With the first pick of the 2011 HBHA draft, the Chilliwack Grizzlies took Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers. The race to be number one came down to four people for Chilliwack, Hall, Jeff Skinner, Cam Fowler and JOrdan Eberle. The Grizzlies put their poker chips on Hall hoping he would be the more dynamic player of the four in five years time. The Grizzlies also had two more selections in the first round, taking Marcus Johansson, c, was at #9, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, d, Phoenix at ##11.

With the second pick of the draft Stone Ridge took rookie all-star Jeff Skinner. Skinner should be a goal scoring dynamo for Stone Ridge for many years. Picking third in the draft was Kamloops. They went with potenial rookie of the year Jordan Eberle. It would have been very interesting to see who would have won rookie of the year if Eberle had not gotten hurt. He was having a terrific year for the Oilers and had scored some highlight reel goals during his first season

Windy City was next and they went with another sure lock in Tyler Seguin. Mystifying why the kid never got more ice time during the playoffs . When he did play he was terrific, but who can argue with success. But the kid has a very , bright bright future in Winnipeg. Picking fifth the Albany Attack went with arguably the best young goaltender in the draft. James Reimer led the Leafs in the second half and he is the cornerstone to their turnaround in Toronto

Picking 6th, Saginaw saw the top dman in the draft fall to them and they had to have been estatic. Fowler will be a point producer for many years and is a solid offensive dman. Rounding out the top ten Derek Stepan went 7th to Lexington, Magnus Paarjavi went 8th to Broome, and Kirk Shattenkirk went #10 to Buffalo

Follow the rest of the 2011 draft