The Florida Panthers took future U. Minnesota Gophers men’s hockey player and 2009 Mr. Hockey Minnesota Nick Bjugstad with the 19th overall pick in the NHL entry draft Friday night. Four other incoming Gophers — Mark Alt, Justin Hall, Max Gardiner and Benjamin Marshall — were drafted in the final six rounds Saturday.
Bjugstad became the 14th Gophers player drafted in the first round under Don Lucia’s 11-year tenure, and the fifth first-rounder of the state’s past six Mr. Hockey winners.
The 6-foot-4, 188-pound center, who graduated high school a year early, turns 18 in July and will begin playing for the Gophers in the fall. As a junior from Blaine High School he had 29 goals and 31 assists in 25 games last season, leading his team to its third consecutive state tournament.
“Obviously, it [would be] an honor to get drafted high,” Bjugstad said at the airport Wednesday evening before leaving for the draft in Los Angeles. “I really think it’s just a starting point…you need to work hard from there.”
Three additional Minnesota recruits and fellow Mr. Hockey finalists were taken in Saturday’s second and third rounds. Defensemen Mark Alt and Justin Hall were taken consecutively by the Carolina Hurricanes at 53rd overall and the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks 54th, respectively. Forward Max Gardiner was drafted in the third round at 74th overall by St. Louis Blues, and defenseman Benjamin Marshall went to the Red Wings in the seventh round.
Alt had 20 points in 24 games for Cretin-Derham Hall last season. He is also a talented quarterback, and passed up the opportunity to play football at Iowa in order to pursue hockey.
Holl helped lead Minnetonka High School to the a Section 6AA championship this season, and joined the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League when the season finished, tallying four points in 11 games.
A teammate of Holl at Minnetonka, Gardiner registered 43 points in the regular season last year. His older brother, Jake, was drafted 17th overall in 2008 by the Anaheim Ducks and currently plays for Wisconsin.
Marshall scored 20 goals and 39 assists as a junior at Mahtomedi last season, and will forgo his senior season to play a year of juniors with the Lancers, and will join the Gophers for the 2011-2012 season.