Carolina Hurricanes select Bradly Nadeau with 30th pick of first round in NHL Draft

The 2023 NHL Draft began Wednesday soon after 7 p.m., with commissioner Gary Bettman booed and forward Connor Bedard the first pick by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Then, for the Carolina Hurricanes, the long wait began.

The Canes, with the No. 30 selection in the first round, chose forward Bradly Nadeau of the Penticton Vees of the BCHL. Nadeau scored 45 goals and had 113 points in 54 games in the 2022-23 season, and plans to play for the University of Maine next season.

The Canes reached the Eastern Conference final in the Stanley Cup playoffs this past season before losing to the Florida Panthers. That added up to the 30th pick in the opening round at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, which meant more than three hours of watching draft choices hear their names called, hug their families, go up on the big stage and slip into new jerseys and caps.

Finally, the Canes had their turn at the stage. They took a 5-10, 161-pound player from the Junior A level in the British Columbia Hockey League that Canes president and general manager Don Waddell, in an interview with ESPN, said “checked all the boxes” in being a skilled player with a strong work ethic but also having strong character.

“I’m a hard-working offensive forward, kind of creative player,” Nadeau said in a media availability in Nashville. “I take a lot of pride in my shot. I think it’s one of my good attributes.”

It was good enough to make him the league MVP, then the MVP in the playoffs after 17 goals in 17 games. Playing with his older brother, Josh, Nadeau led the Vees to a championship.

The Hurricanes had not picked as low as 30th in the first round in their history, and were making their first selection in the first round since 2020, when they took forward Seth Jarvis at No. 13.

The Canes traded their 2021 first-round pick to the Predators for a pair of 2021 second-round choices. Their 2022 first-rounder went to the Montreal Canadiens as part of the compensation for forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi when the Habs did not match the Canes’ offer sheet to Kotkaniemi.

The draft got off to an accustomed start Wednesday: Bettman being booed. He even played along with it, saying, “You can do better than that!”

The draft then had the expected start: Bedard the No. 1 overall pick.

The Blackhawks, who won the draft lottery to secure the top pick, soon crowded on the stage with a player many believe could stand alone from this draft. Bedard is said to be in the same mold of a Patrick Kane, the playmaking forward the Blackhawks took first overall in 2007 and was a part of three Stanley Cup champions with Chicago.

The Blackhawks had a No. 98 jersey waiting for Bedard on the stage. Kane, who famously wore 88 in Chicago for 16 years, is gone after being traded last season. Bedard is seen as the key to the team’s rebuild.

Many draft prognosticators expected the No. 2 selection to be center Adam Fantilli of the University of Michigan, the 2023 Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s top player in his freshman year. But it didn’t take long for the draft’s first surprise.

The Anaheim Ducks took Swedish forward Leo Carlsson. The Columbus Blue Jackets, at No. 3, seemed happy to see Fantilli available and quickly took him.

Some players named in mock drafts as a possible Carolina pick at No. 30 went off the board earlier than expected, including defensemen Tom Willander of Sweden and Dmitri Simashev from Russia.

The draft concludes Thursday with the second through the seventh rounds. Carolina will go into the second day with eight draft picks, including two in each of the fifth and sixth rounds.

Unless the Canes have a trade or two in mind, they will use up those assets. But Waddell has been networking in Nashville as he confers with the other GMs while also talking contracts with the player agents that gather at the draft.

Waddell told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that he met with Sebastian Aho’s agent Tuesday about a contract extension and said he was confident an extension would be completed for the Canes center in the “near future.”