Chicago Blackhawks Select Henri Jokiharju With Pick #29

The NHL draft is in Chicago tonight, and it took nearly 3 hours for the Chicago Blackhawks to make their first selection. 

After a whirlwind day of trades and saying goodbye to some fan favorites, the Chicago Blackhawks and the rest of the NHL didn’t make any moves to move up or down in this NHL draft.

This probably has a lot to do with the talent level of the draft not being as strong as years past.  There are no Connor McDavid’s or Auston Matthews, so it’s probably why there wasn’t a lot of movement and trades in the draft.  Without talent, everyone was making educated guesses with their picks.

It was interesting that Pierre McGuire and other NBCSN announcers stated multiple times that there may never be a Hart trophy winner come out of this draft.

So after all of that Gary Bettman went to the Microphone and stated… We Have A Trade! The Hawks moved their pick for Pick #29 and Pick #70.  Not the exciting trade anyone expected in the United Center.

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It was fun seeing Jim Cornelison sing the anthems to start the festivities, and the fans were great all day long booing Gary Bettman and every time the Pittsburgh Penguins were announced.  Finally, though the Hawks were making their pick.

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So after all the long day, the Chicago Blackhawks selected Henri Jokiharju with pick #29.  He’s a finnish Defenseman that lacks height but has very good hockey sense.  He is a check under everything that Joel Quenneville looks for in a defenseman being a fast puck moving defenseman.

Next: Building For The Future

It took a long time, but there you have it. The Pick is in!