Isles select teammates
Sometimes the draft just works out that way.
The Charlottetown Islanders picked up three guys who played last season with the Moncton Flyers and a pair of teammates from the L’Intrépide de Gatineau at Saturday’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft.
General manager Jim Hulton chalked it up to “pure luck.”
“It’s just kind of the way the draft falls,” he said Sunday. “You can try to script it all you want and then when you get there, you just have to roll with the punches. It just so happened we ended up with teammates.”
The Islanders top pick was Flyers defenceman Lukas Cormier, added his teammate Patrick LeBlanc, a forward, in the third round. They grew up playing together. The Isles final pick was defenceman Nicholas Bourque, a fellow Flyers product.
Charlottetown selected Gatineau blue-liners Anthony Hamel and Nathan Martell in the fourth and sixth rounds, respectively.
Martel is known for his rugged play.
“Our scouts told me he’ll be a fan favourite. He’s one of those guys that plays with an edge,” Hulton said. “Teammates love him and opponents don’t like him.”
The Islanders had a secondround pick (32nd overall), but traded it to Saint John for thirdand fourth-round picks (37 and 67 overall).
“We were only moving down five picks and it allowed us to recover a slot we didn’t have,” Hulton explained. “The guys were very happy to get (Xavier) Fortin at that pick.”
The Sea Dogs used the secondround pick to draft Days Corner defenceman Charlie DesRoches.
Hulton said he liked the speed and skill the team has obtained with the draft picks, but added the team’s depth will enable the squad to be patient and not rush the prospects to junior hockey.
“We never want to rule out one of these kids playing (this season), but we also don’t want to put undue pressure on them,” he said.
The Isles will now move onto the next stage of the off-season.
The league is holding its first American player draft this morning. It used to be part of the main draft, but now is a standalone draft. Each team still has to take two players. The Isles select 10 and 28 overall. It’s a matter of selecting the best player available for the Islanders and seeing if they will come.
“We haven’t had in-depth discussions with anybody,” said Hulton, who doubles as head coach.
He will be getting a look at some Ontario kids this week as potential free agents and then prepare for the CHL import draft if Saku Vesterinen stays in Finland this season.