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
Chris Dilks 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.
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.
Servant. Pastor. Husband. Michigan fan in Duluth.