July 7 and 8 will see 32 teams choose players who they believe will improve the franchise's fortunes, and Montreal is going to get this year's draft in person after COVID-19 forced the last two drafts to be done virtually. While there were fun and there were a few cool surprises - Alex Trebek, may he rest in peace eternally - getting back inside a venue and seeing the names appear on the big board behind Bettman will feel a lot more normal.
Looking back on that 2009 draft year, there's one player from the first-round selections that never played in the NHL. Carolina selected left-winger Philippe Paradis from the Shawinigan Cataractes with the 27th-overall pick that season, but Paradis never got past the AHL level. Part of that may be that he was traded during his final QMJHL year from Carolina to Toronto for Jiri Tlusty, and then was traded from the Maple Leafs in the summer with Chris DiDomenico and Viktor Stalberg to the Chicago Blackhawks for Kriss Versteeg and Billy Sweatt.
As we know, the Blackhawks had just won their first Stanley Cup of that decade in 2010, and they were loaded with good offensive wingers. Cracking that lineup would be difficult for a number of IceHogs who were down the depth chart, so Paradis went about his business in Rockford where he played a physical style of hockey that he hoped would get him noticed.
On April 3, 2013 as the Blackhawks were retooling for a second Stanley Cup, Paradis was traded from the Blackhawks to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Kirill Gotovets which meant he was onto another team whose depth at the wing position left him considerably down the depth chart. However, Paradis reported to Syracuse where he continued to chip in offensively while playing his physical brand of hockey.
Paradis' 2014-15 season would be cut short after starting the season with eight goals and seven assists in 34 games as it appeared he found his groove in Syracuse. However, a torn ACL ended his promising season far too early as Paradis was forced to watch from the sidelines as the ligament healed. What looked like an innocent play as he attempted to get up after a player fell on him, his leg went in the opposite direction he needed it to go and the ligament snapped. For Paradis, the sound he heard and the pain he felt after the ligament gave out was the clear sign that something wasn't right, and it would turn out to be a serious injury.
"I just heard a pop, like something stretching. I didn't know really what it was," Paradis told Lindsay Kramer of Syracuse.com. "My leg was kind of bending at that time. I remember trying to put it straight. It just hurt like crazy."
Paradis would come back for one more season with Syracuse, but his production dipped despite him still being a physical player on the ice. With his contract expiring, the Lightning appeared to not have offered a new contract to Paradis, making him a free agent. The 2016-17 season is a gap in his career, but Paradis returned to LNAH for a handful of games in 2017-18 before jumping to Europe in 2018-19 where he played 20 games in the AlpsHL with Jesenice where he scored 19 goals and added seven helpers. He returned to the LNAH in 2019-20, and it appears his career ended there.
Foe what it's worth, Paradis played one less game than another player from that draft as the Dallas Stars used 8th-overall pick in the draft to select Scott Glennie who played exactly one NHL game in his career. Glennie did spend time with the Texas Stars for several seasons before playing the 2016-17 season with the Manitoba Moose where he closed out his career.
While there are always a handful of players whose NHL dreams stop short once they're drafted, we'll see who gets picked at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft live from the Centre Bell on July 7 and 8 as 32 teams restock and retool for the future!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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