In just under a week, the North American Hockey League will host its annual Entry Draft. The Jackalopes are looking forward to building a world class roster with the second overall pick of the draft. This will mark the first such draft for Jackalopes Head Coach Jason Fortier and the second for Assistant Coach Adam Phillips.
The 2020 NAHL Entry Draft was pushed back later into the summer this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the premature ending of the 2019-20 regular season.
Typically, teams identify the players they are interested in drafting using a combination of team scouting, Pre-Draft Evaluation Camps and NAHL combines. The Jackalopes recently completed their own pre-draft camp in June.
Each of the 27 NAHL teams will turn in their protected list of veterans and tenders to the league prior to the draft. The number of players a team protects will determine the number of picks they will have in the Entry Draft. Meaning, a team with a high number of players on their protected list will receive fewer draft picks than a team with a lower number of players on their protected list.
All players who played in the NAHL last season, and are still eligible to play next season, who are not protected by their team are entered into the draft pool with other prospects. As such, these players become eligible to be drafted by another team.
The draft order is determined by each team’s finish from last season. The draft is set to take place on Tuesday, July 21st at 1pm CDT and will be streamed on HockeyTV.com.
