From the Stands
By Paul Osborne, Guelph Tribune
As spring passes the baton to summer Guelph Storm vice-president and general manager Mike Kelly is about to turn in his chinos in for a pair of shorts. But before he does he has one more piece of business to attend to – the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft which will take place June 28th, two days after the National Hockey League Draft.
“We’re doing a little bit of everything to prepare for this one” said Kelly recently. “We’re talking to agents, NHL contacts and I’ve seen a few of the players that have travelled through North America and played some games. There is also a fair bit of video out there these days.”
They say drafting fifteen and sixteen year olds is not an exact science but most GM’s go above and beyond to find out every minute detail they can before announcing a player’s name on OHL draft day. The Import Draft is not so exacting.
Does the entire process make Kelly a little uneasy?
“Yeah, it does because I’m not certain it is as much a draft as it is a recruiting process with the first five to ten picks. You have three leagues and picking players from all around the world. We have the 30th pick and we’ll only be making the one selection with (Andrey) Pedan already here.”
Each OHL team is allowed to have just two import players on their roster and the Storm got a good one last year in Pedan.
“If you hit the proper player it is like getting another first round OHL pick” said Kelly. “You can’t minimize the importance of that and I think Pedan fits that description. Most of us want to see an import be in our top six forwards or top three defencemen. If not, I’d rather stick with Canadian kids. Ola Boos (whom Kelly selected back in the early 90’s) could play but he wasn’t a top six forward so we (released him) and went with Canadian kids.”
Kelly did hit the mother lode when he drafted 19-year-old Latvian Herbert Vasiljevs in 1995. On a tip from a coach in Germany, Kelly drafted the player sight unseen and watched with great pleasure as he scored 34 goals and 67 points and even averaged a penalty minute per game. Vasiljevs would go on to play 51 games in the NHL with Florida, Atlanta and Vancouver. He is still playing in the German Elite League where last year had 16 goals and 49 points to lead the Krefeld Penguins in scoring alongside another former Storm star in Charlie Stephens.
As of right now Kelly is looking for another offensive player.
“We are leaning towards a forward rather than a defenceman at the moment” he said. “But that could change.”
In the meantime Kelly is working to sign players from the last two drafts. With such a young team planned for next year it is the perfect place for unproven rookies to come in and make their mark.
Kelly would love nothing better than to have one of those players be a blue-chip skater from overseas.
