Penguins select Russian center Evgeni Malkin with No. 2 choice

The 17-year-old reminds the team of Mario Lemieux.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkin, meet Mario Lemieux.
The Pittsburgh Penguins' newest first-round draft pick has yet to be formally introduced to the team's owner-Hall of Famer. Malkin, the No. 2 choice in Saturday's NHL draft, hasn't even had his first phone call from his new boss.
But as Lemieux's career winds down -- he will be 39 in October, just before the scheduled start of a season that may not be played -- the more Malkin is likely to hear his name mentioned with Lemieux's. For good reason, too, as the Penguins may now have the eventual replacement for Lemieux as their No. 1 center.
Malkin, who turns 18 next month, is so young that he hadn't been born when the Penguins drafted Lemieux 20 years ago. Still, of all the Penguins' top picks since then, including Jaromir Jagr, Markus Naslund and Martin Straka, Malkin's game may most resemble Lemieux's.
Power center
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Malkin is a give-me-the-puck center who uses his strength and skating ability to power through the neutral zone with the puck. Inside the offensive zone, his playmaking and stick-handling skills have been compared by scouts to those of Tampa Bay Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier.
"I believe my strengths are that I can see the ice really well and my pass is very strong," Malkin said Saturday, speaking through an interpreter. "I believe that soon I will be as physically developed as [No. 1 pick Alexander]. Ovechkin and I will be able to perform as well as he can."
Unlike the 18-year-old Ovechkin, who was coveted by the Penguins until they lost the draft lottery to Washington, Malkin is admittedly not ready for the NHL. He plans to return to Mettalurg Magnitogorsk of the Russian Elite League even if the NHL solves its labor problems and salvages the season.
Second-round pick
The Penguins added defenseman Alex Goligoski of Grand Rapids (Minn.) High School with the second-round compensatory pick they acquired from Vancouver in the Johan Hedberg trade. Goligoski went 61st overall, 82 spots higher than he was ranked by NHL Central Scouting.
On the third round, Pittsburgh chose right wing Nick Johnson, who had 35 goals and 36 assists in 51 games for St. Albert (Alberta Junior Hockey League), and another Minnesota high school player, center Brian Gifford of Moorhead High. All five Penguins picks Saturday are 18 or younger.
Blue Jackets draft
COLUMBUS -- Seeking to add to an array of young talent that includes Rick Nash and Nikolai Zherdev, the Columbus Blue Jackets surprised many experts by taking left wing Alexandre Picard after trading down in Saturday's opening round.
Picard, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder from near Quebec City, scored more goals than anyone available in the draft. That might have been enough to grab the attention of Columbus president and general manager Doug MacLean, since the Blue Jackets were 29th of the 30 NHL teams in goals scored last season.
Picard looked shocked when he was taken No. 8 in the opening round, watching a two-year-old prediction come true.
"I remember when I was younger, I watched the draft when Rick Nash was drafted," Picard said of the Blue Jackets' budding 20-year-old star who tied for the NHL lead in goals last season. "I said to my girlfriend, 'In two years I'm going to be in the first round too.' My girlfriend, she couldn't believe me and said, 'Hey, come on. Those are the best in the world!'
"But I said I would work hard, and today I'm here."
The Blue Jackets held the No. 4 pick in the first round when the draft began. After the Washington Capitals selected highly touted winger Alexander Ovechkin and Pittsburgh took another Russian forward, Malkin, the Chicago Blackhawks snagged Canadian defenseman Cam Barker.
Columbus then traded its pick to the host Carolina Hurricanes, who selected left wing Andrew Ladd of the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. Ladd was ranked as the No. 1 North American skater by the NHL's Central Scouting Service.
The Blue Jackets received the Hurricanes' first-round pick -- No. 8 overall -- along with a second-round pick, No. 59 overall. The team also acquired the 46th overall pick in a trade with Calgary.
With those picks, the Blue Jackets selected right wing Adam Pineault of Boston College and defenseman Kyle Wharton of Ottawa in the Ontario Hockey League.
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