The agent for Leafs’ first-round pick William Nylander sounded more than mildly distressed that his client was selected by the Mississauga Steelheads in the CHL import draft today. Considering that Paul Theofanous is renowned among the ranks of agents as possibly the most tightly wired guy, any fireworks left over from Canada Day can be put into use during negotiations.
“I would have not made that pick without talking to the agent or the player,” Theofanous said in a phone interview. “We have not had any communication with [the Steelheads]. It is not William’s intention to play [major junior] next season. It’s his intention to play for the Maple Leafs. Beyond that I have no comment.”
Several Ontario Hockey League teams contacted the Maple Leafs after the draft to inquire about the possibility of playing junior next year, but Mississauga was not one of them. No teams from the Western Hockey League or the Quebec Major Junior League put in a call to the Leafs about their likely plans for Nylander, believing that he would only play close to Toronto if he played major junior at all. The Leafs let the teams know that Nylander is not under contract with Modo and is free and clear to come to North America. It’s not clear if any of these OHL teams that contacted the Leafs were in touch with Theofanous.
“We went into this with our eyes wide open,” Steelheads GM and coach James Boyd said. “There’s a very good chance that William plays in the NHL next season. And there’s an option that he plays in the AHL next season. We’re going to honour that. We think he’s the top goal scorer in the world in this year’s [NHL] draft class, a phenomenal talent. If there’s a a slim possibility that he plays major junior next year, that’s a swing for the fences we have to take. We may talk to the Leafs at some point but not right now. We’ll have to see how this plays out.”
Clearly, it will start playing out when the Leafs sit down with Theofanous to talk contract and when Nylander reports with fellow Leafs rookies to training camp. Toronto management seems fairly set on Nylander playing for the Marlies if not the big club. Though Nylander is ostensibly a European player, he was born in Calgary and played most of his youth hockey in North America, particularly in Chicago.
Through the first hour of the import draft. Nylander was the most prominent name called. The Sarnia Sting made centre Pavel Zacha the first overall pick, though the conventional wisdom is that he’ll remain in the Czech league. The Memorial Cup host Quebec Remparts made a big play with the No. 2 overall pick by selecting left-winger Vladislav Kamenev, a second-round pick of the Nashville Predators.
With the 10th-overall pick Belleville selected Boston’s first-rounder, left wing David Pasternak, but the teams focused on 1997 birthdays rather than the 1996 class of NHL-drafted players.