You had to know something was up with the Owen Sound Attack and the Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection.
It started in the middle of last week when the Attack’s Marketing Director released a standard statement about the picks that the Attack would have.
On its own, that was no big deal, but when the Marketing Director, who seldom makes a clerical error, quickly sent out a retraction pertaining to the number of picks the Attack had, specifically a 2nd round selection via Erie, the spider senses started to tingle.
Then late Friday, when the mainstream media had departed for the day, the Marketing Director sent out another statement outlining how the Attack had acquired two additional 2nd round picks.
Now understand, second round picks carry huge weight in the OHL Draft, so with Owen Sound acquiring not one, but TWO, second rounders it led the curious to speculate one of two things;
1) the Attack had players specifically in mind that they wanted to secure with additional picks.
Or 2) the newly acquired picks were insurance in the event they were thinking of doing something risky in the first round.
Depending on who you talk to, it was both.
A risk as it pertains to the selection of Victor Mete, who might be a reluctant skater for Owen Sound.
And target picks to obtain forwards William Knierim from Chicago, who also has some risk, and Jonah Gadjovich from Whitby who apparently can’t wait to get here.
I’m Fred Wallace