Second Pick Has Yielded Stars Heatley, Pronger, Dionne

RALEIGH, N.C. – On Saturday at Nashville’s Gaylord Entertainment Center, the Carolina Hurricanes will enter the 2003 NHL Entry Draft with the second overall selection and the numerous options owning that pick presents.

Through the years, the second selection has introduced the likes of Dany Heatley, Daniel Sedin, Wade Redden, Chris Pronger, Alexei Yashin, Brendan Shanahan, Sylvain Turgeon, Dave Babych and Marcel Dionne to the NHL. Since the draft went to its current format in 1969, just two goaltenders – the New York Islanders’ Rick Dipeitro in 2000 and Atlanta’s Kari Lehtonen in 2002 – have been selected with one of the draft’s top two picks. NHL general managers have used the second overall choice to select 26 forwards (12 centers, 11 left wings, 3 right wings), seven defensemen and one goaltender in the previous 34 NHL Entry Drafts.

Owners of the second overall selection have used the pick in trades five times since 1969. Most recently, the Islanders traded the 2001 second draft position to Ottawa along with Zdeno Chara and Bill Muckalt in exchange for 1992 No. 2 overall pick Alexei Yashin. The Senators selected center Jason Spezza with the second pick that year. In 1982, Minnesota used Detroit’s second overall pick – acquired in 1981 in exchange for Don Murdoch, Greg Smith and Minnesota’s first-round pick in 1982 – to draft left wing Brian Bellows who posted more than 1000 points during his NHL career.

With the second pick in hand, the Hurricanes have the highest draft position since the team moved to North Carolina in 1997 and since President / General Manager Jim Rutherford used his first NHL Entry Draft pick to select Jeff O’Neill fifth overall in 1994.

The Carolina organization has been very active in first rounds since joining the NHL in 1979, trading first-round picks seven times (five times during Rutherford’s tenure as General Manager), acquiring six first-round picks (two under Rutherford) and selecting some the game’s best players. The Hurricanes organization selected Sylvain Turgeon second overall in 1983 and Chris Pronger second overall in 1993 with the two highest selections in franchise history.

Despite the attention rightfully paid to first-round selections, the Hurricanes also bring 10 other picks to the 2003 draft. Carolina will select first in the draft’s second round (31st overall) and three times in the fourth round (102nd, 126th and 130th). The Hurricanes will follow their active fourth round with the first two selections of the fifth round (137th and 138th) and one pick in each of the draft’s final four rounds (168th, 198th, 230th and 262nd).

The NHL Entry Draft begins Saturday at 1 p.m. (ET) and espn2 will air the first three hours of action. After completing rounds one through three on Saturday, the draft will break until 10 a.m. Sunday when the final six rounds commence. Hurricanes fans can follow this year’s draft at www.CarolinaHurricanes.com.