Peterborough Petes general manager Mike Oke gave an interesting interview to Mike Davies of the Peterborough Examiner just before the 2020 OHL Priority Selection Draft and hinted at a possible return for Liam Kirk for the 2020-21 season.
The Petes are in a situation where fifteen players on their current roster are eligible to graduate (one goalie, six defensemen and eight forwards).
Mike Oke “We’re losing three defensemen with Hudson Wilson and Jacob Paquette graduating as overage players and we anticipate Declan Chisholm will be moving on to the pro level,”
It’s no surprise then that the Petes took a defenseman with their first pick and acquired three blueliners in the first five rounds.
“There is a lot of uncertainty about next year’s roster“, Oke went on to say.
“We have three potential 20-year-olds in Matt McNamara, Jack York and David Maier (all defensemen). We have returning guys in Shawn Spearing, Artem Guryev and Josh Kavanagh. Certainly, we’re going to have room for players.
“Upfront, it’s the same situation. We’re going to be graduating Zach Gallant, Akil Thomas and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. There are other players somewhat unknown like Liam Kirk’s status with Arizona and Nick Robertson with Toronto. We have a few other potential overage candidates,” Oke said.
“In goal, Hunter Jones is a potential overage but just signed with Minnesota so I expect he’ll be given every opportunity to play pro.”
OHL teams are allowed to dress three overagers per game (20-year-olds) and hold a fourth on the roster until January.
Now with Peterborough losing so many of their top forwards and potentially a star in Nick Robertson (I’d venture it’s more likely he remains in Junior) then the Petes might be more inclined to make an overage spot for Liam Kirk as they know exactly what they’ll be getting from a player who has the potential to develop and prove himself an even greater asset following a stop-start campaign cut short by injuries.
But what about the import factor?
It’s a fair point.
Liam Kirk is one of two imports on the roster including defenseman David Maier, whose status at this point is undecided.
Then there is the CHL Import Draft, which is supposed to occur in June and is another factor.
However, it’s very much a crapshoot to try and predict A) whether teams will utilise it for realistic selections and B) whether selected players will decide to play for the said team in the OHL.
With Kirk and Maier, Peterborough owns the rights to two players taking up both an overage and import spot on their team and that’s very much the conundrum at play here.
Kirk could still turn professional but it remains unlikely that Arizona offers him an Entry-Level Contract at this stage as they own his signing rights up until June 1, 2022.
In the chance that Kirk does not earn an AHL or ECHL contract (with Arizona‘s affiliates or elsewhere), there is a strong possibility of him remaining in the OHL for his overage year.
For the Peterborough Petes or elsewhere if a scenario presents itself where they would be willing to trade him.
UK Hockey Blog 