Back in June I used the headline, “Adam Larsson – If Not First, Then Best Defenseman” and so far he hasn’t disappointed. He’s been terrific for the New Jersey Devils. He’s been averaging 22:14 as a 19-year-old rookie. He blocks shots, he’ll hit you and he’ll get you some points. By his own admission, he’s never lacked any confidence.

“I am pretty strong. Having played so many times in smaller rinks, it was great for me,” he said.

He’s a work in progress, in a few years’ he will be a dominant defenseman in the NHL.

The Stanley Cup winning Boston Bruins, a team with a pretty good defense, managed to pick 9th in this draft and with that pick they took Dougie Hamilton. The 6-5 blueliner has an eye-popping 45 points in just 30 games for the Niagra Ice Dogs. We’ll see him playing in the World Junior Championships very soon and if he keeps up this pace he could be in Boston next season.

He’s smart, and he pointed that out to me in Minnesota.

“They kind of asked are you committed to hockey or in two years are you going to cure cancer? Something like that….I’m not one of those guys that are going to slack off.”

When I asked him if he thought there were any guys curing cancer that were his size with the kinds of skills he possesses, he gave a confident answer.

“I don’t think so”.

9 of the first 20 picks were defenseman. I have one more to mention but trust me we will be hearing about more of them in the near future. The Habs took french-speaking Nathan Beaulieu with the 17th overall pick. So far this season he has 26 points in 30 games for the Saint John Sea Dogs in the “Q”. He’s playing a better overall game and sooner rather than later this kid will be in Montreal. At 6-1 he has good size like the other two I mentioned before. Is that a coincidence? I don’t think so. We will see a lot of bigger defenseman coming into the NHL because they can skate like the smaller guys and they take away more time and space.

Ryan-Nugent Hopkins has been stealing the headlines as the superstar of this past draft but the next batch of players will be very impressive. A lot of the names mentioned will be defenseman and I’m not sure that was a big story at the time of the draft. I am seeing that the 2012 draft is “defense-rich” well if that’s the case 2011 will be tough to beat.

Eleven went in the first round and more can go this year for sure, but how many of them will be big impact players? I have already identified 3 here in the early going and Joe Morrow (Portland drafted by Pittsburgh) and Stuart Percy (St. Mike’s, Toronto) are having big years as well. And don't forget about Ryan Murphy (Carolina) either.