Battalion prospects get playoff peek
BRAMPTON, Ont. – Two of the Brampton Battalion’s newest recruits got their first glimpse Sunday of what their hockey futures might hold.
Garrett James and Nick Paul, fourth- and fifth-round picks respectively in the Ontario Hockey League’s Priority Selection on Saturday, were among those who took in the Battalion’s 3-1 loss to the Niagara IceDogs in the second game of a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal.
Right winger James, 16, was chosen 75th overall from the Huron-Perth Lakers minor midgets, while Paul, 17, was taken with the 95th choice from the Mississauga Reps major midgets.
“It was very nerve-wracking sitting in front of my computer,” said James, a native of Stratford, Ont. “When I saw my name come up, it was a huge sigh of relief. It was a great feeling.”
Paul was the only 17-year-old among the Battalion’s 16 picks in the 15-round process conducted over the Internet.
“It’s so exciting,” said the Mississauga resident. “When I saw my name come up, I was overjoyed. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t get picked last year, so I had to start all over again, focus more and train harder. It was tough not getting picked, but I had to work to make myself a better player.”
Paul, six-foot-two and 205 pounds, said he’ll look to crack the Battalion lineup in the fall.
“I have to make the best of this opportunity. I’ll have to show well from my first camp. I’m a power forward who can work in the corners. I can use the body and set people up. The game looks a lot faster, and I’ll need to work on that over the summer. I’ll be doing a lot of work on my speed, agility and acceleration.”
James, a six-foot-two, 185-pounder who scored 14 goals and added eight assists for 22 points in 38 games this season, agreed that the speed of the OHL game will demand adjustment.
“The game looks a lot faster, and there are so many big players you have to be ready physically and you have to be ready to move a lot quicker. I can bring two-way play and I’m a great skater with a good shot. I have to work hard over the summer. I’ll need to get bigger. My goal is to play in the OHL. I want to come in here and contribute as much as I can to help the team get better.”
Assistant coaches Ryan Oulahen and Jason Ward will be ready to offer advice about how to succeed in the OHL when Battalion prospects convene at the orientation camp in May.
Oulahen, 27, was one of the Troops’ two fourth-round picks in 2001 and played three years with the club, serving as captain in 2004-05, his final season. Ward, 33, was a first-round pick of the Niagara Falls Thunder in 1995 and went on to record 222 points in 204 OHL games with the Thunder, Erie Otters, Windsor Spitfires and Plymouth Whalers.
“I remember sitting in the basement staring at the computer and hitting the refresh button,” said Oulahen. “After a couple of hours, my name came up, and I remember checking it a few more times to make sure it wasn’t a mistake and my name was really there. I went into it with an open mind. I just wanted to get picked. It didn’t matter where or when.”
Ward was taken sixth overall from the junior A Oshawa Legionnaires during an event held at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens.
“I had talked to a lot of the teams who were picking at the top, but I really had no idea where I would go. There’s a lot more pressure on the kids now because there are a lot more people watching you. Back then you just played, and if a team liked you they would take you.”
Ward, a first-round pick by the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League’s 1997 Entry Draft, enlisted with the Battalion as a volunteer assistant coach in 2010 while weighing offers to play professionally in Europe.
“It was great to be able to practise with them last season,” said Ward, who went on to play in Austria. “I got to skate with the kids and battle with them and I couldn’t believe the speed. I was really shocked. The kids are stronger now, but it wasn’t that big of a difference.”
Oulahen said there’s more emphasis on conditioning now than there was when he sought to make the jump to the OHL.
“The kids get in the gym now with personal trainers. They learn how to take care of their body. I didn’t really start getting into that until I was getting ready to come to the OHL. I came to camp, did the fitness testing, got a program from the trainer and went from there. Kids these days all start working out long before they get chosen by an OHL team.”
Ward, who played 336 NHL games with four clubs, said he can relate to players who might be nervous at their first OHL camps.
“As a first-rounder there was a lot expected of me when I went to Niagara Falls. I was never a big kid, so when they did upper-body testing I would be at the bottom of the results, but when it got to other areas I would be near the top. I had played with older guys in Oshawa, so the age of the players didn’t bother me, and my confidence grew as it went on.”
A fifth-round pick of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings in 2003, Oulahen played 302 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s American Hockey League affiliate, before an injury brought his five-year professional career to an end in 2009-10. He joined the Battalion coaching staff last season.
“Everybody wants to get taken earlier, but I look at it now and can tell kids that it doesn’t really matter. I’ve been through it, in both the OHL and NHL, and all that matters now is that you belong to an organization and you can start growing and building your career from there.
“The best Battalion players from my age group weren’t the early picks. They were guys like Brent Burns, who was taken in the third round, and Kevin Couture and Jamie Fraser, who were both picked a lot later.”
