Storm Draft Flashbacks… 1993

The 2012 OHL Priority Selection will be conducted online on Saturday, April 7. With the sixth choice of the draft, Guelph Storm GM and Vice President Mike Kelly along with his scouting staff will certainly have the opportunity to add an elite player to the club for what looks like an exciting season in 2012-13. 

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.

1993 OHL PRIORITY SELECTION

After an impressive 41 point improvement from 1991-92 to 1992-93, the Storm owned the 5th overall pick in the first round of the 1993 OHL Priority Selection.  The event as held at the old London Gardens.

One year after grabbing Jeff O’Neill from Thornhill Jr A, Mike Kelly would look a little further up Highway 404 to select Jeff Williams from Newmarket Jr B.  While Williams never lived up to his high selection, he was part of one of the Storm’s deepest drafts in history with seven different players going on to play three plus seasons in the OHL.

Second round pick Jamie Wright of Elmira was the Storm’s Rookie of the Year that season with 32 points.  Wright was one of four players selected by Kelly in 1993 that went on to play in the NHL.  Joining Wright on the list were Jeff Cowan (pictured), Sean Haggarty who was traded to Detroit before ever playing a game in the Royal City and David Cullen, who played in the NCAA instead of reporting to the OHL. 

Cowan’s rise to the NHL surprised many.  The Scarborough native played only two and a half seasons of junior and showed little promise until his third season with the expansion Barrie Colts.  Undrafted, he would work his way up from the ECHL, play almost four seasons in the AHL to finally earn his shot with the Calgary Flames.  The hard-working forward has played 413 NHL games. Wright would see action in 124 NHL games while Haggerty and Cullen would play 14 and 19 games respectively.

In total 11 different players selected by the Storm would play in the OHL.  Todd Norman, who was the club’s only underage selection in 1993 would lead the way with 253 games played in four seasons with Guelph.

Below are the Guelph Storm’s 1993 OHL Priority Selections picks.  The combined Guelph Storm and CHL totals for the 16 players selected that day are at the bottom of the table.

		Round	Player	GP	G	A	Pts	Pim	Notes
		1	Jeff Williams	177	44	93	137	82
		2	Jamie Wright	185	90	90	180	115
		2	Eric Landry	70	8	19	27	116	Also played for OS and Bell
			CHL TOTALS	172	26	38	64	220
		3	Todd Norman	253	114	140	255	129
		4	Ryan Risidore	182	16	77	93	324	Also played for SS Marie
		6	Andy Adams	73					Goaltender, also played for SSM
			CHL TOTALS	143					and Regina (WHL)
		6	Jeff Cowan	68	11	7	18	19	Also played for Barrie
			CHL TOTALS	134	49	21	70	48
		7	Mike Pittman	222	35	45	80	128
			CHL TOTALS	236	2	2	4	4
		8	Aaron Arnett
		9	Sean Haggerty	187	131	132	263	136	Played only with Detroit
		10	Barry Parsons
		12	Brian Kennedy
		13	Derek Conn	2	0	0	0	0
		14	David Cullen						Played NCAA hockey
		15	Kevin Banks
		16	Darcy O’Shea	25	2	0	2	11	Played only with Oshawa
			Guelph Storm Totals	1232	319	471	790	913
			CHL Totals	1692	510	638	1148	1297