Last year’s bantam draft was a breakthrough for Snohomish County hockey players. Four local products were selected in the draft. That included the first two players ever drafted from Everett Youth Hockey as Lake Stevens defenseman Wyatt Wylie and Mukilteo winger Brendan Studioso were snapped up by the Tips. With Snohomish goaltender Dominick Vlaha (Tri-City) and Monroe forward Luke Ormsby (Seattle) also picked, there were more locals drafted in 2014 than there were total (three) in all the previous bantam drafts combined.
However, it doesn’t appear there will be a follow-up bumper crop from Snohomish County this year. According to Everett Youth Hockey general manager Jerry Weir, there’s only one local who has a realistic shot at being picked Thursday, that being Edmonds forward Sam Myers who played this season for Sno-King.
Meanwhile, the USHL held its phase 1 draft Tuesday, and Wylie was picked in the seventh round by the Des Moines Buccaneers. So congratulations to him on continuing to receive attention.
Phase 1 of the USHL draft is for 1999-born players this year. Everett took a ton of Americans in last year’s bantam draft, which was also for 99s, so one would expect to see several of them taken in this draft, too. Defenseman Matt Anderson was selected second overall by the Green Bay Gamblers, which indicates he’s not interested in Everett (which is not surprising). But other than listed goaltender Jake Begley (fifth round by the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders), I didn’t see any other Everett list players selected. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it certainly seems to suggest the Tips are still in the hunt for the likes of forwards Carson Dimoff and Blake Bergquist.
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