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Live Penguins Draft Blog: Select Two Goalies, Make Minor Trade

Published

4 years ago

October 7, 2020

It was a more eventful draft day for the Penguins than many expected as the team moved back into the second round thanks to their trade of Matt Murray to the Ottawa Senators.

Using their newfound draft capital, the team selected Finnish goaltender Joel Blomqvist with the 52nd overall pick.

With the Penguins’ regularly scheduled 3rd round selection, the team grabbed up another goalie, Calle Clang of Sweden with the 77th overall pick. The 6-2, 194-pound goaltender played for the Rogle junior club last season putting up a 2.64 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. That save percentage ranked fifth among Swedish junior goalies. He has yet to play this season.

With the 108th overall pick, in the fourth round, the Penguins selected Lukas Svejkovsky, a center from Point Roberts, Wash. He is 5-10, 165 (but could fill out). After two seasons with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, he had 13 goals, 15 assists in 34 games with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers last season.

When your game goes to overtime and you don’t know you’ve been drafted… pic.twitter.com/iZjx6jXkHl

— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) October 7, 2020

Also, it’s not Penguins news, but you and I have followed Jesse Pujujarvi for a year, now. He’s finally an Edmonton Oiler, again

Welcome back, Jesse!

The #Oilers have signed forward Jesse Puljujarvi to a two-year contract through the 2021-22 season.#LetsGoOilers https://t.co/tk8oiaaD3R

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 7, 2020

Penguins 5th Round

In the fifth round, the Penguins swapped picks with the Colorado Avalanche. The Penguins traded down 10 picks from No. 139 to No. 149, and received Colorado’s seventh-rounder, too.

With their pick, the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Baie-Comeau Drakkar forward Raivis Ansons. You may recognize that QMJHL team as the same club captained by Penguins prospect Nathan Legare.

Ansons is also from Latvia, and from the same town as Penguins center Teddy Blueger. Based on scouting tape viewed by PHN, Ansons can get to the edge on defensemen, at least in junior hockey. He likes to go to the net and wasn’t afraid to bang bodies. He was aggressive after the puck and showed a good shot.

At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, he’s got the size. He may need to pick up the speed. If you watch the highlight reel, there’s a lot of gliding and not moving his feet. Like most of Drakkar, he didn’t have a great season. It was his first North American season, and in 60 games, he scored 13 goals and 22 assists.

It’s a good fifth-round pick.

Penguins 6th Round

The Penguins drafted Chase Yoder of the USNTD with their sixth-round pick (170th overall).

Yoder is a defensively responsible forward with good hockey sense. He kills penalties and is a coach’s son type player (in a good way). He will attend Providence College with coach Nate Leaman, who has been turning out prospects.

Yoder is 5-foot-10, 174-pounds. He had seven points (3g, 4a) in 19 games for the US Development Team in the USHL. U of Wisconsin head coach Tony Granato had high praise.

“He’s a solid two-way player. He knows what to do to help his team win games. I think of Brandon Tanev when I think about players that are similar to the way he plays.”