2023 NHL Draft Diary: Brayden Yager

Brayden Yager of Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League had been filing a monthly draft diary for NHL.com this season leading up to the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, where the first round was held on Wednesday. The 18-year-old right-shot center (5-foot-11, 170 pounds), No. 11 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters eligible for the 2023 draft, had 78 points (28 goals, 50 assists) in 67 regular-season games and 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 10 WHL playoff games. In his final entry, Yager provides his thoughts after being selected No. 14 by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hello, hockey fans. What a few days in Nashville it's been.

Today was the big day. I actually slept better than I thought I would. Obviously, there's nerves, but it wasn't too bad.

We started the day at a special breakfast with the prospects and their parents and that was cool.

After that we just kind of hung out with the family. It was pretty calm, talking over with my mom and dad what it was all going to be like.

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We got to Bridgestone Arena about 4:30 p.m. (CT) and found our seats. My agents had told me that I could go anywhere from No. 7 to No. 14 or No. 15, so that's when I started feeling it a bit.

My gut feeling all along was [the Pittsburgh Penguins]. I didn't meet with them here in Nashville, but I had a great dinner with them in Buffalo during the Scouting Combine. It lasted around three hours.

But when it finally happened and the Penguins called my name (at No. 14), it was amazing. The first thing that comes to mind is (forwards) Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, (defenseman) Kris Letang, those guys. The opportunity that I'm going to get to learn from those guys is pretty incredible.

To think that I could eventually share a locker room with Sidney Crosby is incredible. He's a guy that I've looked up to my whole life and it's insane that I'm wearing the same jersey that he wears.

Next for me is finding out when I'll head to Pittsburgh for development camp. But the most important thing for me is to just keep training and continue to get bigger and stronger. I think that's a big thing that I need to work on. But for right now, I think I'm just going to kind of just soak it all in, enjoy this with the family for tonight and then kind of figure out what's after that.

Thanks for following along this season.

Listen: Video: Yager drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins