NHL Entry Draft: A return to Disneyland, it is, for Ducks pick Roger McQueen
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A return to Disneyland is in the cards for Roger McQueen and his family.
The 6-foot-5 forward from Saskatoon — whose family made a point of taking in Disneyland prior to the National Hockey League Entry Draft — ended up getting selected by the Anaheim Ducks at 10th overall Friday in Los Angeles.
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Just as fittingly, McQueen lists former Ducks great and fellow Saskatchewan-born forward Ryan Getzlaf as the one player he has patterned his game while playing for the Western Hockey League's Brandon Wheat Kings.
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'What we really liked — obviously he has size — but what goes along with that is the skill and skating ability and basically a really hard player to play against,' said Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek. 'We're looking forward to him being a power forward for our organization.
'We can't be more happy. You'll just being coming up down the road (from L.A.), Rog. We'll see you soon.'
McQueen entered the draft as a bit of a question mark following a fracture in his lower back that sidelined him for much of last season.
'I'm so grateful for this,' McQueen told the Ducks brass, led by Verbeek.
'It's unbelievable, especially being to close here (to Los Angeles) and all the fans in the background. It's such a great feeling. I couldn't be more happy.'
McQueen played in 20 games, regular season and playoffs, during his shortened season while recovering from a fracture in his lower back. Some NHL teams threw out the caution flag, but not the Ducks and, for that, McQueen is grateful.
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'It's unbelievable,' said McQueen. 'It's just one of those thing you've been working towards your entire life. It's kind of crazy. There's no real emotion. It's just shock at this point, but I'm so grateful to be with them and it's unbelievable.'
Members of the Sportsnet's NHL Draft panel appeared to like the pick and are pulling for the pride of Saskatoon.
'It's really hard to check people like this and he's not an easy out,' said scout Jason Bukala.
'He'll drop the flippers if things get hard. Ryan Getzlaf, back in the day when Anaheim started to get good, what did they have? They had that meat in the middle of the ice. I'm really pulling for this guy because he worked so hard ot get ready in his draft year and then was set back by injury. You know he was stressed, right? But he tested during the (NHL) combine. He came there 100 per cent healthy, put himself through the paces and I'm hoping for good things for Roger McQueen.'
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Sam Cosentino echoed those sentiments.
'You can see that he's a Pat Verbeek type of player,' said Cosentino. 'What you're getting is a big guy down the middle of the ice. He can skate. He's got ton of skill. He can shoot the puck extremely well, but you see the smile on his face. This guy is not fake. He's got that gregarious personality and, similar to (No. 1 pick overall Matthew) Schaefer, when he walks into a room, he shake your hand, looks you in the eye and he's happy to be there. This type of character, I love what McQueen brings to the table and I'm really interested to see what happens.
'It looks to all signs to him being healthy right now.'
Cosentino said there was such a wide divergence with NHL people he had talked with on McQueen in terms of the medicals.
'There were some teams that said, 'no.' There were other teams that said, 'yeah, maybe later.' There were other teams that said, 'multi-picks.' And other teams were saying, 'If he's there for us, we are taking him. So Anaheim is obviously that team.'
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