TORONTO — The Radnor Rink Rats have won the UHL draft lottery.
The club had the best odds of securing the top pick in the draft after a surprsing poor performance last season.The Rink Rats are now looking towards selecting the definitive number one ranked Alexis Lafreniere.
Alexis Lafreniere, a star winger with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Rimouski Oceanic, is the presumptive No. 1 pick for the 2020 draft tentatively scheduled for December 27th.
The Rink Rats have some good young talent and will now add to that by adding to a core of Sebastien Aho, Matthew Tkachuk, Timo Meier and Jacob Slavin.
"Really good news," Lafreniere said on the television broadcast following the lottery. "The Rink Rats are a good young team with really good players (and) a really nice city."
"We are super excited." stated 2nd year GM Bachul "Alexis is an excellent player and if we are fortunate enough to select him, he will certainly fit in to our core."
The Regina Butchers were also big winners winning the 2nd overall pick from the 10th best odds. The Vancouver Stompers also were fortunate moving up from 6th to 3rd selection.
When asked if the pick was available in trade, Bachul confirmed that although he wasn't shopping the pick, it was within his mandate to at least listen to offers. "Usually the offers don't get good enough to consider when there is a definitive number one pick. We will listen but it would certainly take quite an offer to move the selection and opportunity to pick Alexis."
A six-foot-one, 193-pound forward from the Rimouski Oceanic and NHL Central Scouting's top-ranked North American skater, the 18-year-old is the two-time Canadian Hockey League player of the year. Lafreniere had 35 goals and 112 points in 52 games before the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season was cancelled because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Lafreniere also led Canada to gold at the 2020 world junior hockey championship in the Czech Republic, and was named tournament MVP.