Tuesday Draft News And Notes

For many reasons, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles can’t screw up at this year’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft. They have the first overall pick, and it looks like they’ll be using it.

Cape Breton will not trade the No. 1 overall pick. Marc-Andre Dumont: “We’re going to use that pick and we know who we’re going to pick.”
— Willy Palov (@CH_WillyPalov) June 4, 2013

Palov also tweets that he expects the Eagles to take forward Nicolas Roy with the pick. Most draft publications list him as the top prospect available but he has said he is considering the US route, meaning it’s hard to say where he'll land.

But there is also the Nathan Noel option. Noel is sort of a local player (he’s from St. John’s) and would complement fellow Newfoundlander Clark Bishop quite nicely in Cape Breton. We’ll see what happens on Saturday when the 2013 draft takes place in Chicoutimi.

The Saint John Sea Dogs will select third overall. The Screaming Eagles and the Shawinigan Cataractes select ahead of them.

Some other draft news and notes…

• Val-d’Or newspaper reports that the Sea Dogs, Screaming Eagles, and Cataractes have all spoken to Nicolas Roy. Draft day is going to be fun.
• The PEI Rocket Charlottetown Islanders have a lot of overage players and will be looking to move some this weekend, reports The Guardian.
• Stormin’ Norman, the QMJHL’s version of Eklund, tweets that the “Sea Dogs are being very aggressive in trying to bring over from the United States D-man Noah Hanifin.” Take that for what it’s worth (it’s probably not worth much). HockeyProspect.com ranks Hanifin as the best player available for this year’s QMJHL draft.
• The draft will once again be webcasted. It’s usually free of charge and we'll post the link here on draft day. Most of the commentary is in French but there are usually plenty of English interviews.
• Friday at 6pm on Local 107.3 FM, the 3^rd Line Grind radio program will be talking Q draft and Sea Dogs for most of the show.