Battalion draft North Bay's Brady Lyle in first round

The North Bay Battalion have selected a North Bay-born blueliner.

With their first pick in the OHL Priority Selection, 18th overall, they drafted Brady Lyle.

The 6′, 176 lb defenceman played 55 games for Shattuck St. Mary‘s scoring 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points.

Battalion Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Stan Butler says they chose Lyle because he was the best player available.

As for a comparable current Troop….

Lyle tweeted that words can’t describe the feeling of being drafted by the Battalion.

He was watching the draft on his computer from his dorm room in Minnesota, while on FaceTiming with his parents.

Lyle says he’s looking forward to playing in front of the large hometown crowd and “get a lot of the energy from the fans and get the team going.”

He says he looks to emulate the play of a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings defenceman.

Meantime, the Battalion didn’t have a draft pick in the second round.

In the third round, 57th overall, they selected 6’3”, 181 pound winger Jacob Ball (pictured right) from the Peterborough Minor Midgets.

Ball played 36 games last season, collecting 19 goals and 26 assists for 45 points.

Assistant GM Matt Rabideau says they had their eye on the forward for quite some time.

He says Ball is a big right winger with a heavy left shot.

Rabideau says he should be a good fit here in North Bay.

In the fourth round, the Troops selected Hanmer’s Bradley Chenier (pictured left) from the Sudbury minor midget Wolves.

The left winger played 42 games, scoring 18 goals and 19 assists.

He also played for the NOHA at the OHL Cup.

The fifth round saw the Battalion select 6’3”, 185 pound Centre Kyle Potts from Oakville.

The sixth round saw the Battalion grab goaltender Mathew Woroniuk of the Don Mills Flyers. The 6’3”, 205lbs Toronto native has a record of allowing 74 goals in 40 games. They also picked up defenceman Mark Raycroft.

In the seventh round, the Battalion returned to Shattuck-St. Mary’s to draft right-shot defenceman Josh Maniscalco. Maniscalco, had six goals and 12 assists for 18 points in 53 games and stands at 6′ and weighs 195lbs.

With a bare eighth round the battalion picked Joseph Franzin in the ninth round. Joseph stands at 6′ and recorded nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in 35 games. Also in round nine, the troops tabbed Max Wright, a goaltender from the Waterloo Wolves minor midgets. Max, who is 5’10”, 160lbs, posted a won-lost-tied record of 13-3-2 with five shutouts

Round ten found the Battalion had pegged left-shot centre Daniel Walker, a teammate of the fourth pick Bradley Chenier. Walker, 6’1” and 173lbs had 15 goals and 17 assists for 32 points in 38 games.

The Battalions selection in the eleventh round pick was 6′, 175lbs left-shot defenceman Wade Brennan of the Ottawa Senators minor midgets. Brennan had 10 points, including four goals, and 77 penalty minutes in 19 games.

Two picks for the Battalion in round 12. The first was Stefan Palatsidis, a right winger from the Wildcats. Originally from Whitby, Palatsidis stands at 6′, 190lbs and has scored 15 goals and added 16 assists for 31 points in 34 games. As well, the Battalion picked up left winger Kameron Shearer from the North Central Predators minor midgets who produced five goals and eight assists for 13 points in 19 games. Shearer is 6′, 166lbs

In round 13, The Battalion selected a North Bay left-shot defenceman Eric Allair of the North Bay Trappers midgets. Allair had seven goals and 17 assists for 24 points in 33 games.

Round 14, 277th overall, saw right winger Andy Baker get picked up by the troops. Baker, a 6′, 154lbs Port Carling resident, contributed 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points in 33 games.

And finally in round 15, left winger of the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs minor midgets Curtis Abbott was the final player added by the troops. The 6′, 196lbs Belmont resident had 19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points in 33 games.

Also of note, the Sudbury Wolves selected North York Rangers centre Ben Garagan, who’s from North Bay, in the 5th round. He scored 26 goals and 18 assists for his southern Ontario team last season.