Texas came into this season's draft knowing that it needed to hit on a couple of picks. They had begun a full rebuild during S49, trading off a number of prominent names from the team and seeing multiple players announce their retirement. At the end of the season, the Renegades found themselves with the second worst record in the league and thus the second best chance of winning the draft lottery. The lottery gods were unkind, and Texas ended up sticking with the second overall pick in the draft. Unfortunately for the Renegades, they did not have very many picks at all in the draft. They held the second overall pick and the thirty-first picks, and then did not have another pick until the fifth round, where it would be highly unlikely for them to snag any prospect.

With Texas on the clock with the second pick of the draft, they selected a centerman from the Anaheim Outlaws - Ivan Maximus @thiefofcheese. Ivan is a play making center hailing from the motherland of Russia. During scouting, the Renegades noticed he had some real strengths in the passing, skating, and puck handling departments. No player is without weakness though, and Ivan definitely had a weakness when it came to checking. Lucky for him, his playstyle is not one that will result in him needing to be all that physical to succeed on the ice. Ivan was drafted into the SMJHL last season by the Outlaws with the 9th overall pick in a large draft class. He has since exceeded all expectations that were set upon him when he entered the league. He ended the season with Anaheim playing on their top forward line. Ivan registered a nice 7 goals, 22 assists, for a total of 29 points in is rookie campaign while averaging 18 minutes per game. Those 29 points were the 4th most among all rookies last season.

Texas sat through nearly two full rounds before they had their chance to make another selection in the draft. With the 31st pick of the draft, the Renegades selected defenseman Bjorn Leppanen @puolivalmiste. Bjorn is an enforcer defender out of his homeland of Finland. It's not every day that you see an enforcer drafted into the league with such high potential, but the scouts in Texas loved what they saw in Bjorn and were stunned that he fell to them at the back end of the second round. Bjorn has shown great strengths in checking, fighting, and his physical strength, but he lacks a real scoring touch. With his physical play style, I don't believe that the Renegades will really be relying on Bjorn to put pucks into the net, but you can be assured that everybody on the ice will know where Bjorn is and steer clear of him in the defensive end. Bjorn was drafted into the SMJHL last season by the Vancouver Whalers with the 27th overall pick, and actually finished the season on their top defensive pairing. He registered 3 goals and 7 assists, and a massive 97 hits during his rookie season. Bjorn also finished with 55 penalty minutes, which was the 9th most in the league. Two of his future teammates in Texas (Brusky and Horvat) finished with more penalty minutes, so it appears that Texas is building a goon squad at the blue line.

The Renegades did not have another pick in the draft until the fifth round, at which point they decided to pass on their future picks. The rebuild has just begun in Texas, but with the addition of Ivan and Bjorn to go along with a solid draft class a season prior, the Renegades have definitely gotten off to a great start with building the next great dynasty in the SHL.

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