RALEIGH - The Carolina Hurricanes considered taking a 6-foot-7 defenseman or a 6-3 defenseman with their first-round pick, but those two players went with the two previous picks.

So the Canes went in the opposite direction Friday night in Ottawa. With the 14th overall pick, they selected Zach Boychuk, a center who rated as one of the fastest skaters in the draft — and also one of the smallest at 5-9 1/2 and 175 pounds.

"These are some of the things we bounce off Ronnie [Francis]," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said. "When you have a player that size, there are certain things that a player needs to be able to do.

"He has to have really good hockey sense. He has to be really quick. He passes the test on that. We're fine with his size."

In the post-lockout NHL, the Hurricanes think he has the quickness and skill to follow in the footsteps of players like Daniel Briere, who's officially 5-10 but roughly the same size. So does Boychuk.

"There are lots of small guys, small players, obviously having great careers in the NHL," Boychuk said. "One guy I like to consider myself playing like is Daniel Briere of the Philadelphia Flyers. He's a great player with similar size and skill set. Hopefully, I can play like him someday."

That was the only action for the Canes on Friday. The first day of the draft passed without the long-awaited trade for a defenseman, and the Canes expressed no interest in moving up, down or out of the first round.

Even before they picked, the Canes were recipients of good news: Perennial Canes-killer Olli Jokinen, fifth in scoring among active players against the Hartford/Carolina franchise, was traded out of the Southeast Division when the Florida Panthers sent him to the Phoenix Coyotes for defensemen Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton and a draft pick.

After a long series of pick-swapping trades, the Canes held onto the 14th pick and took a center from the Western Hockey League for the second straight year after taking Brandon Sutter with the 11th pick in 2007.

Oddly enough, Boychuk and Sutter are close friends after multiple Team Canada appearances together, including this year's gold-medal team at the World Junior Championships. And oddly enough, Boychuk has spent the past three seasons playing for the Hurricanes -- the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

"It was getting pretty exciting as Carolina's pick was coming up," Boychuk said. "I thought it was a pretty funny coincidence."

Boychuk has posted consecutive 30-goal seasons for Lethbridge and was one of the youngest members of Canada's gold-medal team at the World Juniors, although he was pointless in seven games.

He broke a bone in his left wrist during the WHL playoffs and wasn't able to fully participate in the NHL's pre-draft physical testing, but he said he expected to be healthy by midsummer.

Of the 140 top North American skaters as ranked by the NHL's Central Scouting Service, only three measured shorter than Boychuk. But few were ranked as highly.

Central Scouting ranked him eighth out of that group, The Hockey News ranked him 12th overall, TSN had him as the 14th best player in the draft, and Red Line Report ranked him 13th -- a rare degree of consensus among scouts.

"He's a more complete player than a lot of the bigger guys available, at this point in time," Hurricanes amateur scouting director Tony MacDonald said. "He's got a better pedigree."

The Canes had offers for the 14th pick, but after defensemen Tyler Myers and Colton Teubert went with the 12th and 13th picks, either of whom would have been Carolina's pick if available, the Canes decided to stay put and take one of the two forwards left on their list.

Rutherford passed on trying to move into the back half of Friday's first round as well, with a player targeted for the 45th overall pick in today's second round.

"We think he's going to be there," Rutherford said. "We'll sit and wait until that pick."