Two years ago, no one knew Ed Jovanovski. And, frankly, no one was rushing to meet him.

He was just another guy with skates and a stick, just another guy whose name wasn't called in 1992 at the Ontario Hockey League draft for underage players.

Jovanovski, only five years on the ice after spending most of his childhood kicking a soccer ball, wasn't good enough or skilled enough.

Then ... boom! Literally.

"People say that I've come out of nowhere or that I'm a late bloomer," Jovanovski said. "I guess I am."

Meet the Nowhere Man, Ed Jovanovski, who in two years has gone from nobody to arguably the most coveted in Tuesday's NHL draft. The player who, if they keep the No.1 overall pick, will most likely be the Panthers' choice to help the franchise into the future and the playoffs.

A 6-foot-2, 210-pound defenseman, Jovanovski is the total package. He's big, he's strong, he can skate, he can shoot, and he is one tough SOB.

How tough? Jovanovski, who played last season for the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, knocked out an opponent with a clean shoulder-check. At the Canadian Hockey League all-star game, Jovanovski was called "a one-man wrecking crew," delivering bodycheck after bodycheck.

"He has a real passion for the game," said Jovanovski's OHL coach, Shane Parker. "I wouldn't say that makes him a dying breed among today's young players, but he's definitely a throwback."

While top prospects like center Radek Bonk and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky have shied from or resented the rough stuff, Jovanovski eats it up. In 62 games at Windsor, he was in a dozen fights. No one sought a rematch.

"I like the physical stuff," Jovanovski said recently in New York. "I think a team needs a couple of players on the ice who maybe like the rough stuff. I think that can get a team going. And, really, I don't mind it."

Ted Nolan, who coached Jovanovski in the CHL game, said: "There's an old saying that hockey is not a contact sport but a collision sport, and he fits that notion to a 'T."' Rated the No.2 prospect behind Bonk by the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau, Jovanovski scored 15 goals (seven on the power play) and had 35 assists at Windsor. He was named an OHL all-star, part of the OHL's all-rookie team and, naturally, the Emms Division's best bodychecker in an OHL coaches poll.

So where did Mr. Nowhere come from?

Jovanovski is from Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit, and the younger of two brothers. Jovanovski's father, a Macedonian immigrant, works at General Motors as a machine operator. It was the father who turned the son to soccer.

"He played pro soccer in Europe, somewhere in Yugoslavia, and I started playing, too," Jovanovski said. "My dad still watches [soccer) on TSN every morning, but it was getting too boring for me. I liked action, and hockey seemed to fit me right."

Jovanovski's switch to hockey came at 11, well past the usual time for an NHL player. But it hasn't seemed to cost Jovanovski.

"What's impressive about him is that he's only played six years of what we call organized hockey," Panthers President Bill Torrey said. "But by the time [each) season is over, he has been the dominant player on every team and league he's played in."

Frank Bonello, director of Central Scouting, acknowledges that Jovanovski wasn't a prime candidate early last season after spending the previous year with the Windsor junior Bs.

"But it only took a few games for him to adjust," Bonello said. "I guess the comparisons would be to [Devils defenseman) Scott Stevens. He's rated second with us, but he could be the first pick. He's a great bodychecker as well as a scorer."

John Chapman, the Panthers' director of player personnel, believes Jovanovski isn't close to his peak. "I think Ed is only 65 percent development-wise of where we project him," Chapman said. "The development end of this kid is scary."