Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have 5 guys taken in NHL Draft

CEDAR RAPIDS — Not a bad day for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Not at all.

The United States Hockey League club had three players taken Thursday in the National Hockey League Draft, conducted in Nashville, Tenn. Another guy who will play here this coming season also was drafted.

Eric Pohlkamp was the first Rider selected, in the fifth round, 132nd overall, by the San Jose Sharks. The 19-year-old Minnesotan burst onto the scene this season, especially after a standout performance for a United States team that won the gold medal at the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge international tournament.

He was the USHL Defenseman of the Year this season, scoring 16 goals and compiling 51 points in 59 regular-season games. Pohlkamp also played the 2021-22 season with the RoughRiders and is a Bemidji State University signee.

“I am a two-way defenseman,” Pohlkamp told reporters Wednesday. “I’ve got a really good shot on the power play. I'm gritty, I'm hard, I think I'm a fun player to watch, too. I'll hit kids.”

Forward Ryan Walsh went to the Boston Bruins in the sixth round, the 188th-overall pick. The Rochester, N.Y., resident set the C.R. single-season record for goals this season with 30, compiling 79 points.

He also had two goals and five assists in five playoff games. Walsh, 19, is a Cornell University signee who came to the USHL from prep school.

Forward Zaccharya Wisdom was drafted by the Seattle Kraken in the seventh round, the 212th-overall pick. The Toronto resident, 19, played two seasons in Cedar Rapids, scoring 28 goals and picking up 48 points in 59 regular-season games this season.

His older brother, Zayde, was a 2020 draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers and plays in the Flyers farm system. The Gazette wrote a story on the Wisdom brothers last year, who came from an impoverished background and whose single mother worked multiple jobs to allow them to play hockey.

Goaltender Rudy Guimond was a sixth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings. The Quebec resident, 18, was taken by the Riders in the fifth round of the recent USHL Draft, Phase II and will play in Cedar Rapids this coming season and the season after that before heading to Yale, where he is committed, according to RoughRiders Coach/General Manager/President Mark Carlson.

Guimond spent this past season at Taft School, a prep school in Connecticut.

“Detroit was my team growing up,” Guimond told reporters Wednesday, citing a particular affinity for former Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard. “So I’m really happy this happened.”

A fifth player with RoughRiders ties also was drafted Wednesday in goaltender Alexander Nikitin. From Kazakhstan, Nikitin was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the seventh round.

Nikitin also was a Phase II draft pick of the RoughRiders recently and participated in main tryout camp earlier this month. He recently announced he has signed to play junior hockey with Chilliwack of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League but is on C.R.’s affiliate roster, which means his USHL rights belong to the RoughRiders and he is expected to play at some point with the club.

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