Township of Langley, BC (Thursday, June 25, 2015) – It’s been an nice start to the summer for Marcus Vela and he hopes it’ll get even better this weekend when the eighteen-year old looks to become the third Langley Rivermen player drafted into the National Hockey League.
The 2015 NHL Entry Draft starts tomorrow and concludes on Saturday and while Vela’s not expected to be a first round pick, according to www.draftsite.com, a mock draft website, it shows him being selected in the fifth round, which is where most analysts have him going.
“The draft is an exciting time,” he said. “At the end of the day you never know what’s going to happen. If it happens, it’ll be great. If not, I’m not going to get too upset about it.”
Plans won’t change much for Vela, even if he gets drafted as the Burnaby, BC native will attend the University of New Hampshire, an NCAA Division I school.
“This is a great opportunity for me. I’ve been training hard this summer, both on and off the ice, making sure I’m ready to play at that next level.”
Vela had his best season last year with the Rivermen, scoring 46 points in 50 regular season games. He also represented Canada West at the World Junior ‘A’ Hockey Challenge in Kindersley, Saskatchewan and Canada West in the CJHL Prospects Game in Oakville, Ontario.
“It was an honour to be selected to play for those teams and I owe a lot of it to my teammates and coaches.”
Since the start of last season, Vela had been the top BCHL player on the NHL Central Scouting List, and after talking to a few of them, knows what he has to work on to take his game to the next level.
“I’m a two-way power forward. Coaches want me to shoot the puck more, which I agree with. That was the big thing, they all told me to shoot more.”
The first round of the NHL Draft will be held on Friday while rounds two through seven will take place on Saturday in Sunrise, Florida.
“We have a family barbeque on Saturday. I’ll probably be following a bit to see what happens.”
When asked if he has a preference on which team drafts him, Vela laughed while saying, “No, it doesn’t matter who picks me, just to get drafted will be a dream come true.”
