he 2009 OHL Priority Selection will be on Saturday May 2. For 15 straight days, GuelphStorm.com will look back at the first 15 OHL Priority Selections in team history. Today, we review the 2003 draft.

Heading into the 2003 draft, many felt the 1987 birth year was a weak one across the OHL’s protected draft territory and looking back it’s fair to say they were right.  Six years later, only four players taken in the first round have become NHL regulars.  This list includes Marc Staal, Bobby Ryan, Cal Clutterbuck and the Storm’s first round selection Ryan Parent (pictured).

While Parent would become a building block for Guelph and one of the top OHL blueliners with his steady play on the back-end, the fact that his 10 career goals in a Storm uniform ranks second behind Andy Hyvarinen’s 14 among the 14 players chosen, is a strong statement about the 2003 draft for Guelph.  In what would be his last OHL Priority Selection with the Storm, General Manager Alan Millar certainly fell short of previous successes that he had on draft days.

After dealing the club’s second round pick during the season to bolster the Storm lineup for the Memorial Cup which they would host, Millar followed up his choice of Parent with Hyvarinen from Thunder Bay.  The hard working forward struggled to find consistency in the OHL and after two plus seasons in the league failed to earn a spot on Guelph’s roster.  

Three other players – Shawn Haviland, Darryl Smith and Brent Mackie – would play only one season with Guelph.  After his release from Guelph, Smith would pass through the OHL and be picked up by Gatineau where he would be a solid player for three more seasons.

As of the 2008/09 season, Parent remains the only player from the 2003 draft class to play in the NHL.  With three of the five players that chose the NCAA route still playing college hockey and none of the 14 players selected playing in the AHL at this point, it’s likely that Parent will remain the lone NHL grad.  

Below are the Guelph Storm’s 2003 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.  

		Round	Player	GP	G	A	Pts	Pim	Notes
		1	Ryan Parent	227	10	46	56	262
		3	Andy Hyvarinen	117	14	20	34	56
		4	Brandon Gentile
		6	Billy Lawrence
		7	Darryl Smith						Also played for Gatineau
			CHL TOTALS	249	65	66	131	218	(QMJHL)
		8	Shawn Haviland	76	1	5	6	151
		9	Ryan Bernardi
		9	Chris Spicer
		10	Ryan Turek
		11	Mike Gurtler
		12	Kyle Adair
		13	Brent Mackie	18	1	0	1	16	Also played for Kingston
			CHL TOTALS	49	2	2	4	58	and Ottawa
		14	Trevor Vanwyck
		15	Brett Jager
			Guelph Storm Totals	500	29	74	103	511
			CHL Totals	728	92	139	231	745