Storm Draft Flashbacks… 2008

The 2013 OHL Priority Selection will be conducted online on Saturday, April 6th. With the 12th choice of the draft, Guelph Storm GM and Vice President Mike Kelly along with his scouting staff will look to add a weapon to an already strong nucleus in Guelph for the 2013-14 season.

GuelphStorm.com looks back at OHL Priority Selections in team history including several that were headed by Kelly during his last tenure with the Storm.

2008 OHL PRIORITY SELECTION

Measuring the 2008 draft by games played, the draft was a successful one with seven players combining to play 1,038 OHL games.  Leading the way in career games, goals, points and penalty minutes was first round pick Cody McNaughton. 

Interestingly, four players picked by Dave Barr in his final OHL draft chose the NCAA route, with three of them leaving college early to pursue other hockey options.  Kevin Lough, who just completed his first season at Colgate could be the only player to stick with the NCAA after Kyle Palmieri, Joel Vienneau and Carlos Amestoy each left.

Two players from the draft started and finished their OHL careers in a Storm uniform including the aforementioned McNaughton and David Searle.  A native of Peterborough, Searle played parts of three seasons in Guelph but had difficulties adjusting to life away from home and made the decision to move on from the OHL. 

As of 2012/13 only Palmieri has seen NHL duty.

Below are the Guelph Storm’s 2008 OHL Priority Selections picks.  The combined Guelph Storm and CHL totals for the 14 players selected that day are at the bottom of the table.