The Sarnia Sting will choose 17th overall in this year's Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection.
The draft will see players from the 2007 birth year chosen.
It gets underway at 7 p.m. Friday with rounds one to three and continues on Saturday with rounds four through 15.
Sting General Manager Dylan Seca said a lot of hard work goes into preparing for the draft, especially by the organization's scouting department.
"It all kind of culminates now," said Seca. "It's definitely a fun time of the season, you get to find a new crop of players. The scouts have a chance to carve their path here and have their say. It's definitely an exciting time. I'd say our scouting group probably watches about 500 games collectively. There are video reports, live reports, meetings, the drives in snowstorms and terrible coffee. All of those narratives are true, but the work is fun. You get a chance to get a player that one or all of our guys like collectively, you watch them come onto our team and into our community and start to flourish. We're excited heading into the weekend."
Seca said the three main things they look for in a player are skill, character and skating ability.
"It sounds easier than it really is sometimes because there are a lot of players that have some similar attributes," he said. "Compete and character definitely go hand-in-hand and you want to try and find as many skillful players as you can. We also want to find players that want to be here, that's the other side of things. We want them to be excited to be part of the Sting and the organization. That's part of the work that goes into it too."
Seca knows the prospects are feeling mixed emotions leading up to their big day.
"When we talk to the players and families, we just tell them to enjoy the moment," he said. "It only happens once in this case, and a lot of them are probably dreaming of the bigger one (NHL draft). It's fun to make the call when you draft them. It's neat to hear their energy and their excitement."
As for who the Sting might select in the first round? Seca said it will come down to who the team believes is the best player available.
"We have an idea of how things might go but, at the end of the day, it'll be completely up to the 16 teams that are ahead of us," he said. "We're ready, we had a good meeting Wednesday and more over the next few days, so we're ready to go."
Notable Sting draft picks from 2022 included Lukas Fischer, Sean Doherty, Carson Campbell, Karsen Chartier and Porter Martone.
You can follow along with this year's priority selection on the Ontario Hockey League website.
--------
The Sting's scouting staff is listed below:
Director of Hockey Operations - Kyle Craner Director of Player Evaluation - Mark Fillippone Director of Player Evaluation - Mike Neely Central Ontario Scout - Cole Crane Ottawa Area Scout - Nathan Hisko Eastern Ontario Scout - David McMullen United States Scout - Chris Chimenti Michigan Scout - Steve Shafer Alliance Scout - Aiden Letang Scouting Advisor - Tyler Longo Scouting Advisor - Adam Schaap Scouting Advisor - Reagan O’Grady Video Scout & Statistical Analyst - Jack Edmands