Tigers stockpile D-men at import draft

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on July 2, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

The Medicine Hat Tigers bolstered the blueline at Wednesday’s Canadian Hockey League Import Draft, selecting defencemen with the 55th and 71st picks.

The team used its first-round pick to select Gleb Ivanov, a defender from Russia who isn’t afraid to join the rush.

“He’s got a real good skillset to him. To me, he’s an elite-skating, puck-moving d-man,” said Bobby Fox, Tigers director of player personnel. “He loves to jump into the play, he’s constantly involved in the attack and he can skate out, he can move it well in transition, he’s not shy of physical contact, he’ll surprise guys by his physical play, and he can run a power play.”

Ivanov last suited up for MHK Dynamo Moskva of the MHL where he played 50 games in the 2020-21 season. He scored two goals, tallied six assists and posted a plus-27. Ivanov also played in two games for the Russian U18 World Junior Championship team.

Latvian blueliner Bogdans Hodass was the pick in the second round. The 6-foot-3, 194-pound defender played two games for Latvia at the latest U18 World Junior Championships where he had one assist in two games. He also played the 39 games for SportU20 in the Finnish U20 League SM-sarja where he put up 16 points.

“He can play a Western Hockey League game. He’s a big rig. He moves the puck quickly, makes the simple, good first pass, he loves to tee it up at the blueline and has a hard heavy shot and he’s very motivated to come to Medicine Hat,” said Fox.

Fox says the two players are representing their country when they play for the Tigers and he notes they are some of the top players in their respective countries. Fox says the team keyed in on high-end guys for the draft and they jumped at the opportunity to draft both players.

“We’re picking those guys because we do think they can make an immediate impact in the lineup and that’s our expectation and we can’t wait to get them into Medicine Hat,” said Fox.

The CHL Import Draft is agent heavy, says Fox. He says there is a lot of communication trying to figure out which players will come over or which players have professional contracts they can’t get out of. Fox says there’s a lot of homework done leading up to draft day, including extensive video watching.

Fox says the team’s rookies last season found success under a great leadership group and he says the players will work hard this offseason to comeback more confident and ready for action.

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