Lucas Punkari
During this past weekend’s league meetings in Thunder Bay, the Fort Frances Lakers had the chance to pick up talent not only for the 2012-13 season, but for the future, as all seven teams took part in the SIJHL’s annual draft.
Having to choose players who were born in 1996, and who are within the regional boundaries the league plays in, the Lakers had a definite local flavour to their selections, with four of the eight having Fort Frances ties.
“Our main objective in our draft philosophy is to keep the local talent in our area so that we can have them in the future,” explained Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“If we can get them into our program at this age, we feel that we are the best means of hockey in Fort Frances to further their development, and to help them grow and achieves their goals as people and as players,” he added.
Three of the eight players chosen by the Lakers were forwards for the NorWOSSA champion Muskies last season, including Tyler Mosbeck (fourth round), Braden Webb (sixth round), and Hunter Leishman (a protected local player pick taken prior to the nine-round draft).
During their title-winning campaign, Mosbeck was tied for fifth in league scoring with 18 points, with Leishman notching 13 points and Webb nine.
“With Hunter, we felt that he is the most ready player to step up into our lineup and we wanted to secure that option with our protected pick,” Strachan said.
“Hunter had a good U17 camp in Thunder Bay and really opened up a lot of eyes in that area to the type of player that he can be, and we didn’t want to take the chance of him being picked up before our first-round selection,” he stressed.
“Tyler was a no-brainer for us as he is a skilled and speedy player who has the potential to put points up, so it will be interesting to see what he will do in the main camp against bigger, older, and stronger players,” Strachan added.
“Braden is a player who has been a steady contributor to his teams over the years, and he was someone that impressed our director of scouting, Trevor Lang, in the regional U17 camp.
“He is a guy we feel that, in a year or two, can contribute to our team our team if he wishes,” noted Strachan.
The other player with local ties came in the second round as the Lakers took goalie Mark Loveday, who has spent the last three seasons between the pipes at Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Faribault, Mn.
Having split time last year with Shattuck’s U16 squad, Loveday posted a 10-11-7 record with a 3.58 GAA for the Sabres.
“Mark was someone that we wanted to land early and know that we had him in our system,” Strachan explained.
“He’s a goalie that has steadily improved from a young age,” he added. “And by going to Shattuck to further his development, it has really helped him to start and come into his own.”
With their first-round choice (sixth overall), the Lakers selected Thunder Bay Kings’ forward Daniel Delpaggio, who notched 72 points in 61 games last season for the Minor Midget squad.
“We were looking to get the best player available, and Daniel certainly was it,” Strachan said.
“Prior to the draft, I had a very good conversation with an old teammate and a coach that I respect in Thunder Bay and he told me that if you get Delpaggio, that you should take him.
“He has breakaway speed, good skill, and he can read the ice exceptionally well,” he noted.
Two of the Lakers selections came from the Minnesota high school ranks—Crookston blueliner Justin Cameron (third round) and International Falls forward Luke Spilde (fifth round).
Cameron had three assists in 25 games for the Pirates last season while Spilde had four points in 27 games for the Broncos.
“We took a bit of a flier on Justin in the third round, but we decided that it could pay off in the end,” Strachan reasoned.
“Justin cannot join our team for two seasons with age restriction rules, but his coach [Jon Bittner] talked so highly of him, and he’s been involved with the U15 and U16 Minnesota programs, that we thought he would be a good one to protect.
“As for Luke, he is similar to Hunter Leishman in size at 6’2”, and he is someone that we hope can be a power forward in our league one day,” added Strachan.
“His head coach [Bruce Elson] says he has room to grow as a player, and as we cannot get him until he is 18, he has a few years to develop in the Broncos’ program.”
The Lakers took Current River Comets’ forward Matt Glomba in the seventh round, then elected to pass on their eighth- and ninth-round selections.
“I took the advice of our director of scouting [Trevor Lang] in taking Matt, as he’s someone who has a ton of talent and potential,” Strachan said.
“His father was a solid junior and Division III player, and in our opinion we feel that Matt will round out into that potential in the future.
“We then chose to pass on our last two picks as we had taken eight players and filled out our 50-man protected list by doing that,” he explained.
“But overall, we fell that we added a good crop of young recruits, along with good mix of size, power, speed, and skill, that will be good for us for the future.”
Lakers’ fans will have a chance to see all of the club’s Canadian draft picks, along with Spilde, during the team’s annual summer camp, which will be held July 20-22 over at Broncos Arena in International Falls.
In other news, the Lakers announced two player signings over the weekend.
The squad brought back goalie Tanner Hamilton for a second season and also welcomed forward Mathew Chasse to the fold.
Hamilton, a 20-year-old from Saskatoon, Sask., was the back-up for departing starter Tyler Ampe last season, compiling a 14-3-2-0 record with a 2.73 GAA.
Chasse, a 17-year-old from Brossard, Que., was the first-round draft choice by the Temiscaming Titans of the GMHL last season, where he had six goals and 10 assists in 41 games.
