Minnesota player leads Avs draft

WASILLA — The Alaska Avalanche coaching staff had a bit of a different approach heading in to the 2010 North American Hockey League draft.

Last year, with 13 selections, the Avs were in a hurry to fill numerous vacant spots on the roster. But with a deep pool of talent already on their protected list, the Avs had fewer picks, but could afford to take a few gambles during the 2010 draft.

With their five picks in the USHL draft, the Avs selected a pair of high school seniors and three players for the Junior A Tier I United States Hockey League during the one-day league draft on Wednesday.

“We’re pretty happy with the group of kids we got,” Alaska head coach Brian Huebel said. “We had a lot of picks last year, but we were looking for guys to come in right away. (This year) we took a couple of picks we knew were a risk. But sometimes the risk can turn out to be a big reward.”

Heubel and the Alaska staff are confident about the high school seniors the Avs drafted, defenseman Buzz Tryggeseth and forward Evan Hesse, and based on their returning talent and the nine players the Avs tendered before the draft, Alaska opted to take a flyer on a few USHL players.

The Avs selected Tri-City forward Tyler Pistone in the third round, and selected both Des Moines forward Taylor Wolfe and Tri-City defenseman Zack Rall in the fourth round.

Pistone, an Army recruit, is entering his final year of junior hockey. At 6-foot-3, Wolfe is a potential two-way player. He has two seasons of junior hockey left. Rall, an Anchorage native and UAA recruit, played for Chicago of the USHL last season, but was traded to Tri-City earlier in the offseason.

All or none could wear an Avalanche jersey during the 2010-11 season.

“We’ll just have to see how it plays out,” Huebel said. “It’s one of those things, it could be a home run.”

While there is a degree of uncertainty about the USHL players, Huebel likes Tryggeseth’s chances of making an impact with the Wasilla-based club.

“We were looking for another defenseman and we feel we found that with Buzz,” Huebel said of the Buffalo, Minn., native who tallied 5-13-18 totals as a senior at Buffalo High School.

Huebel said Tryggeseth raised a few eyebrows during the team’s predraft camp in Minnesota earlier this spring and played himself into becoming a draft pick.

“He’s a very, very nice player,” Huebel said. “He skates very well. He’s good with the puck, makes nice, crisp passes.”

Alaska selected another Minnesota player, Hesse, with its final pick. The 5-9 forward recorded 13-19-32 totals as a junior at Monticello High School. Hesse could enter the program as another young player with plenty of junior hockey eligibility.

“He’s a very strong skater, very crafty around the net,” Huebel said. “Being a young kid, he could be able to turn a few heads in this league.”

The 16 existing NAHL teams and seven expansion franchises participated in the annual selection meeting. The number of selections for each team varied, depending on the number of players already on the protected roster as of May 25. Each team is allowed 30 spots on its protected roster. Alaska had 25 of those spots filled with junior-eligble players prior to Wednesday’s draft.

Huebel stressed tendering a player or selecting a player in the draft does not necessarily guarantee that player a roster spot during the upcoming regular season.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.