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Lots of RoughRiders expected to go in NHL Draft
Jun. 25, 2015 6:05 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS – Mark Carlson regularly attends the National Hockey League Draft, but this one's going to be extra special for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders head coach/general manager.
As many as six current and former RoughRiders players could be selected, which would be the most in club history. The draft is Friday and Saturday at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla.
The list of drafted Riders surely will include Ivan Provorov, a defenseman from Russia who was a part of the 2013-14 team. He is a lock for the first round and possibly a top-10 overall pick.
Provorov played this past season for Brandon of the major junior Western Hockey League. Last year, Anthony DeAngelo was a first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
'I don't know if any junior team has ever had defensemen go in the first round in back-to-back drafts,” Carlson said. 'That's special.”
In fact, no United States Hockey League team has had first-rounders in consecutive years, sans the United States National Team Development Program.
Another player certain to be a high pick is winger Erik Foley. He led the RoughRiders this past season with 54 points and is headed to Providence College.
Most experts project him as a second-rounder.
Also on the draft radar are forwads Jiri Fronk, Freddy Tiffels and Adam Gaudette. Fronk led Cedar Rapids with 29 goals this past season, while Gaudette finished with 30 points in 50 games and had a team-best plus-minus rating of plus-23.
He is going to play next season for Northeastern University.
Tiffels played for the RoughRiders in the 2013-14 season after being acquired in an in-season trade with Fargo. He had 21 points in 32 games this past season for Western Michigan University.
Goaltender Ryan Larkin also has a chance to get drafted. He finished with a 2.43 goals against average and .919 save percentage this past season.
He is expected to return to the RoughRiders for the 2015-16 season, then play collegiately at Miami (Ohio).
l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
Ivan Provorov takes a shot on goal as the RoughRiders warm up prior to a preseason exhibition game against the Dubuque Fighting Saints at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, September 10, 2013. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)
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