Kings of upcoming OHL draft
Nick Porco. Thomas Harley. Nathan Staois. Three players from the Vaughan Kings minor midgets who could well be selected in the first round of the 2017 Ontario Hockey League draft.
The talented trio of skaters from the Greater Toronto Hockey League powerhouse Kings are rated by a multitude of scouts as first-rounders — second-rounders at the very least — for the upcoming April 8 OHL lottery that is aimed at the best 2001 birth-year prospects.
Porco, a forward who hails from Sault Ste. Marie, led Vaughan in scoring during the 2016-2017 regular season en route to being named GTHL minor midget player-of-the-year.
Harley, an American-born defenseman, is a tall, rangy puck-mover with a so-called “long stick” who stands tall on the power play and penalty kill.
Staois, a smaller-sized defender who has drawn comparisons to London Knights splendid defenseman Mitch Vande Sompel, is the son of Steve Staois, who is the general manager of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. The elder Staois was a first-round pick (fifth overall) of the erstwhile Niagara Falls Thunder at the 1990 OHL draft and went on to skate in more than 1,000 National Hockey League games as a versatile defenseman and winger.
Vaughan also boasts one of the top-rated goalies for the April 8 draft in Christian Sbaraglia. But the catch is that Sbaraglia has made a verbal commitment to play Division 1, National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey at Penn State down the road.
The minor midget Kings also feature a top coaching prospect in 36-year old Beau Moyer.
Moyer, who is originally from North Bay, Ont., is considered an ‘A’ coaching student of the game who is likely not that far away from landing an assistant’s job in the OHL.