After he turned heads throughout Lakeville North’s 31-0 boys’ hockey state championship season in 2015, Jack Sadek has done the same leading up to the NHL Draft scheduled for Friday and Saturday this week.
According to a source close to the situation, the Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators are among teams showing interest in Sadek, who finished No. 1 in Body Composition at the NHL Combine with the lowest percentage of body fat (4 %). The University of Minnesota commit met with seven teams at the NHL Combine in early June and Minnesota, Boston and Nashville were among those seven teams.
Other organizations Sadek has spoken with include San Jose, New Jersey and Florida. In addition to meetings at the NHL Combine, Sadek has met with teams in the Twin Cities.
Sadek expects to hear his name called somewhere in the third to fifth round and his 79th ranking by the NHL Central Scouting Agency reflects this belief. This ranking is the highest of any Minnesota draft eligible players coming out of high school in 2015.
Once the Minnesota native is drafted, he won’t likely join his team for a few years as Sadek will play for the University of Minnesota for four years, most likely. Once he leaves the Gophers, he would probably play in his NHL team’s minor league affiliate. But, that could change depending upon his development at the University of Minnesota. However, his NHL team could pull him up at anytime they feel the need to.
Sadek will travel to Florida on Friday joined by his family, which includes his dad Brett Sadek who played football for the Gophers. Scott and Michele Skjei, who are parents to New York Ranger prospect and former Gopher Brady Skjei, will also attend the draft with Sadek.
Potential outcomes for Poehling brothers with NHL Draft
There isn’t a question if Sadek will get drafted, it’s more a question of when. But for the Poehling brothers–Nick and Jack–their draft status isn’t quite as certain.
In the final rankings by the NHL Central Scouting Agency, Jack finished 186th and Nick finished 191st. Take these rankings for what you will, but these projections would put the Poehling brothers as potential seventh round draft picks, which is an estimate that Jack told me he agrees with.
So, with only seven rounds in the NHL Draft, Nick and Jack have a chance of not getting drafted at all this weekend. Yet, this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Some say that it’s almost better not to get drafted at all if a player is projected to be a late-round pick, which the Poehling brothers are. That way, if a player sees significant improvement in the coming years in their game, they could evaluate their options and have more of a say as to where they play down the road.
If they are drafted, however, neither brother would complain.
“It would be pretty exciting,” Jack said. “I would just continue to work hard and hopefully one day get a chance to play at that level.”
Either way, the result of the NHL Draft on Friday and Saturday won’t affect their immediate future.
“As of right now it looks as if we are going to play one year in the USHL and then we will head to St. Cloud State University (to play hockey),” Jack said.
Nick Kelly 