OHL Draft set for Saturday

As the Ontario Hockey League playoffs continue this weekend, teams will shift their focus on Saturday to another annual tradition as the league holds its annual priority selection.

Beginning at 9 a.m. teams will go through 15 rounds of selections to add to the future of their hockey clubs.

The Sudbury Wolves hold the first pick and announced on Friday that they will select Don Mills Flyers forward David Levin with the top pick.

Levin’s is an interesting story as the 15-year-old was born in Israel and moved to Toronto on a student visa at the age of 12. It was at that point that Levin began playing hockey on ice for the first time.

Prior to coming to Canada Levin had only played inline hockey in Israel.

With the Flyers this season, Levin had 39 goals and 80 points in 55 games this season.

The Windsor Spitfires hold the second pick while the Flint Firebirds, Mississauga Steelheads and Peterborough Petes round out the top five picks.

Owen TIppett (Toronto Red Wings), Gabe Vilardi (CIHA Voyageurs), Ryan McLeod (Toronto Marlboros) and Marcus Phillips (Toronto Titans) are some of the highly-touted players expected to have their names called early on Saturday after Levin’s selection shortly after 9 a.m.

The Soo Greyhounds will make their first selection on Saturday at the end of the first round (22 overall).

The Greyhounds have 15 picks on Saturday, including selections in rounds one, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and three round 15.

The first round is a little longer this year (by two picks) as two teams – Niagara and Owen Sound – will get compensation picks this year after trading the players they selected in the first round in the 2014 draft.

The IceDogs selected Logan Brown in the first round last year. Brown was dealt to the Windsor Spitfires after refusing to report to Niagara. The IceDogs will receive the seventh pick as compensation, along with the picks acquired from the Spitfires.

The Attack will receive the ninth pick as compensation for defenceman Victor Mete not reporting and subsequently being dealt to the London Knights.

The OHL’s compensation rule sees teams receive a first round pick for a player that doesn’t report to training camp and is ultimately traded away. The pick received as compensation is the pick following the one used to select the previous year.

The OHL Priority Selection is conducted entirely online via the OHL website.

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FIRST ROUND ORDER

1. Sudbury Wolves
2. Windsor Spitfires
3. Flint Firebirds
4. Mississauga Steelheads
5. Peterborough Petes
6. Saginaw Spirit
7. Niagara IceDogs
8. Hamilton Bulldogs
9. Owen Sound Attack
10. Sarnia Sting
11. Kingston Frontenacs
12. Kitchener Rangers
13. Niagara IceDogs
14. Owen Sound Attack
15. Guelph Storm
16. Ottawa 67’s
17. London Knights
18. North Bay Battalion
19. Barrie Colts
20. Erie Otters
21. Oshawa Generals
22. Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds