NHL entry draft
When: Today (Round 1), 7-10 p.m.; Saturday (Rounds 2-7), 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn.
TV: 7 p.m. today, VERSUS
With the National Hockey League entry draft just hours away, along with a national spotlight which might swerve his way, Tyler Biggs is trying to keep a level head.
The Miami University recruit has been projected as a likely first-round selection. USA Today ranked him as the top American-born prospect in the draft, to be held today and Saturday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
Biggs, a 6-foot-2, 207-pound forward from Loveland and the son of former Cincinnati Cyclones player Don Biggs, said he tries to avoid the headlines as much as possible during the season.
Even now, having traveled to Minnesota so he can attend the draft in person, he is playing keepaway with the platitudes that have gushed from hockey analysts.
“It’s definitely something I’ve tried to stay away from,” he said. “It can get into a guy’s head and it can take away from your game.”
Biggs makes no secret of the fact that he would love to go high in the draft.
“Being a first-rounder has been my goal ever since Day 1,” he said. “But down the road they’re not going to remember in which round you were picked.”
Biggs, 18, called himself “your prototype power forward. I play with an edge, very physical. I try to produce offensively, but being a big guy, I try to be around the net as much as possible.”
Biggs will put those skills to the test Aug. 6-13 at the National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y.
There he will try to earn a spot on the U.S. Junior National Team, which will play in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta.
Making the team would be huge for Biggs, who said the world tournament “is something I grew up watching on TV at Christmas time with my dad during the (holiday) break.”
Don Biggs has been a major influence on his son’s hockey development.
“He was my coach for eight or nine years,” the younger Biggs said. “He’s someone I can always look up to and talk to, knowing he has been through it all.”
Biggs played on the Team USA Under-18 Team which won the gold medal at the IIHF World U18 Championships in Germany in April. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime in his team’s 5-4 semifinal victory over Canada.
“There were times when I thought I could have done a little bit more,” he said, “but we battled hard and we got what we went to Germany for,”
Biggs said he is “ecstatic” about coming to Miami for his freshman season this fall.
“It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” he said. “It’s the first NCAA school I was exposed to (while growing up). I thought the atmosphere there was the coolest thing.”
Miami coach Enrico Blasi is just as ecstatic about having Biggs come to Oxford.
“Tyler Biggs is an elite player,” Blasi said after he signed with the RedHawks. “He is pretty much the all-around player that we were looking for.
“He can skate, he can score goals, he can make plays, he is physical, he is really nasty to play against,” the Miami coach said. “We are really excited to have him and look for big things from Tyler.”
Biggs is one of two incoming RedHawks who are expected to be high draft choices. The other is Connor Murphy, a 6-3, 185-pound defenseman from Dublin who has played with Biggs on the Team USA Under-17 and -18 teams.
“I’ve played with him for the last two years,” Biggs said. “He’s going to be my roommate (at Miami). He’s a great pick-up for the team. He’s a great defenseman and is one of the toughest players to play against because he’s so smart.”
Murphy is the son of former NHL defenseman Gord Murphy, who is an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“He is a reliable defensive defenseman that can make plays,” Blasi said after Murphy signed his national letter of intent. “He is a pretty good skater for his size and he has a good reach and a good head on his shoulders.
“He really understands the game very well, and his dad played in the NHL, so he comes from good blood,” Blasi said, “and I think he is going to be a real good hockey player for us.”
Murphy missed much of last season with a stress fracture in his lower back but was able to score two goals in Team USA’s 4-3 victory over Sweden in the gold-medal game of the World U18 Championships, including the game-winner in overtime.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
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