Draft

With their final selection in the draft the Lightning selected D John Wessbecker out of Blake (USHS). The native of Victoria, Minnesota is considered a mobile, physical defenseman with great character. He is committed to the University of Massachussetts.

Here is a summary of today's eight selections in the 2005 Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning:

One pick NHL.com apparently missed was the 3rd round selection of C Chris Lawrence out of Sault Ste Marie of the OHL. At 6'4" 199 lbs. Lawrence is a riddle wrapped inside a mystery wrapped inside of an enigma. Even the misreporting of his selection on the NHL and Tampabaylightning.com site should tell you how much of a question mark this player is.

With the 165th pick in the 6th round the Lightning have selected G Kevin Beech of Sudbury of the OHL. Standing at 6'4" 168 lbs Beech fits Jeff Reese's mold of big framed goaltenders. Beech moved into a tandem with touted Sharks rookie Patrick Ehelechner at midseason and was outstanding for Sudbury in the 2nd round of the OHL playoffs nearly stealing a series for his team.

Beech was 9-9-2 for Sudbury during the regular season with a .912 sv% and 2.65 GAA. In the playoffs, Beech was 2-1-0 with a .922 sv% and 2.61 GAA taking over for Ehelechner.

With pick 163 in the 6th round the Lightning selected RW Marek Kvapil out of Saginaw in the OHL. The 5'11" 172 lbs. Czech winger is an overage selection and at 20 years old will probably be suiting up for the Springfield Falcons or Johnstown Chiefs next season. [url=http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=76039
]In 53 games for Saginaw Kvapil notched 25 goals and 62 points with 14 PIMs.[/url] Pretty good for playing on a team that had the third worst record in the OHL.