The USHL Futures Draft went down this morning, or is still going on. There's really no way of knowing. Every year, the USHL's live draft page seems to crap out at some point. This year, that point happened to be right after the first overall pick, and they were never quite able to get it up and running to full capacity.
But thanks to the wonderful world of Twitter, we at least have some idea of some of the players selected. Here's a few notes on the players selected.
Shattuck scoring phenom Taylor Cammarata was the first overall selection by the Dubuque Fighting Saints. Cammarata is definitely one of the most offensively gifted players in his age group. Heading to the USHL, he'll have to prove that he can remain effective against bigger, more physical defenders.
The second overall pick was made by Fargo and they selected Gabe Guertler, Guertler is originally from Florida, but moved to Team Illinois last season. He's another very exciting offensive player.
Perhaps the most intriguing selections came in the second round, when Dubuque selected Quebec forward Anthony Duclair. Duclair made Quebec's World U17 Challenge team as an underager this winter, and is projected as a top pick in the QMJHL Draft this summer, but has also shown an interest in NCAA hockey. Former teammate Michael Matheson is already expected to play for Dubuque next season, and if they could land Duclair as well, that would be a huge steal. It seems like a bit of a longshot, but one worth taking.
Taken with the next pick in the second round by Indiana was Ontario forward Max Domi. Domi visited Indiana last weekend and said that if he decides to play college hockey at Michigan, he will play in the USHL first. I'm still very skeptical of that happening, but at least the path is set now.
Jonathan Drouin, Anthony Deluca, and Jeremy Gregoire, all good young forwards from Quebec were taken in the 43-50 range.
It's worth noting that Shattuck star Nathan MacKinnon wasn't selected, which would seem to indicate an extremely low confidence that any team could get him to play for them.
This was supposed to be a draft dominated by the very good Los Angeles Jr. Selects team. That changed when Brian Williams, Chase DeLeo, and Eric Comrie all signed with the WHL, and former teammate Adam Erne already played in the USHL last year, but there were still some LA kids taken early on: D Trevor Moore, and Fs Max Becker and Charles Siroky were all early selections.
Aside from LA, this was also a good draft for Minnesotans--3 first round picks, after at least four have made the NTDP--and for players from Michigan. There were a couple Michigan kids from the great Honeybaked team that won the U16 national title team, a couple Michigan high school players taken early, and two Northern Michigan recruits that play in the Upper Peninsula. The very good Carolina Jr.Hurricanes team had their top two defensemen, UND recruit Charlie Pelnik and Alex Wilkinson taken pretty early on as well. It was kind of a quiet year for some of the other less traditional areas like Texas, Arizona, and the Southeast.
If the USHL website ever gets fixed and they post the full results, I'll be sure to post it.
Update: Here is the full listing of picks.