Riley on Target
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The following article featuring Cornell forward Riley Nash appeared May 15 on the Edmonton Oilers Web site.
By Jen Sharpe
edmontonoilers.com
It’s a four-hour drive from Consort, Alberta to the
province’s capital, but the Oilers are hoping Riley Nash can
make the one-way trip, via Ithaca, NY, in four years or less. The
club’s first-round pick (21st overall) in the 2007 NHL Entry
Draft has completed a second successful year at Cornell University,
and although a third – and perhaps fourth – season of
NCAA competition are in Nash’s the future, Oilers brass are
anticipating big things from the versatile forward.
“He does a lot of things really well at both ends of the ice
– he’s a good face-off guy, he’s a good powerplay
guy, he’s a good penalty killer,” Oilers Assistant
General Manager Kevin Prendergast says. “He’s the type
of player that’s going to play anywhere from your second to
your fourth line when he gets here because he understands the game
so well.”
This past season with Cornell, Nash averaged a point and penalty minute per game, good for first on the team in scoring. During his freshman year in 2007-08, the forward was equally impactful, finishing first on the team in assists and second in points -- numbers that earned him ECAC Rookie of the Year honours. Prior to joining the Big Red, Nash dominated the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks for a season, posting 84 points and 87 penalty minutes in only 55 games, finishing among the league’s top 10 scorers.
Complete article can be accessed via the Oilers Web site by clicking here.
