Avon Old Farms has long been a known hockey factory in the Northeast with guys like Brian Leetch, Jonathan Quick, and Cam Atkinson coming out of the system. The Predators took a nice little prospect from them in Patrick Harper; and by little, I mean 5’8″. Harper will be attending Boston University next season and with first round picks Clayton Keller, Charlie McAvoy, Dante Fabbro (yes, the defenseman the Predators drafted,) and Kieffer Bellows all joining him, he’ll be in great company.
Future Considerations on Harper: “Harper is an explosive offensive talent who reminds us of a young Paul Kariya.” #Preds #NHLDraft
— Justin Bradford (@justinbbradford) June 25, 2016
Preds take Avon center Patrick Harper. Going to BU. Very small but quick. Flyers LHD Linus Hogberg. Nucks take dman Cole Candella
— Steve Kournianos (@TheDraftAnalyst) June 25, 2016
My knee-jerk reaction is the Predators are going off the board here yet again; granted, I know little about Harper. I do know he was ranked the 143th North American Skater by NHL Central Scouting and the 199th overall ranked player by ISS. As I said with Aktell, only time will tell if going with these two picks were worth the gamble.
Update:
#Preds scout Tom Nolan on Patrick Harper: “He is a highly, highly skilled forward… We just feel that there is a lot of upside with him.”
— Brooks Bratten (@brooksbratten) June 25, 2016