Things are looking up for the Nanaimo Timbermen after the team added more than a dozen prospects at WLA Draft.
The city's senior A Western Lacrosse Association team chose Surrey's Eli McLaughlin with the second-overall selection Wednesday night at the Langley Events Centre.
Earl Nicholson, Timbermen general manager, said the club went into the draft with a game plan and accomplished what it set out to do.
"We thought in the first round that you've got to take the best player available when you pick," Nicholson said. "After that, we have some different needs we need to continue to address."
McLaughlin had 47 goals and 34 assists in 18 B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League games last season, then scored another 22 points in six games at the Minto Cup with the Coquitlam Adanacs. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound left-hander is currently playing for the Colorado Mammoth of the NLL.
"He's showing he can play with men," Nicholson said. "And he brings all the elements to the game as far as offence. He sees the floor real well, he'll go inside, he's got a good outside shot, he's good in the corners. He's a real nice player and he's going to be a star."
Nicholson acknowledged that Vancouver Island wasn't McLaughlin's preferred destination, but said the player indicated he would play wherever he was drafted.
Nanaimo's other first-round pick was used to take goaltender Peter Dubenski. The T-men have had their eyes on the local product for years.
"We sure have. We've watched him develop," Nicholson said. "He's probably the best graduating junior goaltender in the country and we need a tandem to go with Zak [Boychuk]; we can't expect him to play every game as he's done the last two years."
Nanaimo had four second-round picks; they took tough right-handed forward Brett Dobray, sound defender Raymond Banister, transition player Mason Pynn and local right-handed sniper Mitch Parker. Their first selection of the third round, Erik Klein, is a nasty defender who should step right into the lineup.
Other players drafted by the Timbermen include Quinn MacKay, Reese Robinson, Andrew Miller, James Smith, Brett Fleming, Delbert Donnelly and Jordan Clark.
Nanaimo just missed on local forward Corey Shires – the T-men had the 13th, 14th and 15th overall picks and expected the left-handed scorer to be available, but Coquitlam snapped up Shires 12th overall.
"We thought that they would take a mainland guy, simply because they hadn't had a pick since the first, and then to go to the Island for their second pick was a real surprise," Nicholson said.
Nanaimo also passed on local Alex McDougall, a tough defender whom they like, but who they don't expect will play because of work commitments. McDougall went in the fifth round to New Westminster.
Another Nanaimo player, forward Travis Mickelson, was chosen in the fifth round by Victoria, and junior Timbermen grad Nick Sanderson was taken in the eighth round by Victoria.
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