Three in third ends Rovers draft

Iqaluit, NU (CP)

The Rovers concluded their successful RHL17 draft by making three final selections, tabbing another forward and two more defensemen.

With their first pick of the final round, the 77th selection, the Rovers plucked budding power forward Troy Brouwer from the Chicago Blackhawks organization. An unheralded early junior career was capped by a 102 point season as an overager in 2006. To prove that it was not a fluke, he followed it up with 41 goals and 38 assists for 79 points in 66 AHL games, earning a trip to the AHL All-Star game and a stint with the Hawks in the NHL. “We’re very excited to add a player of Troy’s skill set. He combines goal-scoring and physical play that will complement our team very well”.

Three picks later at #80, the Rovers nabbed bruising defenseman Pavel Valentenko from Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik of the Russian SuperLeague. This past season Valentenko played in 50 games with the senior team, registering 2 assists and 64 PIM. However, he has impressed Rovers brass with his desire to play in North America and has committed to crossing the pond this season to play in the Rovers minor league system. “A lot of people have been leery of drafting the Russians without an [transfer] agreement, but Pavel has shown a keen interest to come over as soon as possible”, Stringer said of the blueliner. “Once we get him in our system here, it’ll just be up to him as to how quickly he progresses up the ladder. We’re very excited to have gotten him here, as we were considering him much earlier in the draft”.

Originally the Rovers just had two third round selections, but when the Kitchener Mounties came calling to offer a third round pick this year plus cash for a third round pick next year, the Rovers jumped at the chance to grab the next name on their list. They promptly flipped the Mounties pick (#86) and the cash to San Francisco for the next pick in the draft (#81) and selected defenseman Jeff Petry of the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. In Petry’s second season with the Bucs, he tallied 18 goals and 27 assists for 45 points in 55 games, garnering USHL defenseman of the year and first-team all-USHL honours. He has committed to joining the defending NCAA champions Michigan State this upcoming season and will continue his development in the college ranks. “We had a very tough choice between Pavel and Jeff”, Stringer said, “so we wanted to do everything we could to get both. Fortunately, we were able to work something out with the Aviators after we acquired the extra pick from Kitchener. We are very happy to have gotten both guys”.

In total, the Rovers made nine draft choices, selecting five forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender. “Overall we wanted to focus on skill, and I think we accomplished our goal”, Stringer said of his full crop of picks. “Our farm system has done a tremendous job delivering talent to the big club this year and will again next season, but graduating so many prospects takes a toll on depth. We really feel like we’ve re-stocked the organization for many more seasons to come. I can’t say enough about the job our scouting staff has done. They really hit a few out of the park this draft in my opinion”.

Rovers Tab Two in Second Round

Iqaluit, NU (CP)

With the twelfth and and thirteenth picks in the second round, the Rovers selected another forward and a defenseman.

Francois Bouchard of the QMJHL’s Baie-Comeau Drakkar became the fourth high-scoring forward selected in the draft. Bouchard, the QMJHL scoring champion, led the league with 45 goals and 80 assists for 125 points in 68 games. The younger brother of Chicago Capone’s forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Francois brings speed, hands, and energy to the Rovers. “We had thought we would be selecting defensemen in this round given who we thought would be available, but when Bouchard was still on the board we had to act. We had him pegged to go much earlier. He has such a high compete level to go along with breathtaking skill. We’re very excited to add him to our mix”.

With the next selection, the Rovers took their first defenseman of the draft in Cory Murphy of HIFK Helsinki in the Finnish Elite League. The 29 yr old rearguard was born in Canada and went through the US college system at Colgate University, playing four seasons before heading overseas for six seasons in Finland and Switzerland. After leading all defensemen in scoring and placing 10th league-wide with 13 goals and 37 assists for 50 points in 45 games, Murphy has made it known that he wanted to return to North America and the Rovers feel they have themselves an effective power-play quarterback. To showcase his skills, Murphy accepted an invitation from Canada to compete at the World Championships in April. There he finished third among defensemen in scoring with 7 points in 9 games, trailing only Dick Tarnstrom and fellow Rover prospect and Canadian teammate Dion Phaneuf. “Cory has been on our radar a while, and when he said he wanted to come to the RHL, we told him we were very interested in having him. Of course, all players have to go through the draft, so we couldn’t guarantee him anything, but we’re very happy that it has worked out. We think he’ll be a great contributor to our team in the near future”.

Barring the acquisition of further second round picks, the Rovers now look ahead to the third round where they currently have two selections, those originally belonging to the Straphangers (17th) and the Selects (20th).

The Fab Four

Iqaluit, NU (CP)

The Baffin Island Rovers concluded their first round selections and came away with four top-notch prospects which should help to replenish a farm system that has been very productive in the past season or two.

Trading up to the tenth spot in the draft, Baffin made center James Sheppard their first RHL17 selection. Sheppard has finished his third season with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL, scoring 33 goals and 63 assists for 96 points in just 56 games. The Rovers dealt picks 24 and 25 in the first round for the 10th pick and a third round pick. “We’re very excited to add James to our organization”, Stringer said. “When he was available at 10, we thought we had a chance to get him as we had been having trade talks with the Vampyres for that pick all week. We’re just glad to get it done”.

Three selections later, the Rovers tabbed another center, Bryan Little of the Barrie Colts of the OHL. Little just finished his fourth OHL season and scored 41 goals and 66 assists for 107 points in 57 games. “We really wanted to focus on offense talents early in the draft and Bryan brings that to the table. He has blazing speed, excellent hands, and a tremendous work ethic”.

With the 17th pick, the offensive theme continued as winger Claude Giroux heard Baffin call his name. Giroux’s second season with the Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL saw him tally 48 goals and add 64 assists for 112 points in 63 games. “Claude is the player we had targeted with the 13th pick, but we were surprised to see Bryan available and felt we should stick to our board. We were so pleased to see him there at 17. We feel we’ve added three dynamic forwards today and couldn’t be more happy”.

With their final pick in the first round, the Rovers stuck with their plan of coming away with a goalie in the first round. Having acquired this pick for former starter Martin Gerber, the Rovers feel they have more than replaced him with goalie Jaroslav Halak. Halak has rocketed up through the ranks to finish last season with the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL, posting a 2.89 G.A.A. and 0.906 sv pct in 16 games. Of the four players selected, the team believes Halak to be the most RHL-ready, although there is no hurry to rush him along with Chris Mason and Ray Emery ahead of him. “We considered some younger goalies, but in the end our scouts felt that Jaroslav has just as much potential and is further along. He has already played pro hockey at a high level and continues to improve each season. He was too tempting to pass up. He’s a tremendous addition to our depth chart in net”.

The Rovers now wait for the second round tomorrow. They have two selections, #12 and #13 in the round. They also have two third round picks, although GM Stringer has been actively seeking extra picks and has been talking to a few teams about their selections.

Roberts, Walz among exposed for dispersal draft

Iqaluit, NU (CP)

On the eve of the expansion draft for the Vulcan Mind Melds, the Baffin Island Rovers released their protected list.  As advertised, all contracted players were either protected or exempt from draft eligibility, though three key UFAs are eligible for selection.

Four Rovers will be available to the Mind Melds for selection.  Forwards Wes Walz and Gary Roberts, defenseman Danny Markov, and goaltender Jocelyn Thibault will be the group from which the Mind Melds may choose.   Among the forwards, the Rovers had to choose between protecting two of free agents Walz, Roberts, Cory Stillman, and Antti Laaksonen.  “We’d really like to take a run at resigning all four, but we could only protect two so we chose Laaksonen and Stillman”.

On defense the Rovers had two free agents and chose to protect Keith Carney rather than Markov.  “With Phaneuf and Michalek coming in we weren’t going to have room to resign both anyway.  It was the same situation in net with Jocelyn.  With Emery and Raycroft now in the fold, we won’t have the room.  We thank both men for their contributions to the team”.