As NHL Draft Pick, Swaney Helps Carry Hometown's Banner

ST. PAUL -- By the time the second day of the NHL Draft rolls around, the dramatic moments between each first-round pick, the handshakes, the photo ops and the interviews are long gone. In their place are rapid-fire selections announced with none of the first-day fanfare.
But the Minnesota Wild made history when it chose Lakeville's Nick Swaney in the seventh-round (No. 209 overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft in Chicago last month. The high-scoring forward destined for Minnesota-Duluth in the fall became the first Lakeville South High School player to be drafted by an NHL club.
"It's something that you dream of, especially going to the hometown team is pretty special," Swaney said. "It was a really cool experience for me and my family."

Swaney's reign as the lone Cougar draft pick lasted just six picks when fellow Lakeville South alum Joshua Ess was snatched up by the Chicago Blackhawks. The pair joined former Lakeville North stars Ryan Poehling and Jake Oettinger, who were selected back-to-back (No. 25 and 26 overall) in the first round by Montreal and Dallas, to form an unprecedented quartet of Lakeville-produced draft picks in 2017.
Less than three weeks later, Swaney is representing his community at the Wild's prospect development camp in St. Paul.
But he's far from alone.
Swaney is one of five players with Lakeville pedigrees participating at this week's camp. Fellow former South forwards Justin Kloos and John Wiitala join him, as do a pair of ex-North teammates, defenseman Jack Sadek and goaltender Ryan Edquist. All five are members of "Team Green" this week.
"I never got a chance to play with Justin, actually, but he was one guy that I really looked up to and being able to skate with him this week is something pretty special to me," Swaney said.
Kloos, who scored 97 goals among his 229 points in 79 career games as a Cougar, said it's fun to see so many familiar faces at one camp at this level.
"I think we all graduated at different times but we all know each other, we're from the same area, we have family connections," said Kloos, Minnesota's Mr. Hockey as a senior in 2012. "I only played with Wiitala growing up, but then I played with Sadek at the (University of Minnesota) and then I played with Swaney's cousin who was my linemate in high school for all three years. So we have connections all over."
With the city producing more hockey players than it has actual lakes, Hockeyville seems a more appropriate name these days.
"There's big support for both programs," Kloos said. "I'm really excited that they're producing good players at every age. I think that there's a lot of good athletes down there; I'm just happy they're picking hockey."
Lakeville has become synonymous with hockey over the past two decades with a competitive youth program and city schools representing Section 1 at the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament 12 of 16 times since 2002. The formerly unified Lakeville High School, which is now Lakeville North, made three straight state tournament appearances from 2002-2004 before the creation of Lakeville South in 2005. North has been to state six times since then while South has made three trips.
After North took home Lakeville's fist tournament hardware with a consolation title in 2011, Kloos and Wiitala led South to a third-place finish in 2012.
Wiitala, a junior at the time, joined Kloos at Waterloo (USHL) the following season and spent two more years with the Black Hawks before moving on to Ohio State in the fall of 2015. Kloos, of course, went on to star at Minnesota, where he finished his four-year career as a two-time captain.
Sadek's North team finished runner-up to Edina in 2014 before Edquist transferred in from Shattuck St. Mary's and backstopped the Panthers' undefeated (31-0-0) run to a 2015 state championship.
"(Saturday) morning was my first time back out on the (Xcel Energy Center) ice since then, and being with Sades out there was pretty cool," said Edquist, who initially committed to Minnesota but will be a sophomore at Boston College this fall. "It's nice kind of walking around back here. Some good memories, especially in this locker room. This is where we won it. It's definitely cool coming back here."
More recently, South upset North in the 2017 Section 1 final and advanced to the state third-place game where the Cougars fell 3-2 in overtime to Eden Prairie.
Despite South's recent victory, North has largely had the upper hand in the boys' hockey version of the natural rivalry formed between the neighboring programs and has seen the most success overall. Kloos, however, doesn't want to hear any of it.
"Sadek is probably a little to scared to bring up stuff like that towards me," Kloos said. "I think he learned his ways; I was his captain for two years at the U so he kind of stays quiet with that stuff."
But the players say it's all in good fun and any North/South animosity is far behind them.
"We played each other all throughout our youth hockey so it's fun to be on the same ice with them again," said Sadek, Minnesota's seventh-round pick (No. 204 overall) in 2015 who is in his third Wild development camp.
"We're just here to have fun," Swaney added. "And and we're all on the same team this week, which makes it pretty cool playing together."