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Draft and off season recap with Lyle Odelein III (2x draft media)
#1

This past SHL draft was a different draft for the New Orleans Specters, for two reasons.  The first being, that they owned the 4th overall pick in the S55 draft, acquired from a trade a few seasons back with the Minnesota Chiefs.  This would be the highest pick in franchise history, aside from their expansion / inaugural season.  In any other season, this would be cause for celebration in New Orleans.  However, there was already a whole lot of celebrating going on in New Orleans, since the Specters won the ultimate prize just a little bit ago, winning the Challenge Cup against the Hamilton Steelhawks, and in a dominant fashion, sweeping the series in four games and winning the final game on home ice, in front of the home crowd, in overtime.  So, needless to say, the fans seemed to have forgotten about the Specters owing the 4th overall selection in the S55 draft, but soon remembered and had yet another reason the celebrate all over again!

The newly minted Cup champions had a few great players to choose from, there was no definite consensus at the fourth pick.  But the Specters knew who they wanted, and when their clock started to make their selection, there was no hesitation at all, they quickly announced that with the fourth overall pick, they would be selecting the Carolina Kracken defender, Conner Hutton. Hutton being part of the SMJHL S54 Four Star Cup winners, was selected by the S54 SHL Challenge Cup winners. Hutton, who had just tasted victory in his rookie season in the juniors was joining a team who just tasted their first championship. It was a perfect fit.

Hutton’s rookie season in Carolina say him playing 16:34 minutes per game, scoring 3 goals and adding 11 assists in his 50 games.  He finished at a +1 and logged 12 minutes in penalties.  He fired 76 shots on net, and was somewhat unlucky with those shots, ending up with a shooting percentage of 3.95%.  Hutton also had 64 hits and blocked 34 shots.
In Carolina’s playoff run, Hutton suited up for all 20 games and registered 9 points (1 goal and 8 assists), coming close to matching his regular season numbers, showing the Specters (and the rest of the league) that Hutton was only getting better with experience.

The Specters next pick wasn’t until the end of the second round.  They had traded their own first round pick to the Tampa Bay Barracudas (who selected Adrik Baranov with this pick), so they had to wait until the 32 overall pick to announce their 2nd selection, and that player was Sven Gunnar.  Gunnar plays for the Anchorage Armada as a right winger.  In his first 50 games as a rookie in the SMJHL, Sven tallied 10 goals and 6 assists.  The rookie sniper fired 71 shots at opposing goalies, converting on 14.08% of those shots.
In the seven playoff games that the Armada played this season, Gunnar was only able to get 6 shots on net, scoring on one of those attempts.  All of this was more than enough for the scouts and management team in New Orleans to know they had a winner with Gunnar.

These were the only selections that the SHL champions made during this draft, trading both of their 3 round picks to Toronto (36th pick overall – Vincent Wolfe) and Winnipeg (48th pick overall – Fleetway Super Sonic).  With the draft concluded, the Specters will now turn their focus to the upcoming season.  We were able to get some first hand information about the Specters upcoming season and Challenge Cup victory, from one of their alternate captains, defender Lyle Odelein III.  We sat down with Lyle for a short interview and here is what we talked about:

Q: First off Lyle, congratulations on winning the Challenge Cup!  It is quite an achievement!

A: Thank you very much!  It’s been a wild ride, so happy that I was able to be a part of this team and this win.  It meant a lot to all of us.

Q: No doubt!  Tell us a little about the playoffs.

A: It was a wild ride.  Our first series against Edmonton wasn’t easy.  There was some great hockey played on both sides of the ice, but we ended up winning the series in 6  games and the Western Conference finals were set, pitting us against the team that knocked us out last season, the Los Angeles Panthers.  This was one of the toughest series I’ve every been a part of.  We came out on fire and took a commanding series lead, but the Panthers didn’t go down easy, they pushed it to a seventh game, winner takes all.

Q: And I think we all know that the Specters history in game sevens isn’t the greatest.

A: You’re right, but not this time.  We took game seven on the road and punched our ticket to the finals.

Q: And in the East, the Hamilton Steelhawks took the regular season point leaders, Buffalo Stampede to a game seven as well, and it took 2 overtime periods to get a winner.  The defending Challenge Cup champs were back in the finals again, looking to take your Specters down.

A: They sure were.  And a whole lot of people figured that they would do just that.  I remember the first game, going down 2-0 really early in the first on the road.  The home fans were really giving it to us, they figured they series was already over, but we knew that wasn’t the case.  We all played the best hockey of our careers the rest of that game, and the next three games.  And we came out on top.  It was the best feeling in the world!

Q: And now you are defending champions.  And you’ve just added two new prospects to the Specters family, who will hopefully, in a couple of seasons, experience the same feeling you did this season.

A: That’s right, we just added two future superstars to our prospect pool.  Conner Hutton and Sven Gunnar are both top notch players in the SMJHL, we are lucky to have been able to snag both of them.  They will both be huge additions to the team in a few seasons.  I’m going to look forward to watching how they progress in the juniors.  They both have been by the locker room in New Orleans, and both of them seem to be eager to keep getting better, so when they get the call up, they will be able to provide an immediate impact to the team and the league.  Couldn’t be happier with these two picks.

Q: That’s not all that happened after the Cup win.  Shortly after the huge win, a trade was announced involving the Specters and the New England Wolfpack.  Tell us about that.

A: I wasn’t really expecting this one to be honest.  It was no secret that there was a little bit of an issue with two Specters players during the regular season, and one of those players had requested a trade to the GMs.  Mitchell was and still is an amazing teammate and player.  His rookie season was one to remember, playing some great hockey all season long, and really turned it on during the playoffs, and he was the one to end the series in game four OT.  He will be missed, I wish him nothing but the best in New England.

Q: It must be tough to see a player go.  But you did get two new teammates in the trade.

A: We sure did.  Two great players at that!  Adding one of the best defenders in the league with Rex Kirkby and another amazing forward with The Beast!  We are gearing up to defend this title for the first time, and these two players will be a huge part of that.  These are two huge additions to our squad, it’s going to be fun to play alongside of these two.

Q: There was also two other changes to the team.  Joe K announced his retirement and one of NOLA’s top prospects, Keith Lee tested out free agency and decided to sign with the Eastern conference Toronto North Starts.

A: Both of these things hurt just as much, if not more than Mitchell’s trade.  Joe K is a living legend.  I’ve played every single SHL game of my career with him in the line up.  His talent and experience are unmatched.  A player like Joe can never be replace, but he deserves him retirement, I’m just happy that his last game for the Specters was the biggest one in franchise history.  Watching him raise that Cup brought a tear to my eye.  He is a legend and always will be.  As for Keith, I never got the chance to play a game with him, but I also had never been so excited to play with another player.  He is an amazing person and player, hopefully down the road we will be able to play together.  I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Keith, I hope he has all of the success in the world with his new team in Toronto.  They’ve got one of the best around in Lee.  Really going to miss him.  Going miss all of these three guys to be honest.  But as we all know, this is a business.  And everyone has to do what’s best for them.

Q: Well, I don’t want to take to much more of your time, any final words?

A: Just want to once again welcome Conner Hutton and Sven Gunnar to the New Orleans franchise.  Your guys are going to love it here.  Keep working hard in the juniors and don’t forget to drop by the locker room every once and a while.  Same goes for Mitchell, Joe and Keith.  This Challenge Cup win was the highlight of my career so far, and this couldn’t have happened without you guys.  Nothing but love for all of you.  Oh, and to the rest of the SHL, some teams regress a bit after winning it all, don’t expect the Specters to do that.  We are just as hungry and motivated to do this all again next season, so make sure you keep us on your radar next season, we want nothing more to show the world that the Specters are to top team in the SHL, and I for one will do everything I can to keep the Challenge Cup where it belongs, in the Big Easy with the Specters.

A: Thanks for you time Lyle, looking forward to seeing how the Specters defend their title this upcoming season.  And I’m really looking forward to how the two latest additions to the Specters prospect pool progress in their development.  All extremely exciting stuff! 

Thanks for reading!

2x draft media - Word count - 1841

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