For only the second time in team history, the Guelph Storm will select first overall in this weekend's OHL entry draft.
The Storm will make the announcement Friday at 11:30 a.m. The rest of the draft goes online Saturday.
While not confirmed, the safe bet is that it will be Ryan Merkley, a highly-skilled offensive defenceman who played for the Toronto Jr. Canadiens minor midget team last season.
Guelph's other first overall pick was Jeff O'Neill in 1992.
Storm general manager Mike Kelly would not say who the Storm was taking, but did say the team will take the best player available regardless of position or whether the team feels that player would report to Guelph.
He said it is "absolutely" the best player they felt was available when they call his name Friday.
"Every draft is important. We're picking earlier in each round this year than we have in several years ... we've got an advantage of picking early in each round and we've got to have a big draft," Kelly said.
"We may only put two or three of this draft in our lineup next year, but there's still got to be another three or four of them that are integral parts of our program down the road."
Other names in consideration for top pick included Chicago defenceman Bode Wilde, Michigan forward Blade Jenkins and Russian-born winger Kirill Nizhnikov, who was a teammate of Merkley's last season.
Wilde and Jenkins have not committed to playing in the Ontario Hockey League next season.
Merkley had seven goals and 37 assists last season in 33 games. It was his second season of minor midget hockey, having played up a year the season prior.
OHL Central Scouting compares Merkley to former Kitchener Rangers standout Ryan Murphy.
"He has the ability to take over a game whenever he wants to. His skill level and creativity with the puck are second to none, providing him the ability to thread a pass that few others could," OHL Central Scouting said.
Guelph's lone pick of the second round will be 28th overall, one they picked up from the Peterborough Petes in the Hunter Garlent trade two years ago. Their own second rounder was traded to Windsor. They also have the first pick of the third round.
Kelly, who said this year's draft is very deep in high-end defencemen, said he personally has seen most of the top players in draft play an average of 12 times over the course of their season. Some players he has seen play 24 games.
"We like to see them in all different situations. We put more weight in February and March than we do in September and October," he said.
"Obviously we want kids who are going to come in here and help us win a championship, so watching them under playoff conditions is more important to us than watching a game that isn't particularly meaningful in October."
Kelly did say it was not a particularly deep draft for goaltending, but if there was one the Storm liked early in the draft they might take one.
"If we like five goaltenders and four of them are gone by the end of the second round, there's probably an urgency for us to call the fifth name as soon as possible," he said.
"It's the same for any position: if you need a right winger, he might be 50th on your list, but if all the right wingers are gone you might have to take the 50th player on your list a bit earlier because all the right wingers are gone."
