The OHL Priority Selection goes tomorrow (Sat) and the North Bay Battalion have 16 picks.

The Troops will select 9th overall in round one.

Meantime, there are some local players to watch at the draft.

North American Central Scouting Chief Scout Mark Seidel tells BayToday Trappers goalie Ben Gaudreau is one for sure.

“I think he’s the best goaltending prospect I’ve seen in the minor-midget draft since I’ve been doing it, and I’ve been doing it for 26 years. He’s a unique individual, he’s got the perfect mindset for being a goaltender and I think his physcial abilities speak for themselves,” he says.

Another player to watch is defenceman Connor Punnett, who’s from Powassan.

“There’s not a lot of good defenceman so his value certainly goes up because he is one of the more elite defenceman in the draft, there’s a premium for that so teams may jump early on that,” he tells BayToday.

Seidel also says Trappers forward Cameron Lemcke could be selected tomorrow too.

“He’s a big kid, plays with passion and is a physical player that I’ve talked to some teams about,” he says.

Seidel also talked about next week’s draft.

“Big buzz around the OHL about North Bay is the major-midget team and the Under-18 draft, it’s coming up next week and I think you’ll see a number of players off that team get selected that probably should’ve been drafted last year,” he says.

 

(File photo)

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