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| London Knights draft room - April 5, 2014 |
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| London GM Mark Hunter (on phone) and staff. |
"If he goes to the (U.S. development) program at 16, there's a learning curve anyway," said General Manager Mark Hunter. "If it's the year after or the year after that, as long as we see him in a London Knights uniform."
The Knights use an established track record of producing NHL talent, a winning heritage and favourable location and arena as a way of sometimes turning the draft upside down. Most pre-draft lists had Max Jones as one of the top five players available. The Knights selected him with the 18th pick in round one. London followed by selecting defenseman Ben Gleason from the same Honeybaked organization.
Of course, elite U.S. born players have plenty of hockey options. The Knights will now try to convince another elite hockey talent that Jared Tinordi, Pat Kane, John Carlson and others made the right choice by coming to play for the Knights.
Click here for a Max Jones audio mash-up. Voices include the announcement from the Ontario Hockey League, Knights head scout Lindsay Hofford, Max Jones and Knights GM Mark Hunter.
