It’s an unique time of the year in the Ontario Hockey League with games being played simultaneously both on and off the ice.
As the Kitchener Rangers and Owen Sound Attack take a break today in their Western Conference playoff series they are quite mindful that in a week and a half, the OHL Priority Selection will be staged.
This is the earliest the OHL Draft has been held in my memory, earlier by a month, and it will be interesting to see whether the participating teams give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Regardless, from an Owen Sound standpoint, the Attack are perched to pick 8th overall and are obviously interested in how the selections proceed directly in front of them.
Connor McDavid, first to Erie.
Roland McKeown, second to Kingston
Eric Cornel, Robert Fabbri & Joshua Ho-Sang all expected to be long gone before Owen Sound picks, leaving Guelph & Oshawa, both in need of defenders, still to select, which likely takes Jacob Middleton of the Huron Perth Lakers off the board & out of the equation for Owen Sound.
Attack General Manager Dale DeGray doesn’t do anything in haste. Nor does he do anything connected with team operations in full view for the public. He’s calculating, in a good way, and isn’t remotely interested in sharing his math
homework
So we’re left to guess Owen Sound is facing the prospect of selecting a player who slid through the names mentioned above, although doubtful, or one of the following in alphabetical order; Sam Bennett of the Marlies, Michael Dal Colle from Vaughan or Jared McCann of the London Junior Knights.
True the Attack have a big playoff game tomorrow night at home against Kitchener, but there’s an ongoing game on an entirely different level that will play itself out on April 7th
I’m Fred Wallace