Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Vegas Golden Knights take forward Cody Glass with 6th pick in draft

Golden Knights

Jesse Granger

The Vegas Golden Knights picked three players — Cody Glass, from left, Nick Suzuki and Erik Brannstrom — in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft on June 23, 2017, at the United Center, in Chicago.

Updated Friday, June 23, 2017 | 5:47 p.m.

The Vegas Golden Knights made the first draft selection in their franchise history this afternoon, taking center Cody Glass with the No. 6 overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft in Chicago.

General Manager George McPhee had numerous conversations with opposing teams to move into the top 3 of the draft but eventually elected to stay put and select Glass.

The 18-year-old forward excels at passing and creativity, seeing the ice extremely well for such a young player. Glass scored 32 goals and registered 62 assists for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League.

Glass is likely a year or two from being ready to playing in the NHL but has the skills to eventually be a first-line forward for Vegas.

“I think just comes in the summertime training off ice,” Glass said. “Work ethic is the main thing.”

With the No. 13 pick in the first round — acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets — the Golden Knights took another center in Nick Suzuki.

The undersized Canadian is a pure scorer, as he showed with 45 goals this season with Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League. He is 5-foot-11, 180 pounds but at 17 years old he’s one of the youngest prospects in the draft so he has room to grow.

“We certainly want a skilled team and I think we accomplished that,” McPhee said from Chicago. “You have to have skilled centermen in today’s NHL, and we got two of them.”

With the No. 15 pick, the Golden Knights chose defenseman Erik Brannstrom.

The 17-year-old Swede is believed to be one of the best offensive defenseman in the draft. He tallied nine goals and 14 assists in only 19 games with the HV71 team in Sweden.

“I thought we did a very good job,” McPhee said. “I’m really delighted that we have these kids. We got two centermen and a defenseman, which is what we wanted to accomplish.”

Nico Hischier was drafted No. 1 overall by the New Jersey Devils and Nolan Patrick went No. 2 to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Jesse Granger can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Jesse on Twitter at twitter.com/JesseGranger_.

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