Battalion draft North Bay's Brady Lyle in first round

The North Bay Battalion have selected a North Bay-born blueliner.

With their first pick in the OHL Priority Selection, 18th overall, they drafted Brady Lyle.

The 6′, 176 lb defenceman played 55 games for Shattuck St. Mary‘s scoring 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points.

Battalion Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Stan Butler says they chose Lyle because he was the best player available.

As for a comparable current Troop….

Lyle tweeted that words can’t describe the feeling of being drafted by the Battalion.

He was watching the draft on his computer from his dorm room in Minnesota, while on FaceTiming with his parents.

Lyle says he’s looking forward to playing in front of the large hometown crowd and “get a lot of the energy from the fans and get the team going.”

He says he looks to emulate the play of a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings defenceman.

Meantime, the Battalion didn’t have a draft pick in the second round.

In the third round, 57th overall, they selected 6’3”, 181 pound winger Jacob Ball (pictured right) from the Peterborough Minor Midgets.

Ball played 36 games last season, collecting 19 goals and 26 assists for 45 points.

Assistant GM Matt Rabideau says they had their eye on the forward for quite some time.

He says Ball is a big right winger with a heavy left shot.

Rabideau says he should be a good fit here in North Bay.

In the fourth round, the Troops selected Hanmer’s Bradley Chenier (pictured left) from the Sudbury minor midget Wolves.

The left winger played 42 games, scoring 18 goals and 19 assists.

He also played for the NOHA at the OHL Cup.

The fifth round saw the Battalion select 6’3”, 185 pound Centre Kyle Potts from Oakville.

Also of note, the Sudbury Wolves selected North York Rangers centre Ben Garagan, who’s from North Bay, in the 5th round. He scored 26 goals and 18 assists for his southern Ontario team last season.

(Story will be updated)