You’ll have to forgive Griffin Reinhart if the NHL Entry Draft seems routine to him.
He’s already lived it twice.
At the age of 16, the North Vancouver, BC. native watched his older brother Max be selected 64th overall by the Calgary Flames at the 2010 NHL Entry Draft in Los Angeles. This year in Minnesota, Reinhart witnessed four Edmonton Oil Kings teammates be selected in June.
Edmonton’s Keegan Lowe (Carolina, 73rd), Travis Ewanyk (Edmonton, 74th), Michael St. Croix (NY Rangers, 106th) and Laurent Brossoit (Calgary, 164th) were all picked in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. At the same time, Reinhart saw Dylan Wruck and Stephane Legault go undrafted.
The draft is a process Reinhart is more familiar with than some of his fellow eligibles. A student of the game, Reinhart made sure to absorb all he could from his draft experiences in the last two years.
“All the scouts would come and talk to the four-five-six players that were draft eligible and I got familiar with the questions they ask and I’d ask some guys like St. Croix and Ewanyk for examples like that and they really help me to know what it’s like heading into next year’s draft,” the six-foot-four, 205-pound blueliner admitted.
But the biggest lessons learned came from big brother.
“My brother was a big key,” said Reinhart, drafted third overall by the Oil Kings in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft. “He’s been a big help. I’m going through everything he went through so if I have any questions he knows exactly what’s going on in my mind. It’s a big help having him.”
“And also from my dad too,” added Reinhart, eighth in Future Considerations’ preliminary ranking for 2012’s draft.
His father Paul spent 11 years carving out an NHL career that spanned 648 games for the Atlanta/Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. Long before Paul scored 133 goals and 560 points in the NHL, he too was a draft pick, selected 12th overall in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft.
Which will make the 2012 NHL Entry Draft seem customary for the Reinhart clan.
Aaron Vickers is the managing editor of Future Considerations and can be found on Twitter. For all the latest Future Considerations news and posts, follow FC’s Official Twitter Feed, on YouTube and on Facebook!