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NAHL team earns first pick

Janesville’s expansion NAHL franchise scored its first victory, of sorts, Tuesday.

The team won a league lottery over the Texas Tornado—a franchise returning to the NAHL after a one-year hiatus—and will have the first pick in today’s draft. By besting Texas in the pre-draft lottery, Janesville will have the first pick in each round.

Janesville, which already has signed 15 players to official tenders, will have 14 picks in the draft. Janesville gave up a tender and one of its picks to get defenseman Michael Thompson in a trade with the Marquette Rangers. Thompson, who has played more than 100 career games at the junior level, had five goals and 13 assists last season for the Rangers.

“We have a pretty good idea of the kids we want to get,” said Bill McCoshen, the managing general partner of Wisconsin Hockey Partners. “Our goal is to be a strong and competitive team from Day 1.”

The Janesville team’s draft board will include players who McCoshen, head coach Dane Litke and assistant coach Sean Storie have seen in person. The board also will include referrals from coaches and scouts who McCoshen, Litke and Storie know and trust.

“Our draft will be based on need, first,” McCoshen said. “We’re a little thin at goaltender.”

McCoshen hopes to bring eight goaltenders to the team’s final training camp and keep three on its final roster when the inaugural season starts in late September.

Don’t be surprised if the Janesville draft list and the final roster are heavily populated by Wisconsin players.

“We probably have the most extensive draft board of Wisconsin kids in the league,” McCoshen said. “We also have a good network of friends and coaches with ties to players in Minnesota as well as the Chicago market.

“We received a lot of phone calls in the last 72 hours from families in the Chicago area who are interested in having their sons play for Janesville in the NAHL. They realize it’s only about 100 miles from home.”

The Janesville team also is targeting players in the Duluth, Minn., area.

One area not on the Janesville radar—at least for now—is the Canadian market.

“We don’t have any Canadian kids on our draft board,” McCoshen said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t have Canadian kids at our tryout camp in Duluth (June 26-28). We’re more focused on American kids. We’re going after the best players possible.”

Players eligible for the draft must be amateurs less than 21 years of age on or before Dec. 31 who are not listed on an NAHL team roster or are listed on an NAHL team roster but played less than (10) NAHL regular season and/or playoff games during the 2008-09 season and did not accept a tender from an NAHL team prior to the 2009 NAHL Entry Draft.

Teams will be allowed to draft as many players as necessary to reach the roster limit of 30. For example, if a team has 15 veterans rostered and eight tenders signed as of midnight Tuesday, that team is allowed seven draft picks.

Drafted players are not eligible to try out for any other NAHL team, but all tendered and drafted players are eligible to try out for any team in other U.S. or Canadian junior league.

Players not drafted, but who still want to play in the NAHL, can attend open tryout camps. Every NAHL team will host summer tryout camps, scouring for players to fill out rosters.

All NAHL rosters must be reduced to 25 players by Sept. 1.

“This is very exciting,” McCoshen said. “We’re excited about what the next few months have in store for Janesville hockey fans.”

Nickname contest down to 5 finalists

Janesville’s NAHL franchise will take a big step today in its search for a nickname.

After receiving more than 200 submissions at the team’s temporary Web site—www.janesvillenahl.com—the top five choices are Janesville Jets, Janesville Jaguars, Janesville Juggernauts, Janesville Jackals and Janesville Jayhawks.

Fans then will be asked to vote for their favorite at the team’s Web site through Sunday, May 31. Wisconsin Hockey Partners will unveil the team’s nickname and logo Thursday, June 4.

The person whose idea is used for the nickname will receive four complimentary season tickets, a team jersey signed by the inaugural players, and the chance to drop the ceremonial puck at the first home game. This winner will be chosen randomly from all entries that nominated that final team name through the first phase of the contest.