MSL Draft Recap: Northmen Dominate

Just like in the regular season, the late arrival of the Six Nations Chiefs delayed the evening.
The Major Series Lacrosse draft was slated to begin at 7pm Wednesday night but representatives from the Chiefs did not arrive until closer to 7:30pm, pushing the draft back to 8pm. You can’t really blame Six Nations; they only had two picks in this year’s MSL draft so we’re lucky they even graced us with their presence at all.

There was some order of business to take care of before the first name was called and a motion was passed by the league stating once a player is drafted he has to remain with the organization for an entire season. If the player does not want to play for your team he has to sit out; you can’t trade or release him. The intention of this new rule is to make the draft more competitive and to prevent players from being traded before they even report to training camp. Commissioner Jim Brady believes that if a player is traded to an MSL team he should remain their property for at least a year “it defeats the whole purpose of the draft if players aren’t even going to report to the team that picked them” he said.
If a player does not make the A team he still cannot be traded. He can play for the team’s Senior B affiliate but he must remain as the team’s property for the remainder of the season.

The GM’s also discussed having a twenty game regular season with two rounds of playoffs. All teams were in favour of this new format and discussions will be continued at their next meeting in March.

When the draft did get underway it was Northmen after Northmen being called. The storied Orangeville Junior A franchise had 11 players drafted including Jeremy and Jason Noble who went first and second overall respectively. The Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks had the second pick and then made a trade with Ajax to secure the first overall pick as well. The Kodiaks had to give up Dean Hill, a first round draft pick (3rd overall) and a first rounder in 2015 but that allowed them to scoop up the Noble brothers with the first two picks of the draft. The Peterborough Lakers took a chance and drafted three members of Coquitlam Adanacs of the BC Junior Lacrosse League; players that had already been selected in last week’s Western Lacrosse Association draft.

Here is a full listing of the 2013 MSL draft.

Round 1

1. Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks Jeremy Noble (Orangeville Northmen)
2. Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks Jason Noble (Orangeville Northmen)
3. Ajax Rock Jordan Critch (Orangeville Northmen)
4. Kitchener-Waterloo Dillon Ward (Orangeville Northmen)
5. Brampton Excelsiors Ethan O’Connor (Burlington Chiefs)
6. Brampton Hayden Smith (Orangeville Northmen)
7. Brampton Excelsiors Chris Attwood (St.Catherine’s Athletics)

Round 2

8. Ajax Rock Shane Adams (St. Catherines Athletics)
9. Ajax Rock AJ Masson (Vermont Catamounts)
10. Kitchener -Waterloo Kodiaks Bill Hostrawser (Orangeville Northmen)
11. Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks Mitch Wilde (Whitby Warriors)
12. Brooklin (via trade from Brampton) Joel Matthews (Six Nations Arrows)
13. Brooklin Redmen Mike Triolo (Toronto Beaches)

Round 3

14. Ajax Rock Justin Pychel (St. Catherines Athletics)
15. Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks Cody McLeod (Orangeville Northmen)
16. Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks Brad Gillies (Orangevile Northmen)
17. Peterborough Lakers Graham Bryan (Orangeville Northmen)
18. Ajax Rock Connor Danko (St.Catherines Athletics)
19. Brooklin Redmen Sheldon Burns (Whitby Warriors)

Round 4

20. Ajax Rock Zach Palmer (Whitby Warriors)
21. Ajax Eric Pitre (Toronto Beaches)
22. Brooklin Redmen Jordan Houtby (St. Catherines)
23. Peterborough Ben Macintosh Coquitlam Adanacs
24. Six Nations Matt Eckert (Orangeville Northmen)
25. Brooklin Redmen Mike Melnychenko (St. Catherines Athletics)

Round 5

26. Ajax Rock Jake Quarrie (Brampton Excelsiors)
27. Peterborough Lakers Jeff Cornwall Coquitlam Adanacs
28. Brampton Excelsiors Dustin Caravello (Orangeville Northmen)
29. Peterborough Lakers Robert Church Coquitlam Adanacs
30. Six Nations Chiefs Logan Schuss (Delta Islanders)
31. Brampton Brady Haseltine (Brampton Excelsiors)