Defensemen Fowler, Gormley Slip To 12th, 13th Picks

 

Every year, there is a pretty much a guarantee that a player or two highly ranked among several scouting services will slip well beyond their anticipated draft position. That was the case on Friday for defensemen Cam Fowler and Brandon Gormley during the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

From the Windsor Spitfires, Fowler was ranked as a top five pick by vitrually everybody. He was fifth on the NHL Central Scouting Service among North American Skaters. He was fifth according to International Scouting Service Rankings. He was third with The Hockey News. And TSN placed him fifth. So by all accounts, he was a top five selection, and should have gone somewhere in the top 10 at the very least depending on team needs. So it came as a pretty big shock that he fell all the way to 12th and the Anaheim Ducks as several teams that could have used his services passed him up.

The knock on Fowler was that his defensive skills were lacking. While his offense is terrific, as witnessed by a 55-point campaign in 55 games with Windsor last year, he is not known as a hard worker in his own zone. But the Ducks, who recently lost Scott Niedermayer to retirement, were more than happy to scoop him up to eventually fill that void along the blue line.

As for Gormley, he went 13th to the Phoenix Coyotes. Gormley was sixth among North American Skaters according to NHL Central Scouting, third by the ISS, seventh by The Hockey News and fourth on TSN's list.

He is considered a jack of all trades and master of none. While a decent threat in all areas of the game, he is outstanding in none of them and lacks a "wow" factor typically looked for in drafts. But the Coyotes are never a team to need a "wow" factor. They want good, hard-working players who play smart, and Gormley definitely fits the mold.