Canes take Quebec league center 27th

The Hurricanes don't often look to Quebec for their draft picks — they had taken only eight in the past 12 years going into Friday — but they took Philippe Paradis with the 27th overall pick.

He wasn't the biggest player available, or the highest-ranked — 6-foot-3 Carter Ashton was available when the Hurricanes picked — but he had 12 points in 21 playoff games for Shawinigan of the Quebec junior league, a postseason resume too good to pass up.

And at 6-foot-1, 196 pounds, he's by no means small, with size being the Hurricanes' No. 1 priority with their first-round pick going into the draft.

"One of the things we said going into the draft was we hoped to draft a little bit bigger," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said. "This is a player who's going to fill out. He's 6-1, 200 pounds and he plays with an edge. He's physical, a good skater. This is really the type of player we hoped would be available for us when we were picking."

Paradis (pair-ah-DEE) had 50 points — 19 goals and 31 assists — in 66 games for Shawinigan. Rutherford said he's likely to need a couple years of seasoning.

Ranked No. 40 by TSN and the Red Line Report, No. 60 by The Hockey News and 26th among North American skaters by the NHL's Central Scouting department, Paradis went higher than most expected — the player included.

"I was surprised a little bit," Paradis said. "I thought i was sure to go somewhere from the second to the fifth. I was pretty happy to hear my name in the first round and go to Carolina. I think it’s a really good organization and I’m very happy to go there. ...

"My style is like Jarome Iginla — an intense player with good skill, good speed, a physical guy. I finish my checks."

Carolina's last first round pick from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League was goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 1995, but the Hurricanes have beefed up their scouting there in recent years, first with Martin Madden (who is now with the Anaheim Ducks) and now with Mario Marois.

"It's not by design," Rutherford said. "I expected a few people to ask me that question, especially being in Montreal right now. It's never been by design. We just signed a free agent out of the Quebec league (Matthew Pistilli) from the same team. Now we've drafted Philippe. I think our coverage in the Quebec league is the best it's been in a while. We have a real comfort level there, but we really like this player."

A native of Dolbeau, Quebec, Paradis had the hardest shot at the CHL Top Prospects Game at 95.7 mph.

"He's a big, strong winger," Hurricanes chief scout Tony MacDonald said. "He's a physical player, a strong kid. He goes tough to the net, he skates well, he finishes his checks, he plays a pretty good two-way game.

"We think we've got a kid here who's getting bigger and stronger and progressing physically."

As for taking Paradis over Ashton or Zach Budish or Dylan Olsen or some of the other big forwards available at that point, MacDonald said: "There were a couple of things. First of all, he was next on our list. We liked him enough to have him in that slot. Going forward, though we'd go with the player. Plus he fit the criteria we were looking for: size, physicality, the skating. We were looking to address those areas of concern for the future. ... We're pretty excited to get that kind of a player at 27."