Storm drafts a beauty and some beasts
By Tony Saxon, Guelph Mercury – The newest crop of Guelph Storm players contains a bit of skill and a lot of size.
The Storm made undersized, offensively-gifted centre Hunter Garlent their first round pick in Saturday’s 2011 Ontario Hockey League Priority Section draft.
The 5-foot-8, 160-pound, left-shooting Thorold native scored 54 goals and added 44 assists in 57 games for the Welland Tigers minor midget team last season.
First overall pick was defenceman Aaron Ekblad by the Barrie Colts. Next was winger Nicholas Ritchie by the Peterborough Petes.
Guelph picked another skilled centreman, six-foot 45-goal scorer Jason Dickinson, in the second round.
Then things got a little physical.
They chose 6-foot-3 blueliner Ben Harpur with the first pick of the third round, then took one of the toughest players in the draft with their other third round pick, 6-foot-1 winger Michael Levesque. The Sun County product led all draft-eligible players with 271 penalty minutes last season.
Storm general manager Mike Kelly raved about Garlent’s competitiveness and skill level.
“Hunter is an extremely dynamic player with an extremely high skill level,” Kelly said.
“We also love how he competes all the time. I’ve never seen him take a shift off, never mind a game off.”
Garlent said he was watching the draft on the internet in the basement when he heard his name called.
“I heard my name called and I jumped out of my seat. I was the happiest kid in the world for sure,” said Garlent, who showed up at the Sleeman Centre Saturday afternoon wearing a suit, tie and huge smile.
