Troops select two imports
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion selected Ukrainian centre Ihnat Pazii and Slovakian defenceman Alex Cajkovic in the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft on Wednesday.
The Ontario Hockey League’s Battalion took Pazii with the 48th overall pick from the Chicago-based Windy City Storm U16s. In 30 games with the Storm before playoffs, he scored 17 goals and earned 17 assists for 34 points. He had four goals and two assists for six points in four playoff games.
Pazii, who had 41 goals and 26 assists for 67 points in 56 games with the Anaheim Jr. Ice Dogs U15s in 2021-22, played five games for Ukraine in the U18 world tournament, producing two goals and seven assists for nine points.
The Kharkov native, a left shot who turns 17 on Dec. 4, stands five-foot-nine and weighs 150 pounds.
Cajkovic, taken 72nd overall in the two-round process conducted over the Internet, played last season with the Malmo Redhawks J18 team in Sweden, scoring five goals and adding 11 assists for 16 points in 31 games. He had two assists in a total of 11 games with the Slovakian under-18 team.
The Bratislava-born left shot, who stands six feet and weighs 178 pounds, turns 18 on July 19.
“They’re both highly intelligent, highly skilled, so I do expect them both to (make the) transition quite quickly,” said general manager Adam Dennis, who noted that the new recruits speak fluent English.
“We’re excited about both guys. They come in with a lot of eligibility and a lot of new circumstances. They’re highly skilled guys who can contribute, and we’re also going to give them time to acclimatize.”
Dennis said Pazii “just makes you smile as you watch him play.”
“He has such passion for the game. He’s relentless on the puck. He’s always trying to find ways to get open.”
North Bay held positions 55 and 115 in the draft order but selected earlier because teams with a full complement of two imports passed.
Matvey Petrov and Alexander Lukin, the Battalion’s imports last season, are expected to play elsewhere in 2023-24.
Left winger Petrov, a 20-year-old Russian who was the first overall selection in 2020, was chosen by the Edmonton Oilers in the sixth round of the 2021 National Hockey League Draft and signed a three-year entry-level contract. Defenceman Lukin, 19, has said he’ll play in his native Russia next season.
The 60-team CHL’s three member leagues, the OHL, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League, rotate the order of selection from year to year, with the sequence of picks within each league determined by the inverse order of regular-season standings. Non-playoff teams are guaranteed the OHL’s first four spots in accordance with the weighted lottery that determined their order for the OHL Priority Selection.
The Erie Otters made centre Martin Misiak, who finished last season with the Youngstown Phantoms of the United States Hockey League after playing in the top professional league in his native Slovakia, the No. 1 pick. The Saginaw Spirit took Misiak second overall in the 2022 Import Draft before confirming Pavel Mintyukov and Matyas Sapovaliv as its Europeans. Misiak was a second-round choice of the Chicago Blackhawks last week in the NHL Draft.
The 20 OHL clubs made 28 selections, numbering 14 defencemen, 12 forwards and two goaltenders.
Czechia led with nine picks, followed by Finland with five and Slovakia with four. Sweden and Switzerland each had two, while other countries represented were Germany, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, with one apiece.
