Sports
Plymouth Whalers Select 21st in Today's CHL Import Draft
Swedish Import Rickard Rakell expected to return.
Sound bytes courtesy of Pete Krupsky and www.plymouthwhalers.com.
The Plymouth Whalers will select 21st overall in the 2012 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft, which will run online today starting at 9 a.m. throughout the CHL.
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Plymouth has two selections in the draft - 21st and 114th. Whalers GM and Head Coach Mike Vellucci moved up in the draft after making a trade with Oshawa on April 2. The Whalers sent Kitchener's first round pick in the 2012 Import Draft, a sixth round pick in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection and London's thrid round pick in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection in exchange for the 21st selection in the Import Draft and Oshawa's 6th round pick in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection.
Canadian Hockey League teams are allowed to carry two imports - non-North American players - per season. Center Rickard Rakell (from Sweden) is expected to return to Plymouth for the 2012-13 season for his third season with the Whalers, but Swiss defenseman Dario Trutmann has signed to play in the Swiss Professional League.
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Rakell - a first round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft - has been an integral part of the Whalers' success of the last two years and is expected to fill a similar role in 2012-13. He has played for Sweden in the 2011 and 2012 World Junior Championships.
AUDIO: Rakell goals from last season:
Here is the entire list of Plymouth selections in the CHL Import Draft:
PLYMOUTH WHALERS IMPORT SELECTIONS YEAR # PLAYER NHL SELECTION 2011no selections
2010 41 Rickard Rakell Anaheim, first round, (30th overall), 2011 2010 50 Dario Trutmann
2009
Tomas Tatar Detroit, second round, (60th overall), 2009 2009 3 Gabriel Landeskog Colorado, first round (2nd overall), 2011 2007
no selections
2008 55 Jan Latal
2006 27 Michal Neuvirth Washington, second round (34th overall), 2006 2006 39 Jozef Sladok
2005 25 Ondrej Otcenas Carolina, fourth round, (123nd overall), 2005 2004 38 Michael Kolarz
2003 9 Vaclav Meidl Nashville, third round, (81st overall), 2004 2002 34 Martin Cizek
2001 52 Jonas Fiedler Carolina, eighth round (235th overall), 2004 and
San Jose, third round, (86th overall), 2002 2000
no selections
1999 7 Tomas Kurka Carolina, second round (32nd overall), 2000 1999 31 Libor Ustrnul Atlanta, second round, (42nd overall), 2000 1998 14 Tomek Valtonen Detroit, second round, (56th overall), 1998 1998 35 Denis Arkhipov Nashville, third round, (60th overall), 1998 1997 12 Yuri Babenko Colorado, second round, (51st overall), 1996 1997 27 Stevie Lyle
1996 4 Sergei Fedotov Hartford, second round, (35th overall), 1995 1995 11 Jan Vodrazka
1994 38 Milan Kostolny Hartford, eighth round, (191st overall), 1995 1993 32 Jozef Kohut
1992 11 Richard Ujvary
