When the London Knights make their first pick in the 2021 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection they will be in familiar territory.
The OHL held a lottery on May 5 to determine the order that teams will select and the Knights logo was the fourth one that was flipped over by the league’s vice-president of operations, Ted Baker. That means they will select 16th overall in round one on Friday, June 4.
For the first time in its history, the OHL Priority Selection will take place over two days with the first three rounds on the night of June 4 and the remainder of the draft on June 5.
London has selected 16th or later 14 times since Mark and Dale Hunter purchased the Knights in 2000.
Those picks have brought them six players, Chris Tierney, Scott Harrington, Max Jones, Mitch Marner, Evan Bouchard and Liam Foudy who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League. The jury is still out on two other late round picks in Stuart Rolofs and Ben Bujold, the Knights’ first round selections in 2019 and 2020.
The Sudbury Wolves landed the first overall pick. Oshawa grabbed the second pick and Guelph will select third. The Windsor Spitfires and Kingston Frontenacs rounded out the top five.
The rest of the field went as follows:
6. Peterborough
7. Flint
8. Owen Sound
9. Mississauga
10. Erie
11. North Bay
12. Ottawa
13. Sarnia
14. Hamilton
15. Saginaw
16. London
17. Kitchener
18. Soo
19. Barrie
All 20 teams had an equal chance of winning the first overall pick. Niagara came up with number 15 but cannot use it after they were stripped of their 2021 first round pick as part of a punishment for recruitment violations.
The draft order will be reversed to begin the second round and will alternate in each subsequent round.
London owns the Hamilton Bulldogs’ second round pick and Kingston’s pick in the third round.
The 2020-21 OHL season was officially cancelled on April 20.