left side and shoot lower right”
Goal celebration: Fist pump
Video game: NHL '09
Movie: Billy Madison, Dumb and Dumber
TV Show: SportsCenter
Actor: Adam Sandler
Website: ESPN.com
Book: Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Pump up song: “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N' Roses
Restaurant: Chipotle, Leeann Chin
Sport (other than hockey): Football
Activity away from the rink: Playing NHL ’09 or watching sports
Breakfast food: Cinnamon Toast
Superhero: Batman