It is on this day that your team drafts players you have probably
never heard of from teams you don’t you know from places you can’t locate on a
map. Good times.
The Sea Dogs are expected to pick twice today to replace
Stanislav Galiev and Tomas Jurco. Saint John currently owns picks 34, 52, and
112. The Sea Dogs have made six picks all time at the Import Draft and, if
nothing changes, this will be just the second time that the franchise has
picked a player not in the top five.
So let’s take a look back at the Sea Dogs’ previous
European picks.
2005: 5th overall - Martin Bartos
Saint John’s first ever import pick, Bartos played just
one season with Saint John, recording 11 goals and 17 assists in 43 matches. He
was traded to Bathurst prior to the 2006-07 season in exchange for goaltender
Maxime Joyal and a third round draft pick. Ugh.
Bartos registered 81 points with the Titan in 06-07 and
another eight in the playoffs. He headed top Europe the following year.
According to Elite Prospects, he played in Austria last
season and had 14 points in 13 games.
2005: 41st overall - Felix Schutz
Schutz had 52 points in 65 games during his rookie
campaign with the Sea Dogs in 2005-06. He was drafted in the fourth round, 117th
overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Schutz registered 11 points in 18 games with the Sea Dogs
during the first half of the 2006-07 season. He was traded to the Val-d’Or
Foreurs during the holiday trading period for Alexandre Leduc and Bruno
Desjardins. The German had 33 points in
27 games with Val-d’Or and then added another 15 points during the Foreurs’
20-game playoff run.
According to Elite Prospects, Schutz played in Europe in
2007-08 before heading back overseas to play with the Sabres’ American Hockey
League affiliate at the time, the Portland Pirates. He played two seasons with
the Pirates before returning to play in Germany.
2006: 4th overall – David Stich
A fan favourite in Saint John, the defenseman was never
known for his offensive output but rather for his toughness and strong defensive play.
He spent three seasons with the Sea Dogs from 2006-07 to 2008-09. He served as
team captain in the second half of the 2008-09 campaign after Alex Grant was
traded.
Stich didn’t turn pro after the 08-09 season despite
suiting up for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack for a few games after the Dogs were
eliminated from the playoffs. He returned to junior for the 2009-10 season but
the Sea Dogs had no room for him so he was traded to the Montreal Juniors.
Per Elite Prospects, he has played in the Czech Republic
the last two seasons.
2007: 3rd overall - Robert Mayer
The only goaltender the Sea Dogs have ever taken in the
Import Draft, Mayer played in 32 games in his rookie season in 2007-08,
compiling a 16-10-1 record with a 3.77 goals against average and a 0.887 save
percentage. He was mainly the backup to Travis Fullerton. He played for
Switzerland at the 2008 World Juniors.
In 2008-09, Mayer was Saint John’s No. 1 ‘tender but didn’t
have the greatest season. He went 26-25-4 with a 3.25 GAA and .900 save
percentage. The Dogs were then swept in the first round of the playoffs. He was
often criticized by then head coach Jacques Beaulieu in the media.
Mayer, who was signed by the Montreal Canadiens as a free
agent after going undrafted, has spent the past three seasons in the Habs
system. He won an ECHL title with the Cincinnati Cyclones in 2009-10 and has
played with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs the last two years.
2009: 1st overall – Stanislav Galiev
2009: 4th overall – Tomas Jurco
Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation
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