NHL Draft Special – Should I stay or should I go?

North Bay's Matt Marquardt knows the highs and lows that come from the NHL Entry Draft. File Photo.

This weekend a dream will come true for many hockey players from around North America as Columbus hosts the Annual NHL entry draft which kicks off Friday night with the top 30 picks made on Friday night followed by rounds two through seven on Saturday.

This weekend will be a very special first anniversary for North Bay’s Matt Marquardt. Nearly a year ago to the day, the Moncton Wildcats forward was selected in the seventh round, 194th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets at the NHL entry draft which was held last summer in Vancouver, B.C.

Marquardt elected to stay in North Bay instead of traveling to Vancouver to potentially be disappointed, so he followed the draft on TV and on the internet but went out with a few friends before he was selected.

But at about 12:30 a.m. that morning his father called him on his cell phone to give him the great news.

"It's quite overwhelming and it's an unbelievable feeling to finally come out of a draft for once," said Marquardt who was overlooked in his first year of NHL draft eligibility and was not selected in his OHL draft year either.

Rumours were that Marquardt would have been drafted as early as the 3rd or 4th round but that’s the same thing the family heard the year before so there was no way they were going to risk the disappointment of traveling to the West Coast and not see Matt drafted again.

2001 NHL Entry Draft

That was a very good idea because back in 2001, I personally got to witness the disappointment first hand.

I was assigned to cover the NHL draft in Sunrise, Florida regionally for the MCTV stations in North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. My primary responsibility was to follow North Bay Centennial forward and Sault Ste. Marie product Chris Thorburn.

The smooth skating forward was highly rated and had the potential of being selected in the first round. Surrounded by dozens of family members who made the trip with the young star, Thorburn sat and waited patiently. However, after the first round was complete his name hadn’t been called.

“Maybe a little bit disappointed,” Thorburn said after seeing big names like Jason Spezza and Ilya Kovalchuk taken in front of him.

“I mean a lot of great players went in the first round, obviously they’re good but hopefully my name gets called and I hope the best for everyone else.”

You could cut the tension with a knife as the names started to be called in the second round and the fact that he had a camera in his face likely didn’t make things any easier. Finally though, after Buffalo selected Derek Roy with their first pick of the second round, they used their second selection late in the same round to choose Thorburn.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this,” Thorburn said after being escorted down to the Buffalo Sabres table to receive his jersey.

“It’s a dream come true. I had so many family members here, my coach, my owner, I mean there’s nothing else I could ask for to make this feeling better, it was complete I guess.”

The disappointment

The first three rounds of the draft finished up on Saturday and any of the players not selected in the top 90 spots were expected to endure another sleepless night before the start of round four early Sunday morning.

Sudbury Wolves defenceman Drew Kivell made the trip from his Lakeside, Ontario home along with his parents and his younger brother. I was keeping an eye on his location so if he was drafted I could track him and his parents down to get their reaction.

As the ninth and final round began you could already notice the disappointment showing and before the 289th and final pick was made the Kivell family was already leaving the arena.

The following morning as I got through security at the Fort Lauderdale airport and I noticed the Kivell family was in the waiting area about to board the same Air Transat flight that would be heading back to Toronto.

He recognized me and we had a brief chat.

“Just sitting there, I just wanted to workout,” he said about not getting picked.

“I see how much work my friends had put into it and it just makes me want to work even harder just to show everyone else that I can do that too and hopefully go in the first four rounds of next years draft, that’s my goal for sure.”

That was a positive attitude but the following year the disappointment mounted as he was overlooked again.

So many may not agree with everything Don Cherry says but his advice to players to stay home if they aren’t highly ranked was clearly advice the Kivell’s should have taken.