Sea Dogs pick two forwards in Import Draft

The Saint John Sea Dogs made two selections in Friday's CHL Import Draft.

The Sea Dogs selected 17-year-old Czech forward Pavel Simek in the first-round and 16-year-old Latvian forward Eriks Mateiko in the second-round.

Simek spent last season with the Mountfield HK program in Czechia, recording 10 goals and 34 points in 44 games with the under-20 team. He's listed at 5'10" and 148 lbs. He also had a goal and two assists in 15 games with the Czechia under-17 team this season.

Pavel Šimek enters the zone with speed and scores on a quick wrist shot. pic.twitter.com/oOyklo9f9c

— Czech Prospects (@CZprospects) November 4, 2021

Mateika, who spent last season with the SK Riga program in Latvia, is a big body forward, listed at 6'04" and 187 lbs. He appeared in four games with Latvia at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship, recording two goals.

What a way to kick things off! @lhf_lv goes up 1-0 over @SwissIceHockey thanks to Eriks Mateiko! #U18Worlds pic.twitter.com/f1vBpxmLSq

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) April 26, 2022

Mateika is the first Latvian to be drafted by the Sea Dogs in franchise history.

This was the third straight year that the Sea Dogs selected two players in the Import Draft.

Saint John's current import players, Russian defenseman Yan Kuznetsov and Latvian forward Raivis Ansons, are expected to graduate to the professional ranks for the 2022-23 season. Kuznetsov is a Calgary Flames prospect while Ansons is with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Slovakian forward Adam Sykora went first overall to the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers. Czech forward Jiri Kulich, projected to be a first-round pick in this year's NHL Draft, went third overall to the Cape Breton Eagles.

"We think that we can convince him to come," - @CBEHockey GM Sylvain Couturier on Jiri Kulich. #CapeBreton #Eagles #qmjhl #lhjmq #Saltwire

— Jeremy Fraser (@CBPost_Jeremy) July 1, 2022

Russian and Belarusian players were not eligible to be selected in this year's draft. There was (shockingly!) a loophole though, allowing the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada to tale Russian forward Ivan Miroshnichenko, a top prospect for this year's NHL Draft who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

*Spit Take*

Okay this will a two-part Tweet

Ivan was supposed to play for Muskegon in the USHL in 2020-21 but that didn't happen

Was picked by Acadie-Bathurst in 2021 (so I assume he's grandfathered in for this thing because of the whole Russian and Belarusian rules this year) https://t.co/ZDHVlPXUH4

— Lucas Punkari (@lpunkari) July 1, 2022

According to the CHL, "all non-overage, import players that were previously drafted in the CHL Import Draft but were deleted by a CHL member team before the 2022 cut-down date were eligible to be re-drafted by another CHL club in the 2022 Import Draft."

A total of two Russians and one Belarusian were picked through this loophole.

The Flint Firebirds, meanwhile, selected Ukrainian forward Nikita Zozulia in the first-round.

Firebirds Select Ukrainian Forward Nikita Zozulia in the 2022 CHL Import Draft. Welcome to Flint, Nikita!

📰: https://t.co/mqlJATFCfA pic.twitter.com/6AysTNiODN

— Flint Firebirds (@FlintFirebirds) July 1, 2022