SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — The Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals enter Saturday’s Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) Entry Draft with a simple game plan: Take the best player available.
“We graduated eight of the top 20-year-olds in the league,” said Pat McIver, the team’s veteran general manager. “We graduated (defencemen), forwards and a goalie.
“It’s no secret we are going to have holes at every position.”
However, McIver, who has built a contending team year after year, is optimistic about the future.
“We feel with what we have drafted in the past and guys who played midget last year and potentially guys coming back from major junior that we will have a few holes to fill, but not as many as people think we will,” he said. “We turned over 11 last summer and we still rebounded pretty well.”
The Billy McGuigan-coached Caps were the second-ranked team in Canada at the end of the 2019-20 season and ran away with the MHL regular-season title with a 42-7-3 (won-lost-overtime losses) record before the playoffs were cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The eight-round draft begins at 10 a.m., and the first two rounds will be televised on Eastlink Community TV. The draft will be conducted online due to COVID-19.
“Obviously, we would love to be with all the other teams in the same room, but we are going to have a nice little set up on P.E.I.,” said McIver.
Eight selections
The Capitals have eight picks on Saturday after selecting defenceman and Summerside native Sid McNeill as a territorial pick on Monday. Teams are allowed to select two territorial picks from their area. The Capitals' territory is Prince County.
Teams that pass on territorial picks receive extra picks at the end of the second and third rounds, while teams that take one player get an extra pick at the end of the third round.
“We think it’s going to be a pretty good draft,” said McIver, who does not expect to be very active on the trade front Saturday. “We have a list made and we are cautiously optimistic that we are going to get some of the guys we are targeting.”
Todd Richard, P.E.I. scout and governor for the Caps, feels this year’s draft is deep.
There is a lot of depth in the ’04 group, he said, and some ‘03s that went unnoticed last year or developed a little bit and grew in the off-season.
“There is some high-end (P.E.I.) talent that went pretty high in the Q draft and it’s tough to risk taking some of those guys if they are going to end up playing in the (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). Draft picks are at a premium and we want to make sure we can capitalize on them.
Richard said there are a lot of great players across the Maritimes that are available that will turn into good junior A players.
He also said there is good depth in this year’s class of P.E.I. draft-eligible players. He noted the Kensington Wild featured an older team, while there will be more kids available to be picked from the youthful Charlottetown Knights. The Wild and Knights play in the New Brunswick/P.E.I. Major Midget Hockey League.
In addition, there are players who are in prep school.
“There is a top tier and you can see that through the Q draft,” said Richard. “And the next tier, we think there are a few guys who were missed over in the Q draft that could turn into good junior A players. Or if they have a year or two of junior A, they could end up having a chance looking at a Q spot.”
