In this past weekend's NHL Entry Draft, 32 players were chosen from CHL clubs, including four in the first round. Read more to find out who, and how things were different from last year. 

by Derek O'Brien

It came as no surprise to anyone that the first player from a European club to be selected in this weekend's NHL Entry Draft was TPS Turku centre Miko Rantanen, who was taken by the Colorado Avalanche. Similarly, three other top-ranked players – Farjestad Karlstad's Joel Eriksson Ek, Frolunda Gothenburg's Jacob Larsson, and Linkoping HC junior Gabriel Carlsson – were taken later in the first round.

Four players from CHL clubs going in the first round is up from three a year ago. In the whole draft the numbers were slightly up as well – 32 this year compared to 28 in 2014. Another difference is where the players came from. Last season 26 of the 28 came from Swedish and Finnish clubs. Clubs from those countries had strong representation again this season, but overall it was 22 out of 32 (13 from Sweden and nine from Finland), meaning that 10 players were taken from CHL clubs outside the two Nordic powerhouses.

Of those 10, five were taken from Czech clubs, two from Slovak, two from Swiss and one from a Norwegian club – Latvian winger Rudolfs Balcers of the Stavanger Oilers, who went 142^nd overall to the San Jose Sharks.

Last season, Frolunda was by far the most popular club to choose from, with eight Indians selected by NHL teams. This year, the numbers were far more even. Four players were chosen from Linkoping HC, followed by three each from JYP Jyvaskyla and Dynamo Pardubice. There are then eight CHL clubs that each had two players chosen – Frolunda, Farjestad, Karpat Oulu, HC Kosice, ZSC Lions Zurich, HV71 Jonkoping, KalPa Kuopio and Djurgarden Stockholm.

Below is a list of the 32 players from CHL clubs taken in this year's NHL Entry Draft. For the sake of comparison, see how they were ranked among European skaters prior to the draft, and also last year's picks.