Greyhounds select three in U18 draft

The Ontario Hockey League’s annual Under-18 Priority Selection went on without a hitch on Wednesday afternoon.

After teams participated in the annual 15-round priority selection of Saturday, the annual U18 draft sees teams select players who from the Ontario midget leagues in the second draft.

The U18 draft includes players born in 2002 and 2003 who played AA midget this season.

Teams are given two selections in the draft but gained a third selection if one of those two picks was a goaltender.

Locally, the Soo Greyhounds selected three players, including goaltender Samuel Ivanov with the fourth overall pick.

Ivanov spent the 2019-20 season with the Vaughan Kings.

“He was our top goalie coming into it, so we were excited that he was available,” said Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis. “We had some strong conversations about him at the end of our draft last year (2019) and I give our guys credit, they tracked him really well this year. He had a good year with the Vaughan Kings.”

Raftis also credited the developments the Greyhounds scouts saw in Ivanov’s game.

“They saw a little more calmness in his game,” Raftis said. “They thought he was a little more raw last year, which there’s nothing wrong with that. When you’re a 6’3” goaltender at 15 and 16 years old, those are going to happen in your game, and he played on a team that wasn’t a powerhouse. He got lots of shots every night and he really gave them a chance to win. When you’re going through your 16-year-old year, you want to play a lot and get a lot off starts. That’s something that Samuel did.”

In the second round, the Greyhounds selected defenceman Cole Williamson of the Whitby Wildcats.

“Cole’s a smart defenceman,” Raftis said. “He moves the puck really well. He’s a good skater. He had a really good season with Whitby. He’s somebody that, when we were looking at players in that spot, with his I.Q., he’s going to give himself a good chance at camp.”

Finally, the Greyhounds used their third pick to select centre Henry Brock of the Ajax-Pickering Raiders.

“Henry is a good-skating centreman,” Raftis said. “He’s got good puck skills and he can drive offence that way. When you look at Henry, he’s growing into his body and continuing to add strength. He’s definitely someone that’s going to be an interesting view once we get a chance to get everyone together.”

Next up for the Greyhounds is getting current players and prospects set up with summer workout plans.

The players will be working with Greyhounds athletic therapist Julian Cooper to prepare.

“We’re putting together some plans (for the players),” Raftis said. “Julian has been working with our returning players, making sure that they’re doing the right things. It’s something that, we don’t want to leave it too long. You don’t want to have everyone going too intense. You’d be starting your summer routine now, so it’s something that we’re trying to put together for everybody. We’re going to try to include our new prospects in terms of getting their summers organized. Usually we would do that when they would come into development camp. This year our development camp was scheduled for the first weekend in May but it’s going to be happening this year obviously so it’s a matter of how can we have those conversations and make sure that we don’t miss out on anything and give everyone insights on our side of it and let them run with it.”