{"id":20352,"date":"2018-04-11T23:42:30","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T03:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20352"},"modified":"2018-04-12T11:04:36","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T15:04:36","slug":"express-forward-byfield-first-overall-in-ohl-priority-selection-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/express-forward-byfield-first-overall-in-ohl-priority-selection-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Express forward Byfield first overall in OHL priority selection draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early, and often.
\nThe York-Simcoe Express moniker was on the lips of many of the general managers at Saturday\u2019s OHL priority selection draft, where for the first time ever two members of the AAA organization went back-to-back in the first two selections.
\nQuinton Byfield, tabbed as a consensus first overall pick before even the midpoint of the 2017-18 season, was named the winner of the Jack Ferguson Trophy as the top choice by the Sudbury Wolves.
\nThe six-foot-four, 200 lb. centreman has gained a reputation as the right combination of speed and skill, captaining the Minor Midget Express to an OHL Cup in March while leading the team in scoring with 92 points.
\nWolves General Manager Rob Papineau called selecting Byfield \u201ca great thing for the Sudbury Wolves and our city\u201d in a statement.
\n\u201cFor him to commit to the Sudbury Wolves and the OHL is tremendous for our hockey team and for our fans. He is a special player who is equally as impressive off the ice as he is on it. We are very happy and excited that he will be in the lineup and part of our community this upcoming season.\u201d
\nA hockey town through and through, Sudbury hosted Byfield and his family one day prior to the draft, leaving no surprise as to who they would choose with the prized pick.
\n\u201cIt was a great experience, I met a lot of people there, it\u2019s a great fan base,\u201d said Byfield. \u201cOverall, I think it\u2019s going to be a great fit for me.\u201d
\nHe called walking around the Wolves Sudbury Community Arena \u201ca surreal feeling.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an old barn, there are a lot of great memories there\u2026it\u2019s going to be a great place.\u201d
\nThe 15-year old St. Max Kolbe student added 12 points in the Express\u2019 playoff run, cementing his position atop the OHL\u2019s most wanted list.
\n\u201cThere were a lot of ups and downs,\u201d said Byfield, reflecting on the Minor Midget season. \u201cBut we finished strong, won a few tournaments\u2026all in all I think it was a great season.\u201d
\nHumbled by the experience, he gives credit to his parents for helping him reach the next step in achieving his hockey goals.
\n\u201cDefinitely my mom, she\u2019s always making me food, getting me to the rink on time, waking up early\u2026just always there for me.\u201d
\nWith his eyes remaining on the online board after the first selection, Byfield saw Express teammate Evan Vierling go second overall to the Flint Firebirds, a first for the Express organization.
\nThe centreman was second in scoring behind Byfield on the Express this season, putting up 63 points in 33 games.
\n\u2018Quinton and Evan got stronger and stronger as the season progressed and they are very deserving of this honour,\u201d said Minor Midget head coach Ilir Mehmeti. \u201cThey are everything that an OHL team would want on draft day: unselfish, always looking to get better and they always step up in the big moments.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are all very proud of their accomplishments and wish them every success as they move on to the next step in their careers.\u201d
\nCameron Butler and Ty Collins, both Express right wingers, were each taken in the second round of the draft by the Peterborough Petes and Guelph Storm respectively.
\nDefenseman Jack Bar was taken in the third round by the Petes, while fellow D-man Ian Lemieux rounded out the Express draftees as a sixth round pick of the Saginaw Spirit.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early, and often.
\nThe York-Simcoe Express moniker was on the lips of many of the general managers at Saturday\u2019s OHL priority selection draft, where for the first time ever two members of the AAA organization went back-to-back in the first two selections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-12-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5ig","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 11:08:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}