Garrett Noonan's Player Profile:
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=124974
This was in the Nashville Examiner:
Left-handed Garrett Noonan was the right fit for the Predators
Jim Diamond, Nashville Predators Examiner
July 10, 2011
Any number of items factor into the decision making process for National Hockey League teams selecting a player in the annual Entry Draft.
When the Nashville Predators drafted Boston University defenseman Garrett Noonan with the second of their two fourth round selections in June’s draft, the side that Noonan holds his stick entered into the discussion.
“As you know, we have a lot of defensemen, but we don’t have a lot of left-handed defensemen that are prospects for us,” Predators Assistant General Manager Paul Fenton said when recapping the team’s draft.
That was not always the case within the Nashville system.
“It’s funny, when we first started, everybody we had was left-handed,” Fenton added. “When you looked in our system at times, it used to be all left-handed guys at times. Now we have gone to a stage where we have a million right-handed defensemen.”
Nashville President of Hockey Operations and General Manager David Poile grimaced slightly when Fenton was talking about Noonan’s selection. Poile is an alum of BU’s Hockey East rival Northeastern University, while Fenton and Predators Chief Amateur Scout Jeff Kealty both attended BU.
“As you know, I have to keep Jeff and Paul happy by every three or four years drafting a guy from Boston University,” Poile later joked.
Noonan had a strong freshman campaign in his first season of collegiate hockey. In 38 games played, Noonan had four goals and 11 assists. He was also tops among all Terriers with 89 penalty minutes.
“Definitely I like to play physically,” Noonan said while attending Nashville’s annual Development Camp. “I think it is something you need to do to be a pro. That’s definitely part of the game and it is a big part of my game. Obviously you can’t fight in college, but I am not against that. I fought a little bit in junior, so it is definitely something I like to do – mix it up, play physically, and protect my teammates.”
Two of Noonan’s four goals came on the power play.
“I like to think of myself as a shutdown guy, but I played power play minutes too,” Noonan said. “Obviously I love playing power play, and you are going to get points when you play the power play, so it was a good year offensively.”
Noonan was one of three rising BU sophomores to be drafted in June. The Chicago Blackhawks drafted teammate Adam Clendening 36th overall and the San Jose Sharks selected forward Matt Nieto 47th overall. Noonan and Clendening were defensive partners for a large portion of their freshman year, so being drafted was a special experience for the pairing.
“I was really happy for him,” Noonan said of Clendening. “He is a really good player. He will fit well in Chicago. I called him when he got drafted, and he called me what I got drafted. It was exciting for both of us.”
Despite being based in Boston, Kealty said that he does not see the players in that city more than any of the others that he scouts. From what he did see and what he heard from his connections in the city, Kealty was sold on Noonan.
“He is a really good and smart two-way defenseman,” Kealty said. “He has three years ahead of him at BU where he is going to play a lot. We really liked a lot of the intangibles that he had; the hockey sense, the two-way play, and I think that he will develop quite well over the next few years there.”
BU’s legendary coach Jack Parker has put numerous players in the NHL, including current Predators forward Colin Wilson.
Noonan being left handed may have contributed to his selection into the Nashville system, but the presiding factor was that he is a good hockey player.
“I can’t explain it other than this was the guy we wanted,” Fenton said. “This was a really high guy that fit to what we were doing. At the end of the day, if they are a hockey player they are going to adapt whether we have them on the left side or the right side. Do I want to balance it? Theoretically I want to balance it, but really at the end of the day it doesn’t matter."
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