Phantoms ready for entry draft

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Phantoms will reopen their “war room” on Monday when the USHL’s 2011 entry draft is conducted beginning at 11 a.m.

The Phantoms will be drafting players that will look to make an immediate impact on Youngstown’s third season in the USHL.

“We are pretty familiar with the available players,” Phantoms Head Coach Curtis Carr said. “We drafted [1993-born] and ‘94s in the future’s draft and the ’91 and ‘92s have already played in the league, so we have a pretty good sense of what is available.

“We have had the opportunity to watch these players and for some of them it will be their second or third time on our draft board because we have been able to watch their development,” Carr said. “It is a broader draft in terms of the number of players and the area they cover, but the pool of players is familiar because we have watched them play for a few years.”

Unlike April’s USHL futures draft, the entry draft is not limited to a single birth year. Players born in 1991 or younger can be selected.

“The entry draft is much different in terms of the range of ages and the talent pool of players,” said Jason Koehler, Phantoms Director of Player Personnel. “You are looking at the older players in the birth year of 1991 and you could possibly see players born in 1996 get selected.

“What it is important to realize, is that the needs that we have will be much different from every other team in the league,” Koehler said. “From our standpoint, we will evaluate the pieces that we have coming back to determine what holes we need to fill.”

Carr said, “We have to be objective when looking at the pieces we have now. We need to evaluate our returning player’s performance from this season and see where they fill in for next year.”

Fans can follow the draft in real time by visiting www.ushldraft.com.