OHL Draft Results: Levin Goes First
The Sudbury Wolves had the first overall selection in the OHL draft today and they used that pick to select Don Mills forward David Levin. Levin led the midget team with 80 points in 55 games last season.
“Every day I’m waking up in the morning and thinking about hockey,” Levin told the Toronto Sun this week, “working hard to get to the NHL so I can move my family here.”
Sudbury had a poor season, going 12-54-2 for the worst year in the history of the team. They hope in 2015-2016 Levin can add some spark to the lineup.
Going second was Gabe Vilardi to the Windsor Spitfires. Vilardi, 15 years old, is a center out of the Canadian International Hockey Academy. Vilardi was the MVP of his league this past season.
“We kind of figured it was between Vilardi and McLeod,” Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel said to the Windsor Star. “I think we got the better player and we’re happy with the way it went.”
The third overall pick went to the newest club, the Flint Firebirds, who added Toronto Marlboros center Ryan McLeod. McLeod had 81 points in 74 games in 2014-2015.
The Hamilton Bulldogs, another new OHL club, also made some noise when they drafted Matthew Strome. Strome has become a familiar name in the hockey world thanks to Ryan Strome with the New York Islanders and Dylan Strome set to be drafted this season. Matthew had 64 points over 60 games with the Toronto Marlboros.
The first defenseman to go was Markus Phillips to the Owen Sound Attack. Phillips comes from the Toronto Titans and is 5’11 and 204 lbs.
“Phillips is an elite defenseman and we couldn’t be happier to have had the opportunity to draft him.” said Attack GM Dale DeGray to the Bayshore Broadcasting Centre. “He has great feet, excellent vision and will be an anchor on our blue line for years to come.”
The first pick of the second round was also the first goaltender to be drafted. The Spitfires selected Sun County goalie Michael DiPietro. He posted a 2.12 goals against average this past season and was most recently the goalie for the U-16 Team Canada junior’s club.
The full draft results are below for the first round.
| Pick | Team | Player | Pos | Home Town | Ht | Wt | Prev Team | DOB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sudbury | David Levin | Right Wing | North York, Ont. | 5.10 | 161 | Don Mills | 1999-09-16 |
| 2 | Windsor | Gabe Vilardi | Centre | Kingston, Ont. | 6.02 | 185 | CIH Academy | 1999-08-16 |
| 3 | Flint | Ryan McLeod | Centre | Mississauga, Ont. | 6.01.5 | 173 | Toronto Marlboros | 1999-09-21 |
| 4 | Mississauga | Owen Tippett | Right Wing | Peterborough, Ont. | 5.11.25 | 175 | Toronto Red Wings | 1999-02-16 |
| 5 | Peterborough | Zach Gallant | Centre | Oakville, Ont. | 6.02 | 175 | Miss. Rebels | 1999-03-06 |
| 6 | Saginaw | Brady Gilmour | Centre | Grafton, Ont. | 5.09.75 | 157 | Quinte | 1999-04-18 |
| 7 | Niagara | Ben Jones | Centre | Waterloo, Ont. | 6.00 | 167 | Toronto Marlboros | 1999-02-26 |
| 8 | Hamilton | Matthew Strome | Left Wing | Mississauga, Ont. | 6.03 | 182 | Toronto Marlboros | 1999-01-06 |
| 9 | Owen Sound | Markus Phillips | Left Defence | Toronto, Ont. | 5.11.25 | 204 | Tor Titans | 1999-03-21 |
| 10 | Sarnia | Sasha Chmelevski | Centre | Northville, MI | 5.09.5 | 163 | Honeybaked | 1999-06-09 |
| 11 | Kingston | Robbie Burt | Right Wing | Hillsburgh, Ont. | 5.11 | 193 | Miss. Rebels | 1999-05-29 |
| 12 | Kitchener | Greg Meireles | Centre | Orleans, Ont. | 5.10 | 163 | Ottawa 67’s | 1999-01-01 |
| 13 | Niagara | Hayden Davis | Right Defence | Hamilton, Ont. | 6.01 | 166 | Ham. Huskies | 1999-07-21 |
| 14 | Owen Sound | Nick Suzuki | Centre | London, Ont. | 5.10.25 | 173 | London | 1999-08-10 |
| 15 | Guelph | Isaac Ratcliffe | Left Wing | London, Ont. | 6.04.5 | 183 | London | 1999-02-15 |
| 16 | Ottawa | Austen Keating | Centre | Guelph, Ont. | 5.10 | 160 | Guelph | 1999-03-07 |
| 17 | London | Evan Bouchard | Right Defence | Oakville, Ont. | 6.01.5 | 172 | Oakville Rangers | 1999-10-20 |
| 18 | North Bay | Brady Lyle | Right Defence | North Bay, Ont. | 5.11.5 | 176 | Shattuck St-Mary’s (U16) | 1999-06-06 |
| 19 | Barrie | Jacob Tortora | Left Wing | Victor, NY | 5.05.5 | 140 | Don Mills | 1999-07-25 |
| 20 | Erie | Ivan Lodnia | Centre | Novi, MI | 5.08.5 | 157 | Honeybaked | 1999-08-31 |
| 21 | Oshawa | Jack Studnicka | Centre | Northville, MI | 6.00.25 | 155 | Belle Tire | 1999-02-18 |
| 22 | S.S. Marie | Liam Hawel | Centre | Arnprior, Ont. | 6.01.75 | 152 | Ottawa Valley | 1999-04-18 |