CHL Import Draft Is Today

The 2013 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft takes place today. The event, done online, begins at noon Atlantic time.

The Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants have the first overall pick. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles will pick third while the Halifax Mooseheads will select sixth and 12^th.

Meanwhile, the Saint John Sea Dogs hold the ninth and 69th overall picks. They are expected to use at least one of those selections, presumably to replace forward Jakub Izacky.

Saint John chose Izacky and defenseman Jurij Repe in last year’s Import Draft. Izacky, although he did lead the team in scoring last season (excluding Jonathan Huberdeau), would take up an overage spot and an import spot this season which is not ideal.

Some Import Draft rule changes have been announced. From the QMJHL website:

New in 2013, teams are no longer permitted to trade picks up to or during the CHL Import Draft process, while the only goaltenders eligible to be selected are those born in 1994 or 1995 and are only permitted to be selected during the first round.  Each team in the CHL is permitted to dress and play a maximum of two import players each season who are selected annually through the CHL Import Draft. 

The Import Draft is a bizarre event. Unlike most sports drafts where fans know who the top prospects are going in, everyone heads into this thing blind. In 2009, basically all we knew about Tomas Jurco was that he had a cool video on YouTube.

NHL Draft News & Notes

Some news and notes from NHL Draft day…

• According to media people, there were 31 QMJHL players chosen in yesterday’s draft. That includes six going in the first-round. That's pretty good. Elite Prospects has a list of all the players chosen.
• Patrick Roy and the Colorado Avalanche selected Nathan MacKinnon first overall. MacKinnon’s Halifax teammate – Jonathan Drouin – went third overall to the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Zach Fucale (36^th – Montreal) and MacKenzie Weegar (206^th – Florida) were the other Mooseheads picked.
• MacKinnon was the only QMJHL player the Avs selected.
• The Florida Panthers opted to pass on Seth Jones and selected Russian centre Aleksander Barkov with the second overall pick, giving former Sea Dogs captain Jonathan Huberdeau some offensive support in South Beach. Florida also selected two QMJHL players – the Armada’s Christopher Clapperton in the fifth-round and the Mooseheads’ MacKenzie Weegar in the seventh-round.
• As we noted yesterday, no Sea Dogs were selected in yesterday’s draft. According to TVA Sports’ Mikael Lalancette, Moncton, Saint John, Drummondville, Sherbrooke, and Bathurst did not have a player picked in the draft.
• When the St. Louis Blues selected Cape Breton forward William Carrier late in the second-round, TSN analyst Craig Button told us how he really felt about the Screaming Eagles team this past season. He went off on a small rant about how bad they were.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs picked two players from the QMJHL yesterday. They used their first-round pick to take Rimouski’s Frederik Gauthier and then took Charlottetown goaltender Antoine Bibeau in the sixth-round.
• According to a tweet from the Rimouski Oceanic, former Sea Dogs prospect Maxime Gravel and Fredericton native Peter Trainor have been invited to Montreal Canadiens camp. Neither were drafted yesterday, obviously.
• Next year's draft will be held in Philadelphia. 

No Sea Dogs Picked In NHL Draft

For the second straight year, no members of the Saint John Sea Dogs were selected in the NHL Draft.

Only two Sea Dogs – forward Stephen Anderson and defenseman Jurij Repe – were named in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings. Both were projected as late picks so it did not come as a huge surprise to see neither picked in today’s lengthy draft.

A couple players with Sea Dogs connections were selected. Ryan Segalla was a fourth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins while Wiley Sherman was selected in the fifth-round by the Boston Bruins.

Segalla, a Massachusetts native who is committed to play at the University of Connecticut in 2014, was an eighth-round pick of the Sea Dogs in the 2011 QMJHL Entry Draft but never reported. The Sea Dogs lost his rights to the Sherbrooke Phoenix in the expansion draft.

Meanwhile, Sherman, a Connecticut native who is committed to play at Harvard in 2014, was a 13^th-round pick of the Sea Dogs in 2012 but has never reported. Judging by this tweet from The Hockey News’ Ryan Kennedy, it doesn’t look like he’ll be coming to Saint John.

#Bruins pick Wiley Sherman says he will return to Hotchkiss prep school next season, then go to Harvard in 2014-15
— Ryan Kennedy (@THNRyanKennedy) July 1, 2013

Although it wasn’t a great draft for the Sea Dogs, it was a great draft for the QMJHL as an unlimited amount of players were selected. Good stuff.

It's NHL Draft Day

The 2013 NHL Draft takes place this afternoon in New Jersey.

Because of the lockout, the entire draft will take place in one day.  It all begins at 4pm Atlantic on TSN.

The Colorado Avalanche have the first overall selection this year and it looks like they will be selecting Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon with the pick. MacKinnon going first would be the highlight of what is expected to be a great draft for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Two of MacKinnon’s teammates – forward Jonathan Drouin and goaltender Zach Fucale – are also projected first rounders.

Rimouski’s Frederik Gauthier, Baie-Comeau’s Valentin Zykov, Val-d’Or’s Anthony Mantha, Cape Breton’s William Carrier, Quebec’s Adam Erne, and others could also be selected in the top 30.

Only two members of the Saint John Sea Dogs – forward Stephen Anderson and defenseman Jurij Repe – were listed in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings. Anderson was ranked 127^th while Repe was 205^th, respectively.

After a slow start this year, Anderson recorded 12 goals and 15 assists in 63 games.

“If I get drafted, that’s great, I’d really like that, but if I don’t I’m not going to be teary-eyed,” Anderson told the Charlottetown Guardian. “It would be a huge honour to know all your effort over the years has paid off.”

Meanwhile, Repe registered three goals and eight assists in 38 games in his first season with the Dogs.

No Sea Dogs were selected in last year’s NHL Draft.

Huberdeau Named To NHL Rookie Team

Jonathan Huberdeau has been named to the National Hockey League’s All-Rookie Team for the 2012-13 season.

The news comes as no surprise as the former Saint John Sea Dogs captain was named the Calder Memorial Trophy winner as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year earlier this month.

Huberdeau, who spent the first half of the season with the Sea Dogs due to the lockout, recorded 14 goals and 17 assists in 48 games with a bad Florida Panthers team. According to NHL.com, “his average ice time of 16:55 led all first-year forwards. He was also the first player in franchise history and the only one in the NHL this season to score on two penalty shots, and he set a team record for points by a teenager, breaking the mark of 27 set by Radek Dvorak in 1995-96.”

Fredericton native and former QMJHLer Jake Allen of the St. Louis Blues was the goaltender named to the All-Rookie Team. Brendan Gallagher of the Montreal Canadiens and Brandon Saad of the Chicago Blackhawks – both of whom were Calder finalists – were the other forwards on the team. The Minnesota Wild’s Jonas Brodin and the Edmonton Oilers’ Justin Schultz were the defensemen.

The 2013 NHL Draft takes place tomorrow afternoon in New Jersey.

3rd Line Grind Airs Tonight At 6pm

It’s show day!

Here’s what’s going down on tonight’s episode of 3^rd Line Grind beginning at 6pm on Local 107.3 FM.

• Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup
• Talking ‘bout Sunday’s NHL Draft
• Trades and buyouts and trades and buyouts
• Sea Dogs news
• The Import Draft is coming
• Coaching changes
• More stuff probably?

Tune in tonight from 6-7pm on Local 107.3 FM in the Saint John area, listen live online at localfm.ca, or check us out on Rogers channel 949 and Aliant 824.

Also, follow us on Twitter @3rdlinegrnd and like us on Facebook to keep up to date on show happenings.