OTTAWA -- At first blush, second-round selection Michael Gergen smacked of a draft pick spent on someone to simply keep Sidney Crosby happy.

After all, he is from the same Shattuck-St. Mary's High that Crosby attended three years ago.

Their paths, however, crossed only for a few hours: Gergen was a fellow 10th-grader when he visited the Faribault, Minn., campus in 2002-03 and skated in a stick-time session with Crosby, among other Shattuck guys.

"He's a good guy," Gergen said of Crosby. "You'd think somebody that great, he wouldn't be so humble, that he'd have a little cockiness to him. But he's humble. You see him on the street, you wouldn't even think he's a hockey player."

That Crosby is, but Gergen isn't exactly hockey refuse, either. He scored 64 goals and 117 points in 69 Shattuck games this season, nice numbers yet still below the 72 goals and 162 points that Crosby collected in 57 games for a team that won a scholastic national championship. He stands 5 feet 10, weighs 185 pounds and, far different from Crosby, understands that college hockey will occupy him the next few years.

"It's a great opportunity to be drafted, even though being a college hockey player it doesn't mean a thing this year," said Gergen, who is heading to Minnesota-Duluth on scholarship.

In truth, the Penguins grabbed Gergen for his offensive ability and upside. No thanks to a little scouting report from Mark Malone, the son of Penguins head scout Greg Malone. The younger Malone roomed with Gergen last week at the Minnesota Hockey Camps run by Chuck Grillo, with assistance from Malone and his boys. Mark Malone called his dad to report: "You better have him on your radar." The Penguins did. "It's funny how things work out," Greg Malone said.

Local ties

Taylor Chorney, son of former Penguins player Marc Chorney, started the draft's Western Pennsylvania/Penguins connections. He was drafted early in the second round, at No. 36 overall, by Edmonton. The younger Chorney, 5-11, 182, played defenseman last season at the elite Shattuck-St. Mary's High where Penguins Sidney Crosby and Ryan Malone once attended. He has signed to play with the University of North Dakota.

Right winger Matt Clackson, son of ex- Penguins defenseman Kim Clackson and former Peters Township High player, was picked by Philadelphia with the 215th pick, in the seventh and final round. This 6-foot, 195-pound Clackson scored 10 goals and 25 points in 56 games with the U.S. Hockey League Chicago Steel. Matt and brother Chris Clackson are headed to Western Michigan University.

Justin Mercier of Erie, a center playing for the U.S. National under-18 team and heading to Miami of Ohio this fall, was taken in the sixth round by Colorado.

Ice chips

If the Penguins had any sense of humor and history, they would've allowed former general manager Eddie Johnston to make the first-pick announcement, duties that fell to current GM Craig Patrick. After all, Johnston entertained offers and then voiced in French the pick of Lemieux back in 1984. Then again, the abbreviated and scaled-down draft meant a limited Penguins party, as Johnston and coach Eddie Olczyk were notable absentees. ... Olczyk wasn't alone as several clubs left behind their coaches. ... Mario Lemieux and team president Ken Sawyer weren't sitting in any of the six saved seats at the Penguins' draft table, meaning they had to stand nearby until the time came for the opening pick.