Hey. All you aspiring National Hockey League first-rounders out there. And don't play coy, you know exactly who you are.

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Photograph by : Andre Ringuette

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People have been telling you that you'd be a top pick since bantam. Well, here's a valuable lesson. No matter how often you've been "guaranteed" to be a first-rounder in the near future, never, ever agree to Twitter live about your experience for TSN once the big day arrives.

"Just got into the building and they are going over roll call. Couldn't have ever imagined the noise when Montreal was called!" wrote Red Deer Rebel Landon Ferraro, under the pseudonym TSN_LFerraro, at 4:03 p.m. this past Friday from the Bell Centre.

"One of the coolest events I have ever been part of!" he wrote four minutes later.

And that was the end of that experiment.

Ferraro didn't go in the first round. This, despite his hockey lineage - his dad is longtime NHLer Ray Ferraro - the fact he was rated 18th overall among skaters by Central Scouting and was a consensus top-30 pick by most of the experts, including both The Hockey News and the dean of the draft, Bob McKenzie.

Rather, the 5-11, 175-pounder was the second player taken in the second round, going 32nd overall to the Detroit Red Wings.

"It's something I wouldn't wish on anyone," Ferraro told Yahoo.com. "Coming in, you're expecting to go, and then I sat there for almost five hours. You're stressing out. As much as you're trying to look calm in case a TV camera pops on you, I was sweating and I was nervous."

The Trail native wasn't the only one paranoid about everyone looking at him. North Vancouver's Stefan Elliott went 49th overall to the Colorado Avalanche despite being another "lock" first-rounder according to those in the know. The Saskatoon Blades defenceman was rated one spot higher than Ferraro in Central Scouting's final rankings.

Victoria's Tyson Barrie, the son of Tampa Bay Lightning owner Len Barrie, went right about where he was expected to go. The Kelowna Rocket defenceman was taken by Colorado in the third-round, 49th overall.

In all, 11 graduates of the province's hundreds of minor hockey programs were chosen this weekend, including one guy that didn't have to wait long at all.

Vancouver Giant Evander Kane was taken fourth overall by the Atlanta Thrashers to become the second-highest Vancouver-born-and-raised player to be drafted behind Barry Beck, who was taken second overall by the Colorado Rockies in 1977.

Other B.C. players to hear their names called this weekend included Vernon's Tyler Shattock of the Kamloops Blazers to St. Louis (108th overall); Oliver's Corban Knight of Okotoks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League to Florida (135th); White Rock's Spencer Bennett of the BCHL's Surrey Eagles to Calgary (141st); Nelson's Evan Bloodoff of the Rockets to Phoenix (157th); Golden's Vernon McKenzie of the BCHL's Penticton Vees to Dallas (159th); Delta's Cameron Reid of the BCHL's Westside Warriors (192nd); and Penticton's Curtis Gedig of the BCHL's Cowichan Valley Capitals (204th).

It was a quiet walk home from the arena to the hotel on Friday writes Ray Ferraro, who had a front row seat to his son's nightmare and chronicled the experience in a column written for TSN, where he works as a hockey analyst.

"People have told him since he was the second overall pick in the 2006 WHL Bantam Draft that he was going to be a first-rounder," wrote Ferraro, who scored 408 goals over an 18-year NHL carreer. "I know I would have been disappointed in not being selected, and he was. So were Stefan Elliott, Jeremy Morin, Drew Shore, among others. All good players, all top-end prospects, and all had to wait through one more long night."

That said, the elder Ferraro knows it could have been worse for his boy. TSN had asked Ray to be wired throughout the first round, but the veteran of 1,258 NHL games showed his wealth of experience by politely declining.

iwalker@vancouversun.com

www.twitter.com/WalkerBigTalker