No second or third-round pick, no problem for the Barrie Colts, says Marty Williamson.
The Barrie Colts general manager says he’s feeling pretty good with the work done by the organization this weekend at the 2026 OHL Priority Selection held at Slush Puppie Place in Kingston.
While contending for a league title the last three seasons may have cost the team some of its key early picks in this year’s 15-round draft, Williamson was “pretty happy” with the collection of prospects the team was able to add to the stables with their 16 selections.
“Some of the guys we talked about, we didn’t know if they were going to make it through the second and third round, and a lot of Americans jumped in, and a lot of goalies got taken, so some of the guys slipped back a little bit,” he said. “We were just happy.
“We knew it was going to be a tough draft, a little bit, not having any picks in the second and third, but I’m pretty impressed with the group of guys that we got, and very impressed with the scouting staff to be able to get some of the guys we got in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds. I think they’re going to be future Colts and we’re pretty happy about that.”
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After using their 17th overall selection Friday night to take offensive blueliner Lucas Matheson (see Colts take hometown blueliner), the Colts went to work Saturday using their remaining 15 selections to add 10 forwards, two defencemen, and three goaltenders.
“We just think some of these guys are going to develop, and we’ll be looking in a couple of years and go, ‘Oh my goodness, we got him in the ninth or the tenth’, and that kind of stuff,” Williamson said when asked what he liked about their draft. “We felt very positive with our group.
“I know around the league, I received a lot of compliments from GMs about what a good draft we had. We felt good coming out of this draft.”
Williamson felt his club had a need down the middle heading into the draft, and they went right to work on addressing that early Saturday morning when they used their fourth-round selection (80th overall) to take centre Cale Scott of the Mississauga Rebels U16 AAA team.
The six-foot-four, 216-pound forward had six goals and six assists in 32 games with the Rebels, but Williamson believes he brings so much to every shift, and the offence will eventually follow.
“He’s a real big man,” said Williamson of Scott. “I know some people will look at his stats, and he didn’t have a lot of goals last year, but he played on a weak hockey team, and we just think he’s going to be a driving force. He plays an extremely rugged game. He’s a good skater, and he gets up and down the ice. His dad played pro hockey.
“We just think with the bloodlines, and with how hard this kid works, in a year or two, he’s probably going to be six-foot-four and 220 or 225, and we think he’s going to be a handful. He has some development to do, some offence we need to develop a little bit, but we think we got ourselves a player that’s going to play in the league.”
Williamson believes Scott will be able to help the team in several areas of the game, like penalty killing, blocking shots and winning faceoffs. A big body that can roll track up and down the ice.
Does that sound familiar to former captain Cole Beaudoin?
“He doesn’t have the offensive pedigree that Cole came in with in his draft year,” said Williamson. “It took (Beaudoin) a little while to grow that, and that’s what we’re hoping for the same thing from Cale.
“He’s not going to score a ton for us but be extremely valuable and then hopefully as he gets into his third and fourth year, we’re talking about a guy that can score you 20 and get a bunch of assists and just be very difficult to play against.”
Williamson then used his two picks in the fifth round to shore up the blue line and add more offence up front.
He reached south of the border to grab big, physical defenceman Marc Ruggere. Close to six-foot-two and 187-pounds, the Saddle River, New Jersey native is more of a stay-at-home blueliner who had 2 assists in 13 games with the Woodbridge Wolfpack Premiere 15s before wrapping up the season with the Detroit Little Caesars in the OHL Cup with a goal in five games.
“He reminds me a little bit of Parker von Richter,” said Williamson.
Expectations were that Ruggere would be taken in the second round.
“It looked like he was committed to Madison, but when we called him, he’s really committed to the CHL,” said Williamson. “We had a feeling that he wanted to come to our league. He was at the draft, and I have a good feeling this guy is going to be in our lineup this year.
“I liked (Marc’s) game as soon as I saw it. I said this is a Barrie Colt, a guy we want. He plays a very physical game.”
The Colts believe they added a future scorer in Roman Shtefan, who they selected with the 91st pick overall. The highly skilled centre from the Windsor AA Zn Jr. Spitfires had a whopping 29 goals and 53 points in 30 games.
The five-foot-eight forward was expected to go earlier in the draft, but with several American players going early, he fell into Barrie’s hands, and no one was more pleasantly surprised than Williamson.
“Our guys really liked him,” he said. “We watched him a lot. He’s got a great motor. He’s not scared to go anywhere on the ice. He has a good build to him, and he’s got finish. He’ll probably play in Listowel next year. They’ve guaranteed him he’ll play on the first line.
“We’re excited about him. He needs a little bit of time, but we think this is going to be a real player for the Barrie Colts.”
Williamson added a similar player to Shtefan in the sixth round (No. 111) with the selection of Brady Nash. The diminutive winger had 14 goals and 32 points in 31 games with the Don Mills Flyers U16 team.
The Colts were debating between the two with the 91st pick overall and ended up getting both of them.
“Nash did an awful lot this year,” said Williamson. “He scored big goals at big times. They’re similar in how they play the game. They’ll go to the tough areas. They’re not the biggest guys in the world, but they compete really hard.”
Here’s a look at the remaining draft picks made by the Colts in this year’s draft:
LUKE HARTMAN
7TH Rd., No. 138
South Kent Selects Academy 15s
Six-foot, 188-pound centre from Mullica, NJ had three goals and four points with TPH Hockey in the OHL Cup. The Princeton commit, who had a good conversation with Williamson, said he wants to play in the OHL.
“Everybody likes Luke,” said the Barrie GM. “If he was coming right away, he would have gone earlier, but we don’t have a problem with waiting for him. He’ll play one more year down in the States and develop, and then we’ll get him for a couple of years or three if we can talk him into staying that third year.”
LUKE PIETILA
8TH RD., No. 158
Oakland Jr. Grizzlies 16U
The five-foot-nine, 176-pound right winger had 27 goals and 77 points in 52 games for Oakland and is committed to Green Bay of the USHL next year but said he wants to play in Barrie.
“If we had drafted Luke before the USHL, he’d be playing for us right now,” said Williamson. “I’m a huge fan of Luke Pietila. He reminds me an awful lot of Salandra. He just plays the game really hard. He’s an exceptional shooter. It’s another kid we’ll have to wait for, but I don’t have a problem with doing it.”
TYLER WILSON
9TH Rd., No. 178
Mississauga Rebels U16
Goalie coach Dave Belitski is high on the Orillia native.
“Dave thinks he has a Ben Hrebik type of future in him,” said Williamson. “He needs a little bit of time to grow his game, but Dave really liked him.”
KAELEN RUDYK
10th Rd., No. 198
Niagara North Stars 16U
“He skates well. He’s a big man,” Williamson said of the six-foot-three, 187-pound defenceman. “He’s raw, but he reminds me an awful lot of an (Evan) Passmore type of guy.”
RICO CHAMPAGNE
11TH Rd., No. 204
Toronto Jr. Canadiens U16
The five-foot-eight forward had over a point a game with the Canadiens.
“Fans are going to like this Champagne kid,” said Williamson. “He plays awfully hard and has some real flair to his game, and quick feet.”
The Colts rounded out the draft by taking Vaughan Kings U16 left winger Presley Allain (No. 218) and Toronto Jr. Canadiens U16 left winger Khov Long, both in the 11th round.
They grabbed big six-foot-three, 209-pound winger Jackson Mead from the Sudbury Wolves U16 team in the 13th Rd. (No. 258), and goalie Ethan Anderson of the Kitchener Jr. Rangers U16 in the 14th round (No. 264).
Left winger James Guiney of the Mississauga Reps U16 was taken in the 14th round (No. 278), and goaltender Lucas Thompson of the Toronto Red Wings U16 in the 15th round (No. 298).
This year’s draft marked the first live in-person event the league has held since 2000 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.
The first round on Friday and the remaining 2nd to 15th rounds were shown live on FLO Hockey. Friday’s first round featured players walking on stage after their name was announced to receive jerseys and hats.
Williamson called it a well put-together event. The Colts brass sat at one of the tables up front for the first round and then gathered in a hotel room on Saturday to make their remaining selections.
“I thought the presentation and how they had things organized for the kids and the prep were outstanding,” said the Barrie GM. “I thought it was really good.”
ICE CHIPS: The Sarnia Sting used their 13th-round pick to draft Noah Crombeen. The Upper Canada College Blues left winger is the son of former Colts captain and NHLer BJ Crombeen. . . In the 15-round draft, 301 players were selected from 88 different programs. A total of 171 forwards, 95 defencemen, and 35 goaltenders had their names called. The Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) led the way with 84 players drafted, while both the Vaughan Kings and Toronto Marlboros led all teams with 12 players chosen. A total of 81 players were drafted from American teams.
