The Charlottetown Islanders have flexibility when it comes to what it does with the fourth overall pick at Saturday’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft.
“We can easily justify whether it’s a forward or a defenceman,” general manager Jim Hulton said.
He said the team won’t select a goalie with the pick with incumbent Matthew Welsh and his backup Dakota Lund-Cornish both eligible to return and with Nolan Boyd, who won the Nova Scotia league title a year ago, in the system.
With Nikita Alexandrov and Brett Budgell having arrived on the scene in a big way during the second half of the season, it appears the biggest need might be on the back end with captain Pierre-Olivier Joseph likely having one year, at most, left in junior hockey.
Of course, Hulton and his staff won’t say who they will take because they have to wait for three teams to make their selections while also keeping the door open to moving the pick if someone comes forward with a big offer.
But Hulton appeared to be leaning to the back end if all was equal.
“I am a big believer that you don't win anything without elite defencemen and they’re hard to get,” he said. “If it was entirely up to me, I’m probably looking for the next kingpin defenceman, so we’ll wait and see.”
He pointed to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan’s defence with Noah Dobson, Olivier Galipeau, Adam Holwell and Keenan MacIsaac as part of the reason for its success. It is similar to a year ago with Saint John and Charlottetown both having top-end blue-liners.
