The two fifth-round selections delighted the two scouts who\u2019d watched and reported on those prospects the most this past season. Finn Kearns, a defenseman from St. Andrew\u2019s College high school in Ontario, went 131st while another D-man, Luken \u201cHawke\u201d Huff from Cedar Rapids of the junior-level United States Hockey League (USHL) was the 148th overall pick. Fun fact about Huff: He is the first Washington-born prospect, hailing from Mazama, WA, near North Cascades National Park, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Seattle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hearing from the Scouts, North American Version<\/p>\n
Kearns was scouted most frequently by veteran Mike Dawson, who smiled ear-to-ear when the draft room clapped hard and long for the Kearns selection. Dawson was in on Kraken D-man Ryker Evans back in 2021 and his grin was even wider Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA year and a little bit ago, at the end of the Ontario Hockey League season, Finn got into a playoff game for Sudbury in Kingston, where I live,\u201d said Dawson during a break. \u201cHe laid a guy out with a big hit, got in a big scrap and got everybody’s attention. I started tracking him this year. I knew his dad growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, where I’m from. We went to the same elementary school, but I hadn’t seen the dad in probably 30 years … Tony [MacDonald], Chris [MacDonald, no relation] and I took Finn out to lunch. We had a really great visit, a three-hour lunch with him and his dad. We all walked away saying we’d love to get this guy. He\u2019s exactly what we think our team needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson expanded on that team need for a player like Kearns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows what his strengths are,\u201d said Dawson. “He knows he’s not a power play guy, but he knows he can be a shutdown and physical defenseman who brings toughness and sticks up for teammates. He’s allergic to his teammates being pushed around. He takes great offense, personal offense, if anybody tries to bully one of his teammates and he deals with it. That’s hard to find these days … you could drop this kid in any era of hockey and he’d be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Huff was the pick at No. 148, Kraken scout Thomas Plante was most decidedly fired up, standing and pumped about a player whom he watched many times. Plante was so excited he had to pace for minutes afterward before stopping to share the moment with fellow USA-based scouts Eddie Olczyk and O\u2019Connor. Plante, part of the Kraken scouting staff since the founding of the franchise, was still elated an hour later in the player lounge,\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is kind of a hidden gem,\u201d said Plante. \u201cIt was his third year being eligible for the draft. He wasn’t at any of the major prospect showcases in the U.S. He wasn’t even on the NHL Central Scouting rankings. Watching him the last few years, he was in Minnesota high school and then made a rough transition to junior hockey. This year he just exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happened is, after a stellar performance in heralded Minnesota high school hockey, Huff joined a USHL team loaded with older defensemen, all six on track to play for major NCAA programs. Huff didn\u2019t get much ice time. When traded to Cedar Rapids, he won the admiration and trust of Mark Carlson, the USHL\u2019s all-time winningest coach (pointed out by Olczyk, who noted Kraken prospect Zaccharya Wisdom, 2023 seventh rounder, played for Carlson too).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind the scenes, talking to his old coaches, the people around him, we liked the character part of [Huff], said Plante. \u201cThis kid\u2019s got resilience, he’s got drive, he’s basically got everything we look for from a character perspective. You kind of fall in love with the individual. But he was a first-team USHL defenseman this year. The stars aligned [for Saturday\u2019s pick] and I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Botterill stepped out of the draft to call Huff, the GM queried Plante on whether to use Huff\u2019s given first name or nickname.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, definitely call him \u2018Hawke\u2019,\u201d said Plante.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHawke!\u201d said Botterill, laughing as he walked off phone in hand. \u201cLove these calls!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the hallway, the Kraken hockey boss told Huff how much he was looking forward to seeing him at development camp, which starts Sunday off-ice and Monday on-ice. He added: \u201cWe\u2019re happy to have you and really impressed how much you have improved over the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearing from the Scouts, Europe Version<\/p>\n
As the sixth round started just after 12 noon, the Kraken went European, selecting Swedish-born Ola Palme, yet another defenseman (the draft haul finished with five D-man prospects and three forwards). \u00a0Palme\u2019s choice drew loud hoots and claps for Sweden-based scout Marcus Fingal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s just say Fingal was not as demonstrative as the aforementioned Plante, but still thrilled to see a player he\u2019d followed closely this past season. The 6-foot-1, 188-pound defender played in Sweden\u2019s top juniors league and added five games with the Vaxjo Lakers club in Sweden\u2019s top pro league, where he\u2019ll likely play next year. He has been training with the big club this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fingal was happy to talk about Palme and joy was all over his face discussing the Swede\u2019s rise to become an NHL prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve seen [Palme] many times this season,\u201d said Fingal. \u201cHe plays not far from my hometown. His season started out a little slow, I would say, but he grew as the season continued. In the end, I really liked what I was seeing. First of all, he\u2019s not a small guy. He\u2019s got a good frame and he built a lot of confidence. He likes to be creative with the puck. He’s not just robotic. He\u2019s still a raw D-man who needs some time to fill out, but there\u2019s something there. He likes to jump into the offensive play, but he doesn\u2019t cheat … It\u2019s fantastic for him to already be up there [with the top pro club]. The big team, they’ve been winning a lot lately. He\u2019s going to be up there with a lot of veterans and can learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two fifth-round selections delighted the two scouts who\u2019d watched and reported on those prospects the most this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-766082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}