In this article - I will look at what this year's BRHL Draft brought to us in the early rounds & notable things that happened.

It started with the obvious - No real surprises at the top. The first 2 picks were about as obvious as we'll ever see in a BRHL draft, leaving Sennecke as a pretty clear # 3 pick. Some might argue better players were available and wouldn't have gone that route, but Sennecke possesses very high upside and this draft was loaded with defensemen early.

Injuries took their toll - Danny was left with picks 4 & 5 and did what I think most BRHL GM's would have done in his spot. He grabbed a forward (Iginla) and a defenseman (Dickinson). Sam Dickinson had a phenomenal year and was an obvious BRHL riser, so no surprise he went to Danny. The real decision/surprise came was when he took Iginla. The best 2 remaining forwards (Iginla & Lindstrom) both had significant injury issues. Danny had to choose between taking a risk on an injury prone forward, or allowing them to slip and over-drafting a slightly undersized forward in Catton, whom he eventually scooped up anyways. Iginla actually technically jumped to 4 from 6 in our draft, while Lindstrom fell from 4 to 10. A worthwhile gamble for Garrett to be sure.

A run of defensemen – Picks 5 (Sam Dickinson to Detroit), 6 (Zayne Parekh to Carolina), 7 (Zeev Buium to Winnipeg) & 8 (Artyom Levshunov to Pittsburgh) were all defensemen. No real bad picks here, but with a relatively shallow (healthy) forward group, it was surprising not to see Catton slip in there somewhere.

The Sumit/Steve Saga – We can’t talk about round 1 without talking about the biggest hiccup of the draft. 8:51 Steve asks if he’s up. Sumit (King of the Jungle) responds at 8:52 saying “Yeah Nimrod”. Steve instantly responds saying he’ll take Yakemchuk and continues to go on a walk with his dog. Well, little did he know, he wasn’t getting Carter Yakemchuk. “Well fuck” Steve said, at 8:59 as he paced frantically with his dog’s leash in hand. It was actually CBJ’s pick, who unfortunately for Steve, was not around until it was his time to get BPA’d. He came back just in time (9:01) to say he’s here to make his pick. Well, he decided to just stick with BPA. Steve calls Jesse a dweeb at 9:02 and at 9:04 Eric F decided enough was enough, Steve was getting Anton Silayev. Boom. Steve left the BRHL chat groups for about 5 minutes while he cooled down.

The Windsor risers - This draft can't be written about without discussing the significant risers. The first big one was Liam Greentree, going 14 (from 26 in NHL) to Eric in Tampa Bay. Greentree had a standout year with Windsor, tallying 119 points. I actually thought there was a chance he slid into the top 10 given the lack of elite, healthy forwards. Ilya Protas went to the Red Wings at 19 (from 75 in NHL) as far and away the biggest riser in round 1. Protas actually had a better year than Greentree playing for the same Windsor team in OHL.

Doc’s Jumpers - With three 1^st round picks, Doc’s Jets selected 3 players ahead of where they went in NHL. Zeev Buium kicked things off for him at 7 (12^th in NHL), followed by Igor Chernyshov at 21 (33^rd in NHL) and rounded out with Carter George at 26 (57^th in NHL). While all 3 players were technically over-drafted, it is fair to say that none of them would have dropped much below where Doc grabbed them. Winnipeg had a really solid 1^st round.

Amazing what a year can change – Only 3 players went in the exact same slot in both NHL & BRHL. Celebrini at 1 to Ducks, Sam O’Reilly at 32 to Wild & Evan Gardner at 60 to St. Louis.

With all of the significant risers, who fell? – Artyom Levshunov dropped from 2^nd in NHL to 8^th in BRHL (Penguins) & you have to feel that Matt is very happy about that. Cayden Lindstrom dropped from 4^th in NHL to 10^th in BRHL (Maple Leafs). Adam Jiricek fell from 16^th in NHL to 31 (Flames) in BRHL. Terik Parascak dropped from 17^th in NHL to 33^rd (Wild) in BRHL. Emil Hemming fell from 29th in NHL to 56^th (Panthers) in BRHL. The last NHL 1^st rounder off the board was Dean Letourneau falling from 25^th to the BRHL Avs at 62.

Who got the biggest haul? – Danny’s Red Wings had six first rounders, so it can’t really be anyone else. Tij Iginla (4), Sam Dickinson (5), Berkley Catton (9), Ilya Protas (19), Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (22) & Stian Solberg (24) summed up his extensive first round.

Who were the biggest winners of round 1? – It’s too early to tell, of course, or is it? Matt will be happy getting Levshunov at 8 and walking away from round 1. Garrett will be thrilled with Lindstrom at 10. It’s an extremely boring answer because he had so many picks but I thought Danny did incredibly well with most of the picks he had and is a pretty obvious answer for biggest round 1 winner, at least for now.

Other notable selections – Brayden's Senators proved me and a few others right when he selected Cole Hutson at 20. Keiron Walton jumping from 187 all the way to Columbus at 51 was wild. Reaching was a theme of Jesse’s 2^nd round, as he also selected Aron Kiviharju at 48 (122nd in NHL Draft). Brayden got his Sudbury boys, selecting Henry Mews & Nathan Villeneuve back-to-back early in round 2. I’m sure Toby was thrilled to watch it happen. Emil Hemming could be a huge steal for Ty’s Panthers at 53. That guy can shoot the puck.

To conclude, I want to say sorry to anyone who didn’t have a pick of theirs mentioned in the article. I know it’s a lot of fun to read what others are saying about your team in articles, but some of you just had incredibly boring (albeit decent) drafts (Rumpy, for example) & honestly I can guarantee you all that there are things that I simply missed. Either way, hopefully you enjoyed reading this article as it’s one that I proudly did not use any AI for. Fuck AI. That's AI, not AL.