EVERETT — The Canadian Hockey League import draft is difficult enough to navigate even when a team finds itself with one of the top picks. When a team is choosing toward the end of the first round, it becomes akin to how Winston Churchill described the U.S.S.R.: “A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”
Such is the position the Everett Silvertips find themselves in this year.
Everett is ensconced at the tail end of this year’s import draft, which takes place Tuesday. The Tips, who finished with the fourth-best record in the Western Hockey League last season, hold the 55th pick in the first round of the draft, which distributes European players among the CHL’s 60 teams.
Both of Everett’s two European roster slots are open. Russian winger Nikita Scherbak, the team’s leading scorer, will be an overager in 2015-16 and is therefore temporarily exempt from Everett’s protected list — Scherbak is expected to play professionally in the Montreal Canadiens’ system next season anyway. Meanwhile, Russian forward Ivan Nikolishin was traded to Red Deer during May’s bantam draft. Therefore, the Tips will use both their first- and second-round picks Tuesday.
But that doesn’t mean they feel comfortable heading into the draft, which tends to be filled with subterfuge as player agents attempt to maneuver their clients to specific teams.
“Things are always very clouded,” Everett general manager Garry Davidson said Monday. “People will tell you they’re not coming (to the CHL), then they end up being picked early. People are not truthful with people out there. People maneuver in the draft. It’s just a very difficult thing to deal with, to be frank.
“If you pick early, you can ignore all that stuff and pick who you want,” Davidson added. “But we’re picking 55th this year, which is way back there.”
Everett has traditionally fared well with its import draft picks. The impact players the Tips have acquired include Slovakian defensemen Ivan Baranka (2003), Czech winger Ondrej Fiala (2005), Czech defenseman Radko Gudas (2009) and Swiss defenseman Mirco Mueller (2012). The Tips were able to nab Nikolishin, who scored 121 points in his two seasons with Everett, in the second round in 2013.
But the Tips have their misses as well, including last year when they selected Russian winger Alexander Zhebelev 45th overall. Zhebelev chose not to report.
And the chances of landing an impact player diminish the later a team picks.
“All I can tell you is we have a substantial list,” Davidson said. “We’ll probably look at getting one defenseman and one forward. We’re looking for guys who can create offense. But I have no idea what we’re going to get, we’re still trying to process everything.”
Everett’s second-round pick is No. 115 overall, though many teams are expected to pass in the second round.
As if the import draft wasn’t complicated enough on its own, the Tips are further hamstrung by the uncertainty that continues to surround Auston Matthews. Matthews, a supremely skilled 17-year-old center from Arizona who just finished a record-breaking season with the U.S. National Team Development Program, was selected by Everett in the third round of the 2012 bantam draft. He’s currently projected to be picked first overall in the 2016 NHL draft, and he would be a major impact player if he wound up in Everett next season.
It looked like Everett missed out on the Matthews sweepstakes as he is trying to play professionally in Switzerland in the upcoming season. However, reports out of Switzerland suggest Matthews is continuing to have difficulty securing a work permit. Swiss immigration law requires that non-European hockey players seeking to play professionally in Switzerland have at least one year of pro experience. Matthews’ agents are petitioning the Swiss government for a waiver.
If Matthews’ attempts to play in Switzerland are thwarted, Everett becomes his likely destination. But the Tips still don’t know whether Matthews will play for Everett next season, and therefore are unable to factor that into their decisions at the import draft.
“If he was committed to coming here, it may affect our draft,” Davidson said. “If we knew absolutely he wasn’t coming, it might affect it. But we don’t know if he’s coming or not coming. So we’ll just look at the holes in our roster and work from there.”
Lotz, Pfeifer invited to camps
Everett goaltender Austin Lotz and defenseman Tristen Pfeifer have been invited to attend NHL development camps next week. Lotz, a 20-year-old goaltender, will be attending camp with the Buffalo Sabres. Pfeifer, a 19-year-old defensemen, will be attending camp with the Arizona Coyotes. Both are free agents as neither has been selected in the NHL draft.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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