Renegades Entry Draft Recap
Left: The players selected by Seattle. Right: The Renegades and Oilers agreed to a pick swap, giving Seattle two more picks in next year's draft
June 23rd, 2018
Seattle, WA -- Today was a very exciting day for the newly minted Seattle front office, as they got their first real chance to stock the team with young talent and left with a promising group of youngsters in tow.
The biggest story of the day was who Seattle was going to take with their #3 overall pick. As expected going into the draft, Svechnikov and Dahlin went #1 and #2 to Arizona and Vancouver, leaving Seattle to select from the best of the rest. They settled on 18 year old American center Cyrus Rodriguez. Rodriguez looks to be the prototypical center, with a very well rounded game and very few weaknesses even at this young stage in his career. It will be interesting to see if he's offered an entry level contract soon - his skill set fills a hole on the team and Seattle will undoubtedly want to utilize his talents sooner rather than later as Rodriguez may already be too good to play anywhere but the NHL.
At the top of the second round, the Renegades selected 17 year old Canadian Ryan Merkley. Merkley, a projected first rounder, was ecstatic to not be left waiting much longer when the Renegades took him at the 35th overall pick. Merkley is an excellent scorer for a defenceman, having scored 67 points in 63 games for the OHL's Guelph Storm last year. At only 17, Merkley may take some more time polishing his skills in the OHL before joining the team's system, but look for the young Canadian to make the NHL squad sooner rather than later. At first glance, it looks like the Renegades got a steal here.
In the third round, the Renegades front office took a flyer on Belarusian center Viacheslav Kulikov. Kulikov, 18, is the type of gritty player that just makes the right plays. He's an extremely raw prospect, so it'll be a few years before he be reasonably expected to contribute to the NHL squad, but he has all the skills GMs covet in their centers. Kulikov is exactly the sort of prospect that helps contribute to a good stockpile of talent for the franchise and will really test the Renegades' player development program.
In the fourth round, Seattle took yet another center in Canadian Luke Henman, making clear their desire to stockpile the position. Henman is much more offensively focused, with an already-NHL ready shot. He, however, needs to work on his fundamentals and will need to bulk up, as he currently weighs in at only 66 kg. Despite his drawbacks, team scouts remain hopeful he can put it all together, especially with the resources of an NHL team behind him.
For the fifth and seventh rounds, Seattle turned their attention to adding to their talent in the goal. The Renegades selected Norweigan goalie Derrick Smithson in the fifth and American goalie Samuel Halpern in the seventh. Both were selected in an attempt to add as much talent behind the goal as possible. Both have shown flashes of brilliance up to this point, and it'll be up to them to continue developing if they want to earn spots on the NHL squad.
The team traded away its 6th round pick to Edmonton in exchange for a 6th and a 7th round pick in next year's draft. GM Kelly McCrimmon is looking to build the team for long term success, and acquiring as much young talent and draft capital as possible in the next few years seems to be his strategy. Additionally, the variety in the draft picks show that McCrimmon and co. are willing to scour the globe for the talent they want.
Draft Round | Name | Position | Age | Nationality |
1 | Cyrus Rodriguez | Center | 18 | USA |
2 | Ryan Merkley | Defense | 17 | Canada |
3 | Viacheslav Kulikov | Center | 18 | Belarus |
4 | Luke Henman | Center | 18 | Canada |
5 | Derrick Smithson | Goalie | 18 | Norway |
7 | Samuel Halpern | Goalie | 18 | USA |