Another year, another first overall NHL pick with ties to the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. When the Edmonton Oilers made Ryan Nugent-Hopkins the top selection in this year’s draft, he became the ninth No. 1 in the last 11 years to have taken the ice at the holiday tournament.

Nugent-Hopkins, who played for Team Pacific at the 2010 U17 event in Timmins, Ont., follows Ilya Kovalchuk (2001), Rick Nash (2002), Marc-André Fleury (2003), Alexander Ovechkin (2004), Erik Johnson (2006), Patrick Kane (2007), John Tavares (2009) and Taylor Hall (2010) as U17 alumni to go in the top spot since the turn of the millenium.

The only two first picks not to appear on the list – Sidney Crosby in 2005 and Steven Stamkos in 2008 – both played for their provincial under-17 teams at the Canada Winter Games, which formerly replaced the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge every four years.
 

Nugent-Hopkins was the first of 76 players with U17 ties selected during the two-day draft in St. Paul, Minn., including 20 first-round choices, tying the second-most ever. The 20 drafts also included 20 alumni taken in the first round, while the 2003 draft had an all-time high of 21.
 

In total, 60 players from the 2010 tournament in Timmins were selected, along with 17 alumni of the 2009 event in Port Alberni, B.C., and two from London, Ont., in 2008.
 

From the 2010 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, 23 players who were on the ice for the gold medal game – nine from the gold medal-winning United States and 14 from Ontario – were selected, including the two players who accounted for all three goals in the 2-1 U.S. victory.
 

Tyler Biggs, who had both goals for the Americans, was a first-round selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs, taken 22nd overall, while Ontario’s Daniel Catenacci was taken in the third round by the Buffalo Sabres, 77th overall.