When the moment came, Charlie Leddy was in the midst of a quintessential Connecticut moment: stuck in traffic in Westport with spotty phone service.
“I was driving home, and you know how Connecticut traffic is,” Leddy said. “I had my phone plugged into my stereo, and one of my friends called me and said ‘congratulations!’ I was like, what are you talking about?”
What his friend and the texts that started to pour in were talking about: Up in Montreal, the New Jersey Devils had selected the defenseman in the fourth round of the NHL Draft on Friday, 126th overall.
Mark Dennehy, the Devils’ chief amateur scout, got through to Leddy soon afterward to formally welcome him.
Leddy, 18, said he knows some people in the organization. And he said it’s nice to go to a team that’s close to home.
“They were one team going into the draft that I thought could potentially draft me,” Leddy said.
“They’re a great organization, an up-and-coming team in the league. There couldn’t be a better spot than New Jersey.”
Leddy is bound for Boston College in the fall after two years with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, including a trip to the IIHF Under-18 World Championship.
“Charlie’s got a little bit of sandpaper in his game. He’s a guy that I think was asked to probably play a little bit of a different role with the National Program this year,” Dennehy told media in Montreal, made available on the Devils’ website.
“Obviously going to college gives us a little bit of a runway. He’s a really nice kid. He plays hard. He plays the right way.”
The Detroit Red Wings selected Avon Old Farms’ Brennan Ali in the seventh round at 212th. Ali was the 83rd-ranked North American skater in the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau’s final list. Leddy was 117th.
Two products of the South Kent Selects program went within five picks of each other in the second round. Ryan Greene, a Newfoundland native, went to the Chicago Blackhawks at 57. at 61, Seattle took David Goyette, a native of Quebec. Jordan Dumais, another Selects product, went to Columbus in the third round at 96, and a fourth, 6-foot-6 defenseman Eli Barnett, was chosen by San Jose in the seventh round at 195.
Two UConn-commit forwards went three picks apart: At 170th in the sixth round, Buffalo chose Jake Richard, and at 172, San Jose chose Joey Muldowney.
The St. Louis Blues selected Landon Sim at 184. His father, Jon, played two stints with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The New York Rangers took Zak Karpa seven picks later; Karpa’s father, Dave, was a longtime NHL defenseman who finished his career in Bridgeport in 2005-06.
mfornabaio@ctpost.com; @fornabaioctp
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