My Draft Day: Anders Lee

Over the years, the draft day experience for players selected into the NHL has become a bit of a routine tradition. For those in person, there's the iconic spectacle of having one's name announced, followed by hugs with family, a meandering to the stage to put on the jersey for the first time and a photoshoot sporting the team's official jersey. Even for those selected in later rounds, who aren't in attendance, the ease of social media has led to player's hosting watch parties and streaming the broadcast as they await the hopeful news.

For Islanders captain Anders Lee, who was selected in the sixth round (152nd overall) in 2009, his experience drastically differed.

The then 18-year-old recent graduate of Edina High School, where he was a three-sport standout athlete, was in his second year of draft eligibility and didn't make the trip to Montreal for that year's NHL Entry Draft. Instead, Lee was still in his hometown of Edina, Minn. and amid a work shift when his phone rang.

"I worked at Cutco." Lee said with a laugh. "I was selling knives at the time, that was my summer job for like a month and a half.

"I don't even know how I got into it," Lee continued. "But as a high schooler, if you sold knives, you could make some decent money, and any money is good money when you're in high school. So that's what I was doing at the time when I found out [I was drafted to the NHL]."

It was a bit of a deja-vu moment for Lee that day on June 27, 2009, when he received a life-changing call from one of the executives sitting at the Islanders draft table. Lee was delivered with the exhilarating news that the Islanders had selected him with their 152nd pick.

The year prior, it was that same executive that had also phoned Lee. At the time, he was over at his friend, and Edina High School hockey teammate, Joe Gleason's house watching the 2008 Draft.

"With my draft story, I got drafted my second year eligible, I actually didn't get drafted my first year eligible," Lee explained. "That first year, [the Islanders] called me around the second or third round and said, 'We're interested in you, we like your game and we're thinking about taking you in the later rounds.' I was all excited and stuff. Then [they] asked me if I was going to play football in the fall because I was going to be a senior in high school. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm going to play football. I'm the quarterback.' We had just had a really good season. I was answering him honestly because that was my plan. And they ended up not taking me."

It was a tough realization for Lee, especially as his pal Gleason was drafted that very day by Chicago in the seventh round (192nd overall), but he understood the hesitation and concern teams had. He hadn't made a choice yet on what his plan was for college athletics and was still fielding offers from schools for hockey and football, some of which were even packaged.

So after not getting drafted his first year of eligibility, Lee made his senior year at Edina High School one he wouldn't regret.

In football, he posted a breakout season as quarterback and was named as the 2008-09 Minnesota Gatorade Football Player of the Year and was a finalist for Minnesota's Mr. Football. In hockey, he completed his final season as one of the top scorers in the league and was a finalist for the annual Mr. Hockey award.

"That summer, I hadn't committed to play at Notre Dame yet," Lee said. "I was still getting recruited for hockey and was still in the process of figuring everything out. I hadn't been drafted yet, so there just wasn't really any reason for me not to play football. I understood that it was a little bit riskier if I was going to go play football, but you can still get drafted to the NHL and still play football, you know? I was just a high school kid trying to figure everything out. It maybe cost me a year of getting drafted, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

While his trajectory to the NHL wasn't as linear or clear cut as most draftees, everything inevitably worked out. It wasn't a total surprise that the Islanders stuck with it and selected Lee in 2009, especially given their initial interest, but he was thrilled that in the end, the team he'd go on to captain maintained their faith in him.

"So, you know that it was draft day, right?" Lee said. "The first round happens [the day before] and I knew I wasn't going to be a first-round pick anyway. [Rounds] two-seven are the next day, so I knew that next day I'd have the possibility of getting drafted. Plus, it didn't happen the year before, so I didn't have really too many expectations. I had a good year the year after I got passed on, so I knew I was still in a good spot [to be drafted]. I knew the Islanders were interested in me and it worked out."

But for Lee, there wasn't a dramatic announcement made across a packed arena, there was no subsequent media scrum nor was there a photoshoot in NHL threads. He wasn't surrounded by family and friends glued to a broadcast. Of course, he momentarily savored the fantastic news, but he had work to do, and culinary knives to sell.

"After I got the call, I immediately called my parents and told them, but that was it," Lee said. "It wasn't anything like what you see now. I still had things to do, I still had to go to work and still had things to figure out. It wasn't like I was just at home or anything with friends and family. It was just part of it to just go about the rest of my day."

These days, the annual draft is a humbling reminder of how far Lee has come as a player and a person since that day back in 2009. He still recalls the 'whirlwind' week after getting the news he'd been drafted. Lee remembers the emotions of leaving home for the first time a week later for development camp, where the first player he met was Matt Martin - who was seated in the front seat of the car that picked him up from John F. Kennedy Airport - and eventually the other fellow Islanders prospects that would become members of the team's current core.

Now, Lee embraces the annual responsibility of being one of the first people to welcome the draftees to the Islanders organization via phone call or text.

"What's so cool about that is my way of getting drafted may not have been the classic way or a little bit unconventional, but it didn't mean anything less," Lee said. "It's still an incredible honor to be drafted to the NHL. It's such a special day not just for you as a player, but for everyone around you. For everyone that's helped you along the way to get the opportunity. It means a lot. So for me now, just to be a small part of that special day and be someone who can welcome guys to our organization is really cool. It's just funny how it all works out."