In the past five years, the London Knights have won the Memorial Cup and three Ontario Hockey League championships.
With their first pick in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection, London took a player who also knows what it feels like to win.
Lucas Rowe celebrated the ultimate in minor midget hockey on March 20 when his Mississauga Reps won the OHL Cup with a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Young Nationals. Without Rowe, the game may very well have gone the other way.
The Etobicoke native set up Mike Petizian for a go-ahead goal, 48 seconds into the third period, only to have the Young Nats come back to tie it with under three minutes to play.
With nine seconds left in regulation time and overtime looming, Rowe was sent out to take a face-off in the offensive zone.
He won the draw cleanly to Dennis Golovatchev who wired a shot into the net for the game-winning and championship-winning goal.
His year was just as strong leading up to the OHL Cup. Rowe averaged better than a point per game and added 56 penalty minutes. He is known for his competitiveness, outstanding outside speed and being very comfortable with the puck on his stick.
“He’s a goal scorer who can make plays,” Knights general manager Rob Simpson said. “His dad was actually drafted by the (New York) Mets, so there is a lot of athleticism in the family.”
In the second round, London brought some OHL bloodlines aboard, taking right-shot defenceman, Andrew Perrott. He is the son of former Oshawa Generals and Soo Greyhounds forward Nathan Perrott.
Andrew spent the 2016-17 season with the Honeybaked U-16 team in Michigan. He brings great size at 6’0 and 195 pounds with an excellent hockey pedigree. Nathan was a second-round pick of the New Jersey Devils and spent 13 seasons playing professional hockey. He was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars in the NHL and even spent nine games in the KHL in 2008-09.
In the third round, the Knights selected C/LW, Dalton DuHart from the Detroit Belle Tire U-16 team. DuHart had 42 points in 31 games in the 16-17 season. He has a great feel as a passer.
London grabbed a combination of size and skill with their first of two picks in the fourth round. Emmet Pierce is 6’5″ and 203 pounds. He played for the Quinte Red Devils where he put up 66 points in 42 games.
Alex Vlasic was taken with London’s second fourth-round selection. Thescout.ca rated him the 11th overall prospect in the entire draft. Vlasic is 6’4″ and comes out of the Chicago Mission program (the same team that produced Christian Dvorak). He was considered one of the most-improved defenceman in his league this season.
The Knights had two more picks in the fifth round and used the first on Detroit Belle Tire U-15 defenceman, Hunter Skinner.
Their second pick brought a brother combination to London for the first time since Matt and Ryan Rupert graduated. Liam Whittaker will join his brother, Richard, who was a fourth round pick of London’s in 2016.
The Knights dipped into Owen MacDonald’s home town of Elora in round six, taking Brayden Krieger of the Waterloo Wolves.
The seventh round brought goaltender, Cameron Rowe from Team Illinois U-16 and defenceman Noah Beck from the Markham Majors.
Round eight saw the Knights tap into some of the Jr. Knights’ success as London selected goalie, Owen Say. Last year’s 8th round pick was also a goalie who turned out to be Jordan Kooy. He showed excellent potential as a 16-year old. Kooy and Say could provide London with very good options in net looking to the future.
In the ninth round, Jr. Islanders’ forward, Danny Weight was picked 167th overall.
London went for forwards in the next four rounds as well with Nicholas Chartrand, David Anderson, Daniel Torrealba and Keigan Gerrie.
The Knights selected their third goaltender of the day in the thirteenth round with Jonathan Williams of the St. Louis Blues AAA U16 team.
In round 14, London took 6’1, 203 pound Cameron Fulop from the York-Simcoe Express.
The Knights completed the day with centre, Tyler Kress of the Cambridge Winter Hawks.
Despite making deals to bring in players like Mitchell Stephens, Mitch Vande Sompel and Dante Salituro at the OHL trade deadline, the Knights’ cupboard was well-stocked on draft day with 19 picks over the 15 rounds.
London continues their second-round series with the Erie Otters on Tuesday night at Budweiser Gardens. The Knights shut out Erie 2-0 in Game 1. The Otters rebounded with a 5-1 win in Game 2.
AM 980’s coverage will begin at 6:30 with the pre-game show.
Tickets are available at 519-681-0800 x1, at the Knights’ Armoury or on-line at http://www.londonknights.com
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