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NEWS STORY
Steel
Select Eight Prospects In USHL Futures Draft
Bensenville, IL (October 4th, 2007)
--Wednesday evening, October 3rd, the Chicago Steel
selected eight players in the USHL's Futures Draft
giving them the exclusive rights to these players for
the upcoming hockey seasons.
With their top pick in the 1991 portion of the draft,
the Steel selected Cretin-Derham Hall High School
(Minnesota) defenseman Mark Alt with the #2 overall pick.
Alt will be a sophomore at Cretin this year and stands
6'3 180 lbs. "Our staff saw Mark play at this summer's
Select 16 Festival and we all agreed that this is the
player we wanted to bring aboard and have part of our
program next season and beyond, said Steel General
Manager Jason Koehler."There is so much upside here with
Mark, it's very exciting to think how he'll develop
under Coach Poapst who has done a great job with our
defensemen given his experience at the college, pro, and
NHL levels and we feel that Mark has that type of
potential."
All twelve current USHL teams and also the new expansion
Fargo, ND franchise (begin play in 2008) made four 1991
birth year player selections. After that, if teams had
space on their 12 man Affiliate List they were able to
fill their list with 1990 birth years only. Fargo was
only allowed to draft eight, not twelve though, as they
will be given four tenders in which to sign players with
as well.
The Steel had previously protected the following four
players on their Affiliate List heading into the Futures
Draft, thus giving them four 1991's and four 1990's that
needed to be drafted to fill their Affiliate List.
Previously protected players include G TJ Massie -
Cushing Academy Prep, D Derek Pallis - Noble & Greenough
Prep, D Brett Kostolansky - Shattuck St. Mary's Prep,
and F Josh Kesler - Marquette Rangers NAHL.
Here's a look at the Steel's 2007 Futures Picks with
some comments from Steel General Manager Jason Koehler:
1991's
RD Mark Alt Cretin-Derham Hall HS (MN) - 6'3 180 lbs. :
Has big time college and pro potential, tremendous
athlete, father was NFL player with the Kansas City
Chiefs, only played JV hockey last year and is now just
a sophomore, projects to be 6'5.
LD Phillip Samuelsson P.F. Chang's AAA (AZ) - 6'2 185
lbs. : Another strong defenseman, great college and pro
potential, son of former NHL'er and current Phoenix
Coyotes assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson, physical,
responsible, and mean when necessary.
G Hudson Stremmel Las Vegas AAA (NV) - 6'0 175 lbs. :
Non-traditional area player, has skated with us and
attended our camp so there's a strong familiarity, last
season was a '91 playing midget major and saw an average
of probably fifty shots a game and kept his team in it
all the time, should flourish in the hockey environment
of the USHL with daily work.
RD JR Lafferty NJ Rockets AJHL (NJ) - 6'0 185 lbs. :
Playing his second year of junior hockey, he's used to
playing a man's game and plays a physical game. Tough
kid who does not back down and will continue to improve
this year in the AJHL with Bob Thornton's Rockets.
1990's
LD Dano Jacques Duluth Marshall HS (MN) - 5'11 180 lbs.
: One of the best high school seniors in the state of
Minnesota, power play type guy, laser shot, should play
top four next year and be a great college player.
RW Alex Simonson Grand Forks Central HS (ND) - 6'1 180
lbs. : High energy, intense, power forward, one of our
favorites - no one else like him was on our draft board,
hits hard and you hate to play against him. We drafted
him in the May Draft, but he stayed back in high school
for his senior year.
RC Charlie Thauwald Rochester Mayo HS (MN) - 6'2 205
lbs. : Big strong forward, looks like a man with boys at
times, scores goals, only a high school junior, we
project him to be a top two line guy that plays PP and
scores frequently.
RW Rob Linsmayer CYA AAA (IL) - 5'11 195 lbs. : One of
the top Chicago area players, provides a combination of
goals and grit, a top player and leader on his CYA team
which has been playing very well early this AAA season. |
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