Some guys manage to fly under the radar heading into a draft and Joey Anderson seems to be one of them. This season the 5-11 right wing had a terrific season, 27 goals and 57 points in 64 games for the NTDP. Now the funny part is even after this he’s still only being looked at as a second rounder at best.
He can’t do anything about his height, which is fine, at 192 pounds he’s very sturdy and can find himself in the dirty areas to score if necessary.
The Roseville, Minnesota native played on the same line as Kiefer Bellows (expected first rounder in the 2016 NHL Draft) and Clayton Keller (possible top 10 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft) for the NTDP and the U18 team as well. At times he made those players better.
The first thing about him that stands out is his heavy shot. At the U18s he had 7 goals and 9 points in 7 games! Even after that tremendous showing he still failed to get any publicity.
In one game he was one of 12 goals against Latvia.
“I don’t know if imagined 12 goals. After we got a few in the train really got rolling after that,” Anderson stated. “We felt good out there and we weren’t taking any crap from them.”
Anderson’s younger brother, Mikey (2017 NHL Draft eligible), plays on the blue line and soon the two of them will be playing together again.
“Growing up we played and I played a year of high school with him. It will be nice to play with him at Minnesota, Duluth. We’ve played on the same power play before.”
His dad Gerry, played some collegiate hockey and his grandfather, Tom, was a UMD forward in the 1950’s!
Like most, he’s just trying to enjoy himself at the 2016 NHL Draft.
“I think it will be fun,” he said.
Here are my other draft articles:
http://www.sportsology.com/jesse-puljujarvi-lost-in-translation/
http://www.sportsology.com/riva-shined-for-team-switzerland/
http://www.sportsology.com/keenan-suthers-towering-over-the-rest/
http://www.sportsology.com/3397-2/
http://www.sportsology.com/vladimir-kuznetsov-is-a-wild-card-in-the-2016-nhl-draft/
http://www.sportsology.com/logan-brown-could-shoot-up-the-charts/
http://www.sportsology.com/sergachev-has-the-right-stuff/
http://www.sportsology.com/alex-debrincat-to-some-his-height-is-still-an-issue/