OHL Draft Day & College Hockey

Submitted by lhglrkwg on

For those of you don't know, the OHL draft is today and it's currently going on right now (9th rd as of 4 pm EST). This is where many a college hockey fan finds out whether we can expect Player X to ever suit up in a college uniform.

General rule of thumb seems to be early rounds (1-4) are more likely to go while later rounds indicate that that team / the OHL don't think it's likely they'll be able to sign that player.

Bob Miller assembled a list at CHP (link) of notable american prospects and their current commitments (if any). I made a table of those players and their current draft status

First Last Pos   Round Pick Team
Louis Belpedio (D) Miami 9 5 Windsor
Andres Bjork (C) Notre Dame      
Charlie Combs (LW)        
Kyle Connor (LW) Michigan 14 11 Saginaw
Chris Dodera (LW)        
Christian Dvorak (LW)   8 20 London
Dylan Fouts (RW)        
Joshua Gabriel (LW)        
Butrus Ghafari (D) WMU      
Marcel Godbout (C) MSU 9 2 Kingston
Aaron Haydon (D)   1 20 Niagara
Ryan Hitchcock (C) Yale 10 14 Brampton
Josh Jacobs (D) MSU 4 9 Sarnia
Austin Kamer (RW)   13 19 Niagara
Kevin Kerr (D) Penn State      
Dylan Larkin (C) Michigan 10 1 Erie
Brendan Lemieux (LW) North Dakota 4 6 Toronto
Darby Llewellyn (LW)   4 8 Kitchener
Mackenzie MacEachern (LW) MSU      
Ryan McInnis (C)        
Seamus Malone (C) Wisconsin 14 18 Plymouth
Ryan Mantha (RW)   5 14 Sault Ste Marie
Nick Magyar (C) Ohio 12 16 Kitchener
Grant Meyer (RW)        
Sonny Milano (C)   4 18 Plymouth
Dylan Pavelak (C)        
Brendan Perlini (LW) MSU 1 16 Barrie
JJ Piccinich (RW)   6 15 London
Austin Pooley (C)        
Max Rasberg (C)   13 8 Owen Sound
Nick Schmaltz (C) North Dakota 4 13 Windsor
Alex Tuch (C)   5 11 Guelph
Matt Weis (C)   13 16 Peterborough
Cody Gibson (G)        
Logan Halladay (G)        
Brandon Halverson (G)   7 4 Sault Ste Marie
Mark Loveday (G)        
Edwin Minney (G)   8 15 Niagara
Alex Nedeljkovic (G)   6 20 Plymouth
Anthony Stolarz (G) UNO      

Notable findings:

  • Kyle Connor and Dylan Larkin (Michigan commits) have not been drafted yet which is great news because as I saw on the twitter:

    Both Michigan commits. RT @RyanHPscout: The 2 best players we have on our draft board are Dylan Larkin and Kyle Connor both 1st rd talents.

  • Brendan Perlini (MSU, younger brother of current MSU skater Brent Perlini) looks like he might be going OHL
  • MSU had 4 guys on Bob Miller's list. One went in the first, two in the fourth, and one in the 9th. I'm not sure what to think of the guys going in the fourth round, but I'd be nervous if they were ours
  • Darby Llwellyn is indeed Tristin Llwellyn's younger brother. No word on whether Darby has the same love for incredibly stupid penalties

EDIT: Dylan Larkin just got selected. 10th round, 1st pick to Erie. Looking good.

EDIT2: MacEachern from MSU hasn't been drafted yet. I recorded the draft info wrong

EDIT3: And Kyle Connor finally gets taken by Saginaw. 14th Rd, 11th pick. Looks good there too.

stephenrjking

April 7th, 2012 at 4:33 PM ^

Erie is not a serious threat to sign someone. If I were a college team I would be most worried about Perlini, MSU commit to Barrie, since he's a first rounder and Barrie is not a total disaster (could easily be trade bait, though), and Schmaltz, NoDak commit fourth round to Windsor. Windsor is now one of the leading pressure-them-in organizations in the OHL. 

If your player has his rights held by London, Kitchener, or Windsor you worry. 

Not worrying: The MSU recruit to Kingston. Kingston is a disaster right now. Also terrible is Sault St Marie, which (not coincidentally) is where Jack Campbell wound up this season.

Sac Fly

April 7th, 2012 at 4:48 PM ^

I consider myself a fan of the game, not just one team or league, which is why I refrain from the OHL hating. It's great hockey, and my team the Gleph Storm has been very kind to my other team, the New York Rangers in recent years.

stephenrjking

April 7th, 2012 at 5:59 PM ^

Often, but they also hurt other teams. Notre Dame has been burned before, and Patrick Kane was not a serious Michigan prospect when he went to London instead. 

The reason we really suffer is because the OHL is a much bigger danger to central-area schools than the Q is to the east (the Q is substandard) and the WHL is to the west (Minnesota isn't particularly close to the WHL footprint, and there is a much stronger high school-college culture here). 

Thus, we are more likely to lose talent to the OHL than MInnesota or BC, for example.

I'm perfectly fine with admiring and attending OHL games (used to go to Windsor games a fair bit, and also GTA teams when I was visiting the area) while still recognizing that the system is corrupt and unfair to its players. I was a bit bitter that Windsor stole Jack Campbell, since I'm a Windsor fan, but Jack's subsequent descent into irrelevance has made me feel better about it.

Sac Fly

April 7th, 2012 at 6:25 PM ^

The NCAA is just as much at fault for prospects going up north, the OHL guys just tell prospects the truth about playing college hockey. No fighting, full facemasks, empty playoff arenas, tiny budgets, limited television exposure and the list goes on.

If the NCAA changed some of these things we might see elite prospects coming to play in college like we used to. The OHL is a business and they will do whatever it takes to get players because that is what they are supposed to do, the NCAA just makes it easier for them.

lhglrkwg

April 7th, 2012 at 6:29 PM ^

The OHL draft has been strangely kind on the '13 and '14 classes

Player Year Rd Team
Bryson Cianfrone 2013 3 Brampton
Tyler Motte 2013 10 Sarnia
Alex Talcott 2013 13 Sarnia
JT Compher 2013 11 Saginaw
Evan Allen 2013 15 Windsor
Dylan Larkin 2014 10 Erie
Kyle Connor 2014 14 Saginaw

Only guy to go in the top rounds was Cianfrone who was previously expected to go top-10 in the OHL draft before people got wind of his Michigan commitment.