Troops acquire pick from Guelph
NORTH BAY, Ont. – The North Bay Battalion has acquired another pick in the Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection, bringing its complement to 15 choices in the 15-round process Saturday.
The Battalion obtained a 12th-round selection from the Guelph Storm on Thursday in exchange for an 11th-rounder in 2017.
The OHL Priority Selection, scheduled to start at 9 a.m., will be conducted over the Internet in inverse order of the league-wide regular-season standings.
The Battalion has at least one pick in every round except the second and eighth.
The second-rounder went to the Saginaw Spirit on Jan. 4 in a trade for right winger Nick Moutrey. The Battalion, which traded its own sixth-rounder to the Peterborough Petes on Jan. 8, 2013, for centre Francis Menard, has the Hamilton Bulldogs’ sixth-round selection, acquired Oct. 9, 2013, when defenceman Mark Raycroft was dealt to the relocated Belleville Bulls.
North Bay has two ninth-round picks and, after the trade with Guelph, two 12th-rounders. The newly acquired pick is the 13th selection in that round, three before the Battalion’s own spot.
The Troops will exercise the 18th pick in the first round, which features 22 selections. The Niagara IceDogs and Owen Sound Attack each received a compensatory pick after their first-round selections in 2014 failed to report.
Players are first-time eligible for the OHL Priority Selection, in which teams pick players from Ontario and the eastern United States other than New England, in the year they turn 16.
The selection process can be followed on www.ontariohockeyleague.com.
