2011 NHL Entry Draft
2011 NHL Entry Draft Hats

A look at the Entry Draft by the numbers

Saturday, 06.25.2011 / 3:00 PM / 2011 NHL Entry Draft

By John Kreiser - NHL.com Columnist

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A look at the Entry Draft by the numbers
Interesting facts and figures from the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
The 2011 Entry Draft is history -- and teams will now begin working to help turn the 210 talented youngsters they've selected into actual NHL players.

Here are some of the key numbers from this year's draft:

0 -- Goaltenders selected in the first round, the third time in five years that no goaltenders were taken among the first 30 picks. The first goaltender taken was Magnus Hellberg of Sweden, who went to Nashville at No. 38, one pick ahead of American John Gibson. There were a total of 19 goaltenders drafted -- 11 in the last two rounds.

1 -- Players from British Columbia taken with the No. 1 pick in the draft. Edmonton made Ryan Nugent-Hopkins the first B.C. native ever selected with the first pick.

2 -- Goaltenders named Gibson taken by a Southern California team in the second round. Anaheim took John Gibson from the U.S. National Team Development program at No. 39; Los Angeles selected Christopher Gibson from Chicoutimi of the Quebec League at No. 49.

3 -- First-round choices by the Ottawa Senators, the most by any team. The Senators had their own pick (No. 6, Mika Zibanejad), and acquired the 21st (Stefan Noesen) and 24th (Matt Puempel) in trades.

3 -- Former Edmonton Oilers who had sons picked in the top 100 in the draft. David Musil, son of ex-Oiler defenseman Frantisek Musil, went to the Oilers with the 31st pick. Keegan Lowe, whose father is Oilers president and former defenseman Kevin Lowe, was taken at No. 73 by Carolina. With the 91st pick, Edmonton took Dillon Simpson, son of former Oilers forward Craig Simpson.

4 -- First-round picks whose fathers played in the NHL. The most notable was Connor Murphy, whose father, Gord Murphy, spent 14 years as an NHL defenseman and is now an assistant with Florida.

4 -- Draft position for the New Jersey Devils in the opening round, the highest spot they've picked since 1991, when they selected No. 3. As they did then (Scott Niedermayer), the Devils took a defenseman (Adam Larsson).

6 -- Swedish players taken in the opening round of the draft, tying the mark set in 1993 and 2009 for the most ever. Three of them -- Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado), Adam Larsson (New Jersey) and Mika Zibanejad (Ottawa) -- went in the first six picks.

7 -- Countries that had at least one player taken in the opening round of the draft. Half of the 30 players taken were born in Canada; six are Swedish, five were born in the U.S., and there's one each from Russia, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland.

8 -- Russian-born players taken in the draft. That's the same number as were taken last year -- but a big drop from the all-time high of 45 Russians taken in 1992.

11 -- Picks made by the Chicago Blackhawks, the most by any team. The Hawks had two picks in each of the first three rounds, one each in Rounds 4-6 and two in the seventh round, including the last pick -- Swedish goaltender Johan Mattson. In contrast, Washington's four picks were the fewest by any team.

14 -- Countries that had at least one player taken in the Entry Draft. Canada was tops with 79; Denmark, France, Lithuania and Ukraine each had one.

21 -- First-rounders who play in the Canadian Hockey League. Ten of the first 13 players taken were members of CHL teams.

60 -- Pick used by the Minnesota Wild to take Mario Lucia of Wayzata (Minn.) H.S., the first player selected from a U.S. high school.

117 -- First pick made by the Capitals, the last team to make a selection. The Caps had dealt away their second- and third-round choices prior to the draft, then sent their first-rounder to Chicago on Friday night for forward Troy Brouwer. Washington took Norwegian goaltender Steffen Soburg with its first pick.