Edmonton's draft pick surprises us Jeff Skinner fans

So Steve Tambellini steps up to the podium. We've all read in the newspapers and heard from the TV boxes in the leadup to the NHL Draft about the debate between Tyler Seguin and Jeff Skinner.

Seguin, the Plymouth Whaler, scored 48 goals in the OHL last season. Skinner had 50, in just 64 games with the Kitchener Rangers.

So imagine our surprise when not only did the Oilers select some no-name called Taylor Hall, but Edmonton's reaction was cheers, not boos and confusion.



Who is this guy? I haven't heard of him in all the years I've followed hockey, watching TSN to get all my junior hockey updates and throughout the Memorial Cup. What's so special about this guy? Is it the mohawk? It's the mohawk, isn't it?

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Other observations:

-Ottawa's Bryan Murray deferred to trade away his pick for Dave Rundblad, some Swedish defenseman who sounds like a urinary tract disease. The word out of Ottawa is that Murray was scared that Brian Burke would take his guy again.

-The Toronto Maple Leafs were deceptively quiet on draft day, surprisingly not trading Tomas Kaberle and surprisingly not making a pick. Both were apparently really legitimate possibilities, or enough so to make Leaf fans watch a bunch of old guys sit around and talk for three hours.

-The Heckling Line almost got it right when they predicted Montreal might take "A defenseman? American? Native of Minnesota? Not too small? Not to [sic] big? Sounds like a good fit for the Canadiens' organization." Jarred Tinordi is 6'6" and 800 lbs.

The weird thing is that Tinordi was the ONLY pick made by a Canadian team that didn't spawn some stupid headline on TSN. [Hall of a future? Get over yourselves.]

-Calgary didn't have a pick, mercifully saving us from a Darryl Sutter interview.

-Vancouver opted to trade their 25th overall pick and two useless wingers for a slap-happy defenseman and a useless winger. Credit to Puck Daddy for reminding us of Keith Ballard's place in history on the blooper reel:



-After the draft, Philadelphia traded Dan Hamhuis to Pittsburgh. Here's Eklund's take on it. Yes Dwayne, at some point next season the Penguins will score on the powerplay against the Flyers. No, it will not make us remember draft night.