Lights went out, and then the Stars shone on Stankoven

18-year old Logan Stankoven was the first of the three Blazers to hear his name called at the virtual NHL draft.

With Stankoven and his family watching from home, the lights went out.

“Well actually our power went out on Saturday morning.” says Stankoven. “It was really bad timing. Me and my family were scrambling making sure we didn’t miss such a great moment — so we logged onto our phones and got into NHL dot com and watched the draft from there. Pretty bad timing, obviously, but it’s a pretty good story to tell down the road.”

Stankoven had been rated as a late first round pick in the NHL Central Scouting final draft rankings.

But there are a number of other factors that play into it —- with European players rated separately from North American players by Central Scouting.

There were 14 European players taken before Stankoven heard his name in round two, the 47th player overall in the draft.

Yeah, definitely a bit of a disappointment. I think I just fell because of my size.” says Stankoven. “There’s not tons of smaller players in the league. I think the league is moving a bit more towards having smaller players like Cole Caufield — those players are huge impact players in the game. But for some reason teams like the bigger guys. I think that was a big reason why I fell. I tried to do everything I could to prove that I wanted to be in that first round.”

Stankoven says the snub from teams in round one makes him hungrier.

That said he knows there is still plenty of work ahead to prove those teams wrong, and do what it takes to get that first NHL contract with Dallas

“Definitely my skating and my speed and lower body strength,” says Stankoven. “I think my shot is one of my biggest strengths. But being a smaller player you have to be a great skater to keep up to the bigger guys. I think that was one of the concerns that some of the NHL teams have — my skating’s not the strongest — and for a lot of smaller guys it has to be that. I’m going to continue to work on that and hopefully come back this season even stronger and faster.”

Stankoven is the first hometown player from Kamloops playing with the Blazers since Greg Hart in 1995 to be drafted by an NHL team.

“A lot of people have supported me, and been behind me. I’m very thankful for that. I have never heard one negative thing from a fan towards me. It’s been positive comments and encouragement. I think success will come to our team as long as we stay focused and make sure we’re playing the right way.”

Two of Stankoven’s Blazers teammates went in subsequent rounds.

39 picks after Stankoven and in round three with the 86th overall forward Caedan Bankier went to the Minnesota Wild.

Bankier and Josh Pillar are headed in the same direction with Pillar taken by Minnesota in round four.

The last time the Blazers had more than two players taken in the NHL draft was 17 years ago in 2004 when Devan Dubnyk went in round one to Edmonton, Roman Tesliuk round two to the Oilers, Kris Hogg to Calgary in round four, Moses Guiterrez to Pittsburgh in round six and Max Gordichuk, also in round six, to Edmonton.

Dubnyk is the only one of those to play in the NHL and is currently with the Colorado Avalanche.

by Earl Seitz

Lights went out, and then the Stars shone on Stankoven

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