The league announced the disbanding of 2 teams. One team was expected, the New England franchise. The other was a complete shock, the Sudbury franchise. Shock is probably an understatement given how well previous GM Terry James had built his team. That meant that there was a ton of talent available for the remaining teams to choose from. At the top of the available list were 2 franchise centers: Auston Matthews and Sebastian Aho. There were also some very talented youngsters in Wyatt Johnston and Seth Jarvis. And if that wasn’t enough, there were top line wingers / centers in JT Miller, Zach Hyman and Brayden Point. It was clear that the Icecats would not be able to draft one of those top talents, so we looked at what was available at our #19 spot. With our lineup pretty set, we went about looking at futures. With our first pick, we took PAR 1st-24, which could yield a high end talent in the upcoming draft. It also makes our own 1st available to trade to improve our team.
With the snake order of the draft, we picked again at 26. While we hoped to draft Gavin Brindley, with him off the boards, we took his potential future teammate, Luca del bel Bulluz. Bulluz had a strong first year in the AHL and scored in his NHL debut. His talent is intriguing.
When the 3rd round pick came up, most of the better talent was gone and so were the better draft picks. As such, we took a chance on another prospect with talent, defenseman Artyom (Artem) Duda. Duda was an early 2nd rounder for the Coyotes. He has plenty of time to develop as the Icecats are in no rush to get another dman into the CCHL. It’s a good gamble.
With our fourth and final pick, we took a chance on another player who had a good first year in the AHL, Viktor Neuchev. Neuchev seems to be trending upwards from the MHL to the KHL and now the AHL. We expect bigger things from Neuchev this coming AHL season.
All in all, it was a good dispersal draft given where we were drafting. While we did not acquire a player to help immediately, we acquired future talent to continue to build our prospect pipeline. Time will tell if the picks were wise or not but for now, Icecats management is pleased. Stay tuned for more, sports fans!
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