Tigers with 2 slots in Wednesday’s CHL Import draft

By JAMES TUBB on July 4, 2023.

The Medicine Hat Tigers can add two European talents to their organization this week.

The Tigers have a pair of available slots ahead of Wednesday’s CHL import draft and will make picks at 27th and 87th. While Latvian defenceman Bogdans Hodass is entering his 20-year-old season in the WHL and is considered an overager, leaving Medicine Hat two opportunities to add talent in the draft in case Hodass is not retained.

The Tigers had the first overall pick in the 2022 import draft and selected Slovakian forward Adam Sykora, who was drafted in the second round of the NHL draft days later by the New York Rangers. Sykora was kept in Slovakia for the 2022-23 season before joining the Rangers’ AHL team, the Hartford Wolf Pack for their playoff run.

Head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says the import draft is always an important time for teams and says they’ve had a lot of conversations with teams and players.

“Last year was a tough one without getting Sykora, he would have been a difference for us,” Desjardins said. “They just decided they wanted him to play in a Europe pro league and that happens sometimes. But you take one or two different players, it’s big for our team. So it was important, we went down (to the draft) and talked to lots of agents, had a chance to talk to some of the teams as well as the players that are getting drafted.”

This year’s import draft comes a week after the NHL Entry Draft, allowing CHL clubs to discuss the future of their newly drafted prospects and the likelihood of them playing junior hockey.

Desjardins says they’ll look to take the best player available and will fill both slots because there’s no guarantee who would join the Tigers when.

“It’ll be interesting to see, you never know who’s going to come so you’ll fill both slots and then we’ll get a read after about who is all going to come,” Desjardins said.

This summer’s import draft marks the second straight year where no Russian or Belarusian players will be allowed to be selected. That ban does not include any players who were already selected and on rosters. Desjardins says the exclusions of those countries makes it a different and thinner draft, but he still sees a lot of talent in the group.

“There’s lots of good players and it’s just about convincing them you’re a good place for them to play and develop,” Desjardins said.

The draft gets underway Wednesday at 9 a.m. with the OHL’s Erie Otters making the first selection.

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