Wheat Kings acquire pick, rights to defenceman for Priestner, pick
8/21/2009 at 5:38 PM
From the Wheatkings.com press release linked below, the Wheat Kings have traded James Priestner and a 5th round pick to Prince George for a 3rd round pick and the rights to University of Minnesota defenceman Aaron Ness (19 years old). The 5th round pick is conditional on Ness reporting. Both draft picks are in 2011.
Sounds like quite the player if we can get him. He was the New York Islanders 2nd round pick in 2008 and just before that was named the top high school hockey player in Minnesota in 2008. Was also one of 15 dmen at the USA's World Junior evaluation camp. Hockeysfuture describes him as "an intelligent, instinctive offensive defenseman who has quick hands, tremendous speed and great on-ice vision"
This quote from a July NHL.com article is worth noting.. however we did read a similar quote from Toni Rajala from before the import draft, so who knows..
"There’s no rush for me, I’m loving school right now. It’s a great experience for me and its great hockey too"
Here's the full press release from Wheatkings.com:
http://www.wheatkings.com/news_item.aspx?news_id=4930
and the full NHL.com writeup on Ness:
http://islanders.nhl.com/club/news.htm?bcid=442660
His Hockeysfuture.com profile:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/aaron_ness
And another quality writeup that's a bit older (May/08):
http://westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com/2008/05/nhl-draft-prospect-aaron-ness.html