panoo

Rosemount hockey player taken in fifth round of NHL draft
Posted: 6/29/07
by Todd Abeln
Thisweek Newspapers

Rosemount’s Andrew Conboy has gone from a pretty good hockey player to a drafted NHL prospect in the past year.

Conboy was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the fifth round with the 142nd overall pick Saturday, June 16.

“It feels exciting,” Conboy said. “It will be one of the most memorable moments of my life.”

Conboy said he didn’t expect to be drafted and wasn’t paying attention to the draft since he was at his brother’s wedding in Alabama.

But Saturday afternoon he received a call from the Montreal Canadiens telling him that they had selected him.

“I wasn’t expecting to get drafted,” Conboy said. “I did talk to about 15 teams before the draft but didn’t expect this.”

Andrew is the second Conboy to be drafted into the NHL.

His older brother, Tim, was selected in the seventh round of the 2002 draft by the San Jose Sharks.

Montreal coaches and scouts said they like Conboy’s size at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds.

“The one thing is his size,” Montreal scout Pat Westrum said. “He plays big and is a team player.”

Westrum said that Conboy’s skill level really made a dramatic jump this year and it showed on the ice.

“He can play physical and has improved his skill level,” Westrum said. “He got more involved and really improved.”

Conboy played for the Omaha Lancers of United States Hockey League this past year when he scored 25 goals, added 26 assists and had a 107 penalty minutes.

In 2006 he was played in Wichita Falls, Texas, in the North American Hockey League where he only scored 15 points.

That big jump from a third- or fourth-line player for Wichita Falls to top-line player for Omaha made scouts, colleges and the NHL take notice.

“He wasn’t on our radar at the beginning of the season,” Westrum said.

Conboy will play one more year for Omaha before moving on to the University of Nebraska-Omaha to play Division I hockey.

“I liked the campus, the program and the coaches,” Conboy said. “I love it there. It’s a fun city to live in.”

Westrum said that the Canadiens expect him to play three years at UNO before thinking about signing him to a professional contract.

Westrum said Conboy needs to get quicker on the ice.

“He needs to keep working on his speed,” Westrum said. “He’s big and not real quick.”

Conboy said he is working on his skating technique this summer as well as his stick handling and shooting.

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