The Ontario Hockey League’s annual Under-18 Priority Selection is in the books for another year.
The draft was open to players born in 2005 and 2006 who played the 2022-23 season with Under-18 teams in Ontario.
Teams are permitted to select two players in the draft and are granted a third pick if they select a goaltender with one of their two initial picks.
For the Soo Greyhounds, Wednesday night’s draft saw the team select three players while a pair of members of the Soo Jr. Greyhounds locally were also picked.
Selecting third overall, the Greyhounds took Toronto Red Wings U18 centre Jesse Venturo.
After spending two seasons at Mount St. Charles Academy where he was a point-per-game player with the program’s 14U and 15U AAA teams, Venturo played in 23 games with the Red Wings this season, scoring seven goals and assisting on six others.
Venturo also played in seven games with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Brantford 99ers.
The Ottawa 67’s wrapped up the opening round by selecting Soo Jr. Greyhounds forward Jacob Smith.
Smith had 11 goals and 28 points in 24 games this season in the Great North Under-18 League.
The Erie Otters proceeded to select Jr. Greyhounds goaltender Maverick Fletcher with the second pick of round two.
Fletcher split time in goal this season with Nathan Maquire and picked up 14 wins during the regular season.
The Greyhounds used their second round pick in the draft to select goaltender Noah Tegelaar of the Guelph Jr. Gryphons U18 team.
In 17 regular season games, Tegelaar posted a 1.74 goals against average before posting a GAA of 1.55 in five playoff contests.
In the third round, the Greyhounds wrapped up the evening by selecting Kemptville 73s U18 centre Sydney Loreto.
Loreto had 26 goals and 67 points in 33 regular season games with Kemptville and added six goals and 12 assists in nine playoff games.
Asked about the Greyhounds approach heading into the draft, Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis said the team tends to focus on players that are of interest as potential training camp invites and ranks the players eligible in that regard.
“It’s always just taking guys that we think can come into camp and open up some eyes,” Raftis said. “It’s used to be a lot of those guys we tracked as free agents or would be an invite, so it’s become a draft on that side of it. We have our list of potential players that we’re going to invite to camp and we have it ranked that way. Hopefully you can make those two picks, or three plus a goalie, then it adds to those players you can bring to a development camp. At the same time, we’re looking players that are going to come to camp and open up some eyes and they’re always excited about that opportunity as well.”