Blue liners were on the Penguins menu in this year’s NHL entry draft taking four defensemen with their seven picks.

30th overall the Penguins nabbed Saint John’s defenseman Simon Despres who was fairly highly ranked as a skater coming in (8th among North Americans) and is a big presence on the blue line.

Then in the second round and with the 61st pick the Penguins tapped the son of former Penguins defenseman Ulf Samuelson in a move that probably stunned a lot of people. Samuelson according to what I have been told and even read in comments from the Ulfster himself did not think his son would go so high. Most people seemed to have Philip slated as a late third or fourth rounder. Philip will be attending Boston College next year so he is some time away from ever seeing NHL ice.

In the third round the Penguins nabbed Ben Hanowski, a Right Winger out of Little Falls Minnesota.

In the fourth it was a another Right Winger named Nick Petersen who plays for Shawinigan. But then it was back to defense taking Alex Velischek in the fifth. If that last name sounds familiar, it should. He is the son of Randy Velischek who played ten years in the NHL for teams including New Jersey. Randy was never known for his offense, putting up Hal Gill like numbers but his son is definitely more offensive minded.

With their second pick in the fifth round the Penguins selected center Andy Bathgate out of the OHL who is the grandson of Andy Bathgate who played for the Penguins in 1967.

To round out the picks the Penguins took Viktor Ekbom, a defenseman from Sweeden.

Almost all of these guys have some rounding out to do before the Penguins will even think about tapping them for NHL experience.