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FinnRhys · 09-27-2019, 09:29 PM

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In what can only be described as an exciting night, the Halifax Raiders came away as the clear winners of the Season 50 SMJHL draft. Needing to replace seven key veterans from Season 49 and needing to fill the deep holes left amongst the forwards, Halifax found the right players at the right time to start the rebuilding of the franchise and with such a deep draft class it looks like the future for Halifax is bright indeed. Entering the draft Halifax held only four selections, but in a blockbuster move leading up to the draft the Raiders General Managers @Flareon and @Citizen of Adraa traded away veteran forwards Cody (@Winter is Coming) and Conor Tanner (@Keygan) to Lethbridge for five draft picks, the 7th, 16th, 22nd, 26th and 30th overall. The trade solidified the Raiders draft position and allowed them to pick up critical components to the Raiders future franchise hopes.

Halifax started the night with the first overall selection and wasted no time in taking Abel Skinner (@"KC Philip") the young defenseman from the UK. An offensive minded defenseman, at first look it seemed odd to see the defenseman taken first overall, especially with the dire need for forwards. But what may seem odd really is not at all. Skinner has been making a name for himself and garnered a lot of attention from all the teams in the league and it was evident from his play with his national team in the World Junior Championship that there was an extreme amount of potential and upside with selecting this prospect. While this pick did not allay any offensive concerns, it did solidify a bright future for the Raiders blue line as the Barron-Skinner pairing will probably be the foundation for the future.

After the first pick Halifax only had to wait a short amount of time before making their second selection in the first round. With the seventh overall pick, the Raiders started addressing offensive concerns with the selection of Julien Villeneuve (@adamantium), a promising Center from the tiny kingdom of Monaco by the French Riviera. Not known as a hockey hot bed by any stretch of the imagination, Villeneuve may in fact be the first Monaco-born hockey player to enter the league. A gritty offensive forward, Villeneuve will be the heir apparent and may earn first line minutes at Center due to the losses of Esa Parmborg (@Steelhead77) and Conor Tanner (@Keygan). Expecting the young forward step into such big shoes, especially in his rookie year is unrealistic, however, and the Raiders GM staff and veteran leadership will have to temper expectations and ensure they don’t put the young player into a position to lose confidence and fail.

The Raiders moved into the second round of the draft with two selections, the 16th overall and the 18th overall. Both picks added much needed depth to the offensive lines and should prove fruitful in the coming seasons. At 16th overall, Halifax took Bjornoson Bjornosonson (@HyperboleJoe), a play making Center from the hinterlands of Sweden and a surprise pick so early on. Bjornoson was not even on the Raiders scouting staff’s radar until a late season trip to Scandinavia by the Raiders lead scout @charlieconway unearthed this gem of a player. Bjornoson will combine with Villeneuve to help provide some much needed offensive power to the offensive lines. I would fully expect him to follow in the footsteps of the aformentioned Esa Parmborg and lead the team in assists at some point in his career.

With the 18th selection overall, and the last Raiders pick in the second round, the Raiders selected right winger Randall Hall (@mxman991) from the United States. The speedy winger will look to step in right away and hunt for second line minutes as a playmaker with a pass-first mentality. As a creator from the wing, Hall will provide a much-needed, if young, element of speed and skill at the wing. Whether Hall will be able to replace the likes of the much-loved and revered Ricky Spanish (@Whikadoodle) is yet to be seen, but Hall is definitely an exciting prospect with a lot of upside and commitment to improve. Even though the draft is less than 48 hours old, Hall has already been seen around the Halifax facilities getting oriented with the weight and training rooms and the Raiders offseason program along with fellow winger and second-year player Suzuki Namokato (@Thejaff). Indeed, Hall may prove to be one of the more exciting prospects to come out of this draft.

As the draft moved into the third round, the Raiders scouting staff and general managers really made moves to solidify their draft position and find some separation from the other teams by finding value and potential where others hadn’t. The Raiders staff, with the help of consultants (@JR95 and @bilbo), prepared for this moment and what a moment it was. The Raiders parlayed their four third-round picks into four talented young skill players, all of which were expected to be off the board in the first or second round, and answered most if not all of the team’s needs offensively and provide quality depth for the foreseeable future.

With the 22nd selection overall, the Raiders had a gem of a player drop in their laps. Indigo Trevino (@Carbine), a gutsy Right Wing from Latvia had been expected to go in the late first round but for some unknown reason dropped a la Aaron Rodgers. This mighty winger, similar to Raiders Captain Atlas Rush (@Rublic), will provide some added toughness and could make for an power-packed checking line if ever the call was needed for such. Can you imagine a line of checking behemoths comprised of Rush, Karl Krashwagen (@CementHands) and Trevino?! Such a line would, without a doubt, obliterate the opposition’s will! Importantly, Trevino is not just a checking line kind of player, but has impactful skill in the offensive zone and deceptive speed and could prove to be one of the gems of this draft class.

Four picks later, the Raiders used the 26th pick to select Thicc Cheezy (@sailingdrumstick), a playmaking Left Wing from Canada and another under-valued player. Cheezy, who is clearly a candidate for the “Best Names Team” was a coveted player that the Raiders thought about taking earlier in the draft. Indeed, insiders have speculated that FR Finn-Rhys, one of the Raiders few remaining veterans, was dangled as trade bait in order to move up and select Cheezy earlier. For whatever reason the trade talks did not come to fruition and the Raiders lucked out by having Cheezy fall to 26th AND getting to keep a veteran defenseman. Cheezy, who was known in the OHL as a pass-first play-maker, is one of the most exciting young prospects of this draft and will fill a critical role on the second or third line and potentially will push for first line and power play spots. Similar to Hall, Cheezy has already been seen around the Halifax facilities and seems to be getting acclimated to the Raiders franchise quickly.

Just one pick later, the Raiders were able to use the 27th pick of the draft to pick up the services of William Kelly (@Konnan511), another play-making Left Wing from the United States who plays with a similar style to recent Raiders great Josef Kubinec (@"marc bradford"). Kelly, is a skill player with a streak of toughness that will provide quality depth at a position that needs it. Kelly will be competing with Cheezy for second or third line minutes and the competition will only make both them and the Raiders franchise better. This pick is clearly one of the better ones of the draft as Kelly was projected to be a late second rounder at worst but got caught up in a run on defensemen and goalies. Regardless of why Kelly fell this late in the draft, he is going to prove to be an exceptional franchise-leader caliber player for the Raiders.

With the last Raiders pick of the third round, the Raiders selected United States-born Center, Biggus Lickus (@6ympathy). At 30th overall, Lickus was a steal this late in the draft. Projected as a late second round pick, Lickus rounds out the trio of Centers selected and may to prove to be the best of the bunch. A rare Center who has the offensive prowess to be a sniper, the Raiders expect big things from Lickus, who has shown on tape a propensity for making big plays in clutch situations. If the Season 49 Raiders are any indication, Lickus will be given plenty of opportunities to prove just how clutch he is.

The Raiders held only one pick in the fourth round and used it to add additional depth on the blue line by selecting Sydney Mahoney (@Syd). Picked with the 35th overall pick, Mahoney came into the draft with a few question marks, but after a lot of scouting and watching the tape, the Raiders knew this was an incredibly under-valued player that could easily have gone in the early second round if not for his youth and limited game action to this point. A scoring defenseman with the shot the likes of Al McInnis and Haley Knight (@satf), Mahoney should pair nicely with any of the Raiders defenseman due to his complementary style of play. A true diamond in the rough, it would not be surprising at all to see Mahoney make a run at being selected early in the Season 51 SHL draft next season.

With the draft completed, the Raiders management and scouting staff took stock of the feat they were able to accomplish on the night.

“We came into this draft knowing we needed to hit it and have a good draft, and we did it. We lost a lot of personnel from last season but we had amazing fortune to select a bunch of great new rookies that are already invested in the direction of this franchise,” said Raiders Co-General Manager @Citizen of Adraa. “We got exactly who we needed in terms of the right players in the right positions and I would consider this a 10/10 draft for us.”

Lead scout, @charlieconway took his own measure of the night by saying, “I think we knew who we wanted and a few players we are really excited about dropped into our laps. We spent a lot of time scouting some of the more unknown players like Bjornoson, Cheezy, Hall and Kelly and I think that helped us get a better idea of their talent and draft value. It was clear from our draft strategy that we had a really good sense of the players we wanted to target going into the draft and it helped in the end.”

Raiders General Manger @Flareon summed up the night the best. “Looking over what we achieved on the night is hard. It is hard to single out which rookie will make the biggest impact on the ice. Sure, we took Skinner number one and with that comes some expectations but then you look at the back end of our draft picks and you see guys like Mahoney, Lickus and Kelly and those guys are great players in their own right and will almost certainly not only hold their own but excel in the league. It definitely hurt to trade veteran leadership like Cody and Tanner but they will be treated well under the Lions' new management and it was the right move for the team in a business sense. I think the quality of the picks we made this draft will absolutely be a testament to that.”

With nine picks and the need to replace the core of the Raiders franchise, the Halifax Raiders showed that they are a team to contend with in the future. Not only was the team able to find incredible talent at an incredible value, but they have clearly set themselves up for a bright future with continued success.

raiders

RAID ON!

FINN RHYS

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charlieconway · 09-28-2019, 08:14 AM

Great Article
Great Draft
Great Rookies
Great Team
raiders

mxman991 · 09-28-2019, 01:08 PM

Awesome job on the write up! Just a reminder though the boys from St. Cloud, MN are looking for me, so I changed my name so they wouldn't know I got a big pay day!

bilbo · 09-29-2019, 06:53 PM

hype hype

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