With a pair of import defencemen graduating off the roster, the Soo Greyhounds used the Canadian Hockey League’s annual Import Draft to add one to the stable.
Using both their picks in this year’s draft, the Hounds selected a pair of players in the draft for the first time since 2021.
With a pair of new imports in the stable, it’s not a lock that those will be the two players filling the Greyhounds import spots when the 2024-25 Ontario Hockey League regular season gets underway.
In Wednesday’s draft, the Sault selected Czech-born defenceman Lukas David Holub and Finnish goaltender Otto Nuto.
Holub captained HC Ocelari Trinec U17 in the 2023-24 season, scoring five goals and 28 points in 28 games while also playing 18 games with Trinec’s U20 team and playing for Czechia in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Raftis called Holub “a smooth-skating player who competes like a pit bull.”
“We had a lot of plans going into it and we were trying to look at a few different D options,” Raftis added. “Some things were up in the air, but we were excited to get him. He fits in really well with that young group of ‘06s and ‘07s.”
Raftis added that he expects that Holub will be “a big part of their Ivan Hlinka team” later this summer prior to joining the Greyhounds.
Nuto, 18, posted a 12-5-0 record in 18 games with Tappara U18 in 2023-24 along with a 2.83 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.
“He’s a big-body goaltender. He moves well,” Raftis said of Nuto.
Raftis said that the Greyhounds “were kind of in a holding pattern with anyone we were going to pick in the second round.”
That pattern came as Swedish forward Noel Nordh, selected 44th overall in the 2022 Import Draft, is a potential option for the Greyhounds lineup this season.
“We’ve been led to believe that we’re probably going to get a forward that we drafted previously,” Raftis said.
Nordh, a draft pick of the NHL’s Utah Hockey Club, will be attending training camp with the pro club and Raftis said there have been discussions about the forward potentially joining the Greyhounds.
“We were trying to keep that in mind when making that second pick,” Raftis said.