The North Bay Battalion will pick third overall in the inaugural Ontario Hockey League Under-18 Priority Selection tonight at 7:00pm. Players eligible to be selected are Canadians, as well as Americans from OHL-territory states, who played last season on midget AAA teams in the Ontario Hockey Federation, Hockey Eastern Ontario or Hockey Northwestern Ontario. They also can’t be on the protected list of any CHL club. The four-round process will be held in inverse order of the overall standings last season, with the stipulation that non-playoff clubs hold the first four picks. If a team takes one or more goaltenders, they have the option of making a fifth selection, which may not be used on a goaltender. All clubs are required to make at least four picks, but none can make more than five.
Head Coach Stan Butler thinks the OHF wanted to put a re-emphasis on midget hockey for kids to understand that, if they don’t get drafted, they don’t need to play junior hockey the next year, they can actually play midget the following year and they’re eligible for a secondary draft. Butler says Matt Rabideau, an assistant general manager with the club, has directed the Troops’ preparations. He says Rabideau has three scouts that work under him on the midget draft, and they put their list together, and they’ll pick off that list.
Butler suggested the process is a second chance not only for players but also for OHL clubs. He says it gives them an opportunity to draft four or five players that will increase their depth chart and, hopefully one or two of them might be able to make the team. Butler says for him the approach is pretty simple: early on, best players available and then probably third, fourth, fifth round, where their depth chart needs the most help.
The Battalion took three underage skaters from the North Bay AAA midget Trappers in the OHL Draft, and Butler says he believes in hometown hockey. He doesn’t think a kid has to go to Toronto to be developed as a hockey player. Butler says from a development standpoint, they’ve got a good midget program here. Guy Blanchard (Trappers Head Coach) has coached in the OHL and Junior A, and now he’s coaching midget. Butler says kids are practising at Memorial Gardens as much as they can and they’re playing some of their games in the Gardens, so he doesn’t see any reason why somebody should leave.
