The Western Lacrosse Association holds their draft in a few hours, and one thing is for certain; the Coquitlam Adanacs will take University of Denver and Jr Adanac Wes Berg.
After that? The draft is as wide open as it’s ever been.
The Nanaimo Timbermen have picks at numbers 2, 7, 8, and 9, so that’s the other storyline of the draft.
Of course, there are other teams too, and there are some players you might want to get familiar with before the next couple of NLL drafts as well. Eli McLaughlin out of Delta is already a rookie with the NLL’s Colorado Mammoth and has played well, so he should be an early pick.
Nanaimo junior player Corey Shires will likely be a Timbermen pick at some point, unless a team like Langley takes him at the third slot if Nanaimo wants McLaughlin at second. Vancouver Stealth back up goaltender Eric Penney could be the first goalie off the board, along with NLL undrafted Riley Camazzola and free agent Peter Dubenski.
The left side of forward is the next deepest position in the draft with Connor Goodwin likely one of the top forwards to go.
With the WLA, hometown teams matter, so some of this is projectable. The New Westminster Salmonbellies will likely target hometown players Anthony Malcolm and Luke Gillespie.
First Round
1. Coquitlam from Nanaimo
2. Nanaimo from Coquitlam
3. Langley
4. New Westminster
5. Maple Ridge
6. New Westminster from Burnaby
7. Nanaimo from Victoria
The Victoria Shamrocks announced today they expect the draft to be quiet after trading for Aaron Bold and Daryl Veltman earlier in the week.
According to Burnaby Now, a newspaper in British Columbia, Major Series Lacrosse might be willing to poach away a few of BC’s best prospects, so we’ll see if those rumors are valid and top players begin to drop in the draft.
Former NLL prospects Randy Jones and Peyton Lupul are two sleeper prospects to watch late in the draft. They could become impact players right away in 2015.
