QMJHL teams select 18 players in 2020 CHL Import Draft

By David Brien June 30, 2020

LONGUEUIL, Que. – The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) held it’s 29^th annual Import Draft on Tuesday, June 30th of 2020.

This year, a total of 18 players were selected by 13 different QMJHL teams. The five franchises that did not select any international players in 2020 were: the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, the Drummondville Voltigeurs, the Val-d’Or Foreurs and the Victoriaville Tigres.

It is to be noted that the players drafted by the QMJHL teams originate from seven different countries. In total, six players were selected out of Russia, four from the Czech Republic, two from Belarus, two from Finland, two from Switzerland and one each from both Slovakia and Slovenia.

Of the 18 players selected, only two are goaltenders, three are defencemen and the other 13 are forwards. One year after seeing Sherbrooke snag the only goaltender of the Import Draft when it selected all-star Samuel Hlavaj with the 27^th pick, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan selected Czech netminder Jan Bednar second overall.

The Moncton Wildcats were the only other QMJHL team to pick a netminder, closing off the draft with Slovenian Val Usnik. Moncton also made some noise by selecting Maxim Barbashev, the younger brother of former Wildcats’ star and 2019 Stanley Cup champion, Ivan Barbashev.

Here is the list of all QMJHL picks from the 2020 CHL Import Draft:

Rd.	Rk.	Team	Name	Position	Last Team	Nationality
1	2	Acadie-Bathurst	Bednar, Jan	G	Karlovy Vary Energie HC	Czech
1	5	Halifax	Biasca, Atillio	LW	Zug Ev Jr.	Swiss
1	8	Gatineau	Prokopenko, Alexei	Fwd	Omsk Yastreby	Russian
1	14	Quebec	Marjala, Viljami	LW	Karpat Oulu B	Finnish
1	20	Shawinigan	Canonica, Lorenzo	C	Lugano HC Jr.	Swiss
1	23	Saint John	Svechkov, Fyodor	LW	Togliatti Ladia	Russian
1	29	Rouyn-Noranda	Klimovich, Danila	Fwd	Team Belarus U17	Belarusian
1	35	Charlottetown	Brabenec, Jakub	LW	Brno Kometa Jr.	Czech
1	41	Rimouski	Lazarev, Alexander	Fwd	Angarsk Ermak	Russian
1	44	Cape Breton	Nizovkin, Mikhail	Fwd	Vityaz Podolsk U18	Russian
1	47	Chicoutimi	Kaslik, Matej	C	Malmo Redhawks IF Jr.	Slovakian
1	50	Moncton	Barbashev, Maxim	Fwd	Mytishchi Atlant U17	Russian
1	53	Sherbrooke	Grishin, Pvel	RD	Moscow CSKA U18	Russian

2	74	Quebec	Siivonen, Aapo	LD	Lukko Rauma Jr.	Finnish
2	83	Saint John	Hampl, Jan	LD	Liberec Bili Tygri Jr.	Czech
2	95	Charlottetown	Mensik, Matous	C	Karpat Oulu B	Czech
2	107	Chicoutimi	Kuznetsov, Sergei	Fwd	Team Belarus U20	Belarusian
2	110	Moncton	Usnik, Val	G	Slovenia U20	Slovenian