By Warren Kozireski —
Marcellus native Eamon Powell was taken in the fourth round (116th overall) by Stanley Cup champ Tampa Bay in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
Powell, headed to Boston College, has skated the past two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program in Michigan where he combined for 11 goals and 25 points over 62 games last season.
“It was one of my teammates, Powell said via Zoom about finding out just before practice that he was selected. “We were right about to hop on the ice and he saw the ticker on NHL Network and he saw that I was drafted b Tampa Bay. My first reaction is that I was very relieved and…was so excited that my name was called.”
The 5’11”, 170 lb. defenseman played a few formative seasons with the Syracuse Nationals and Rochester Coalition.
“I was around the (Syracuse) War Memorial a ton as a kid playing for the Nationals organization we practiced and played games there and obviously growing up (the Crunch) were the biggest professional sports team in town so I went to a lot of games as well.”
“Being drafted by Tampa and having Syracuse be their farm team is pretty cool.”
Powell is now added to the recent list of NHL draftees from the Syracuse area including 2020 second rounder Luke Tuch (Montreal), Anthony Angello and Joel Farabee.
“Obviously you look up to those guys. You work out with them, they act like pros, they teach you little things like how to act and prepare off the ice, so I’ve been super-fortunate to get to know them and excited to represent the region.”
(Photo By Koz)