Stars To Take 4 Of 1st 75 Picks

FRISCO, Tex. - The 2005 NHL Entry Draft will be held on Saturday, July 30 in Ottawa, Ont., at 11 AM CDT, and the Dallas Stars have the 28th overall pick in the first round. The Stars also own the third pick in the second round (No. 33 overall) and four of the first 75 overall selections in the draft. Including the four picks in the first three rounds this year, Dallas will have had 19 selections in rounds one through three since 2002, the second-most in the NHL.

The Stars will have a total of eight selections in the seven-round Entry Draft. In addition to the first round pick (No. 28) and the early Round 2 choice (No. 33), Dallas owns two Round 3 picks (No. 71 and No. 75), which were acquired via trade from Vancouver and Washington at last year's Entry Draft. Dallas traded its own third-round pick to Philadelphia last summer, but was awarded a fifth round compensatory pick (No. 146) for losing defenseman Richard Matvichuk in free agency. Dallas' own Round 5 pick is No. 160 overall, and the club will pick No. 165 overall in the sixth round and No. 223 overall in Round 7. Dallas' eight draft picks are as follows:

Recent first-round selections for the Stars have been defenseman Mark Fistric in 2004 (No. 30 overall), center Steve Ott in 2000 (No. 25 overall) and left wing Brenden Morrow in 1997 (No. 25 overall). Dallas did not have a first round selection in 2003, 1999 or 1998, but has a successful history of first-round choices. The Stars selected right wing Jarome Iginla No. 11 overall in 1995, defenseman Derian Hatcher No. 8 overall in 1990 and Mike Modano No. 1 overall in 1988, each of whom blossomed into perennial NHL All-Stars.

The selection order for the 2005 Entry Draft was determined through a weighted lottery and the draft will consist of seven rounds with a "serpentine" order (i.e. the team with the last pick in the first round will get the first pick in the second round, and so on throughout the seven rounds). Teams will draft in the following order in the first round: