Elite prospects calling the shots in OHL draft
If Doug Gilmour is still cheesed at his former Maple Leaf teammate Tie Domi, he’s not saying. But he surely was.
Gilmour, charged with rebuilding the Kingston Frontenacs OHL franchise, was stung this time last year when he chose Domi’s son, Max, eighth overall in the league’s priority draft, and was then forced to trade him to the London Knights for draft picks because that’s where the Domi family wanted him to play.
It was a situation that got ugly, with unkind words and threats that young Domi would go to the United States to play, and Gilmour was left with little choice.
“When it came to our turn, Max was the best player available,” Gilmour said this week. “Would he come? The odds were against us, but there was hope, hope because of my ties to Tie and Leanne (Max’s mother). It was tough because we wanted to move forward.
“The best I can say is that in hindsight, it worked out for both parties.” It was a story that could do damage to both a friendship and a major junior hockey operation. After all, if the best youngsters in the province don’t want to play for you, even the children of your buddies, how do you turn around a team that hasn’t been particularly competitive for more than a decade? Well, a year later, Domi has completed a strong first season in the OHL and is still playing in the playoffs, while Gilmour and the Frontenacs, after a last-place are trying to shake the reputation of being a place where top minor midget players don’t want to go. So far, so good. “No, not at all,” said agent Murray Kuntz when asked if Toronto Marlies captain Roland Mckeown, expected to go No. 2 to Kingston, would refuse to join the club. “With the guys they have in place there now, certainly with Todd Gill as coach, it’s a step in the right direction.” This year’s OHL priority selection draft, which takes place Saturday, is a fascinating window into the hockey business these days. So anxious are OHL clubs to prevent top young players from being wooed by the NCAA that they’ve enacted an “exceptional” player rule that permits top 15-year-olds to be selected. Used previously on John Tavares and then last year by Barrie to take strapping defenceman Aaron Ekblad, this year Mckeown’s Marlie teammate, forward Connor Mcdavid, will get that exemption and go first in the draft to the Erie Otters. What happens after that, however, is where the OHL draft differs markedly from the NHL draft because the elite talents, like Domi, have a much greater say in where they will and won’t play. Rumours of outlandish promises and cash payments abound, never proven. For the most part, deals are cut before the draft. This year, after Mcdavid, most know Mckeown is going to Kingston and Peterborough will then take Upper Canada Cyclones centre Eric Comel. The intrigue will then be at the No. 4 position where the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds may have a headache on their hands.
The best talent may be another Marlie, Josh Ho-sang, but speculation is that he would prefer not to go to the Soo. With options like midget hockey, Tier II or the USJHL, elite prospects have leverage that players simply don’t have in the NHL draft.
“All I can tell you is that it’s a challenge,” said Hounds GM Kyle Dubas, who added the team hasn’t yet decided who it will select.
For Gilmour and the Frontenacs, this is a critical year to get that franchise moving, particularly after making a big deal with Sarnia last season to send Kingston’s best player, Boston Bruins draftee Ryan Spooner, to the Sting for a younger player, Ryan Kujawinski.
With a compensatory pick from last year’s Domi episode in hand, Gilmour has the second and ninth picks, plus the 22nd and 24th. The Fronts are now selling the importance of school to their prospective players, including the proximity of Queen’s University, and the chance for those who don’t make pro hockey to use their education packages to play Canadian university hockey after the OHL.
“We’re young, and we want kids to want to come here,” said Gilmour. “It’s about schooling and a commitment. They’re not coming here to party.”
Gilmour’s oldest son, Jake, is also in this OHL priority draft, a 6foot-2 left winger. He won’t be drafted until much later, but it’s a done deal he’ll be drafted by Kingston. That’s the way it worked for Mike Foligno when he was running the Sudbury Wolves and for Mark Hunter in London, although two years ago Barrie created controversy by selecting Kerby Rychel, son of Windsor GM Warren Rychel, even though the Colts knew the Spitfires were set to take him.
“It will be great having Jake at training camp,” said Gilmour, whose son played for the GTHL Jr. Canadiens last year. “He knows that he won’t be one of our top picks, but we’ll find a place for him to play where he can develop.”
Gilmour has encountered a steep learning curve running the Kingston operation, finding his way in a business where many of the important decisions are made in back rooms between cold-blooded, well-funded junior operations and ambitious hockey parents.
The best of the kids who will drafted into the OHL this weekend are anything but kids. They’re prospects, with their eye on their NHL draft year down the road and big-money contracts.
They’re not about being told what to do. They’re running this show.