The London Knights kicked off Day 2 of the 2026 OHL Priority Selection in much the same way that they completed Day 1 and the opening round.
They selected a player with great hockey bloodlines.
Ryan Beaulieu is the son of former Knight Josh Beaulieu and was chosen 14th overall by London.
Ryker Kesler is the son of former National Hockey Leaguer Ryan Kesler, who was a two-time NHL all-star and won the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward in 2011.
Ryker Kesler has that aspect to his game and also brings an offensive side that he showed off at an NHL all-star game when he was seven years old, when he put a puck past Carey Price.
“I wasn’t old enough to be able to raise the puck very well, so I knew I had to go five-hole,” laughed Kesler, who has a picture of the exact moment on his wall.
With London’s second pick of the second round they went to the Mississauga Majors and selected Jack Samek, a centre from Toronto.
Samek says the moment he heard his name was surreal.
Samek has a very high hockey IQ and commits to making his team and the players around him better.
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The Knights looked between the pipes in the third round in taking six-foot-three goalie Brian Cooke from the Minot Minotauros.
Cooke is 18 years old and grew up playing with Anthony Thomas-Maroon, who was drafted by London in 2024 and signed an OHL scholarship and development agreement with the Knights on June 8.
London went back-to-back-to-back in Round 4 with three consecutive picks.
All three were defencemen, beginning with Joseph Chiella from the Toronto Nationals and Kosta Housseas of the Markham Majors.
The two have played against each other while growing up in minor hockey.
Housseas described Chiella as “a player who always finished his checks against him.”
Chiella described a “major rivalry over the years.”
Given that Chiella is a right-shot defender and Housseas shoots left, the pair could end up on the same blue line at the same time with the Knights in the future.
Jackson Marthaler was London’s final fourth-rounder. He is from Wisconsin and is part of the United States National Development Team program.
Next came another familiar name in Ewan Sim, who London selected in the fifth round.
Ewan is the brother of Landon Sim, who helped the Knights win the Memorial Cup in 2025.
“Watching Landon play, all I wanted to be was a London Knight, and now to get that chance is amazing,” Ewan Sim said.
He is the kind of player who is always making things happen on the ice and a guy who will bring all kinds of energy to the team.
In the sixth round, London took a second member of the Jr. Knights in forward Graham Littlejohn, who is an incredibly versatile player. He saw shifts at all three forward positions in 2025-26 and even one or two back on defence.
Littlejohn’s grandparents have been Knights season-ticket holders for years and now get the chance to use those seats while watching their own grandson.
Littlejohn says he’s looking forward to playing with former Jr. Knights teammate Beaulieu in a similar uniform to the one the two shared a season ago.
“We had such a great year last year and now to be able to take the next steps in our careers is very special.”
In the seventh round, London drafted centre Cash McElmurry from Royal Oak, Mich.
McElmurry played for Detroit HoneyBaked last season, where he had 89 points in 89 games.
With their ninth-round draft choice, the Knights looked to the North Jersey Avalanche and selected centre Christopher Pinko.
Henry Brzustewicz is a graduate of the Avalanche program.
In the 10th round, London selected centre Patrick Taylor, who had 104 points in 53 games with the Windy City Storm last year.
Defenceman Jamal Havusic heard huis name called in the 11th round. He was a member of the Oakville Rangers in 2025-26.
London took two more defencemen in the 12th and 13th rounds in Liam Klubertanz of the Lambton Jr. Sting and Stuart DeMunnik of the York-Simcoe Express.
The Knights’ final pick was goalie Zeller Clark-Schoeb of the New Jersey Rockets. London selected him in the 14th round.
Former Knight Dan Girardi saw his son Landon selected in the 14th round by Guelph. Dan Girardi won an OHL championship with the Storm before coming to London, where he won the Memorial Cup in 2005.
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