After No. 1, draft picture gets blurry

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2008 | by Kevin Allen

With Steven Stamkos a lock as the No. 1 pick, the next mystery about this weekend's NHL draft is who will follow him.

The presumption is the Los Angeles Kings will take defenseman Drew Doughty of Guelph in the Ontario Hockey League at No. 2 and the Atlanta Thrashers will grab U.S. defenseman Zach Bogosian at No. 3 or vice versa. The wild card could be Nikita Filatov, a dynamic, high-scoring forward whose stock improved when he announced this month that he no longer had contractual obligations in Russia.

"He has properly terminated his contract according to Russian labor law," said his agent, Craig Oster, who said litigation still is possible.

But Oster said the Russians have unsuccessfully litigated against Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins),...