North Bay Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler says the Battalion will select a forward with the third overall selection in the OHL Priority Selection on Saturday. Butler thinks there’s a lot of good players available, but there’s probably not a lot to choose from after the first couple of kids. He added there’s probably a group of seven or eight kids and you could argue for any one of them. Butler added they’re all pretty good players and will help the respective teams they go to. The Troops finished the season with a record of 24-38-6 for 54 points, missing the playoffs for the third time in 19 years. They hold 16 picks in the 15-round draft that’s scheduled to start at 9:00am via the Internet tomorrow morning. Teams will select in inverse order of the overall standings, given that non-playoff teams exercise the first four selections.
North Bay has one pick in each round, except for two in each of the sixth, eighth and 14th rounds and none in the fifth or 11th. In a trade on Tuesday with the Guelph Storm, the Battalion acquired a second 14th-round pick which the OHL office has acknowledged originally belonged to the Windsor Spitfires. A clerical error by the league had seen it shown as that of the Peterborough Petes. While the Troops haven’t selected as high as third since 2002, when centre and left winger Wojtek Wolski was the pick, Butler says missing the playoffs has given him the opportunity to get a better-than-usual read on the young talent available. Butler says he’s probably seen a lot more minor midget hockey this year than he has in the last four years combined. Butler attended the OHL Cup tournament in Toronto during the season and watched the OHL Combine in Oshawa last weekend.
Butler says it was helpful talking to players’ families. He says even though they know a little bit about him, they want to actually meet face to face and have a chance to talk. Butler says he went down to the combine last weekend and, obviously, met with some families and spoke to them and did some evaluations. He’s comfortable that come Saturday the players they’re considering will be happy to come to North Bay. Butler suggested that families focus on off-ice concerns as much as hockey, adding they want to know about schooling, about billeting and how much longer he’s going to be in North Bay. He says they’re talking about 15-year-old kids here and 16-year-old kids, parents are concerned about their boys and they want to make sure that they’ve covered all the areas that they need to cover as a parent if they send their child away from home.
Battalion scouts, under head scout Errol Hook, are to hold a final meeting today before the OHL Priority Selection. The Barrie Colts announced this morning they intend to take centre Ryan Suzuki of the London Jr. Knights with the 1st overall pick. The OHL Priority Selection can be followed live at www.ontariohockeyleague.com.
