Luke Schenn, Michael Del Zotto Hoping for Redemption

ORLEANS, Mass. – Analyst Pierre McGuire was screaming into Canadian TVs during the 2008 draft.

Only four picks after Steven Stamkos went No. 1 overall, McGuire was so excited about Luke Schenn, a young, promising defenseman drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs at No. 5, he deemed him the "Human Eraser."

Michael Del Zotto, who went 20th overall to the New York Rangers that same draft, was considered in the running for the Calder Trophy as the league's best rookie.

A lot has changed in those six years. It probably seems like a lifetime ago to Schenn and Del Zotto, but with both still being young at 24 years old, there's plenty of time to quiet the critics whose voices have become increasingly louder in the first few years of their careers.

For Schenn there have been a lot of reminders that James van Riemsdyk, for whom he was traded straight up in the summer of 2012, scored a career-high 30 goals last season.

The talk about Del Zotto last year was that he wasn't good enough to fit into Alain Vigneault's system with the Rangers, then how he spent some time as a healthy scratch in Nashville after a trade to the Predators. He had great first and third seasons in the league, but his second, fourth and fifth have been mediocre at best.