BROOKLIN LACROSSE CLUB SELECTS MINTO CUP CHAMPION FIRST OVERALL IN MSL DRAFT
By Sam Laskaris
Kyle Waters, a player with a winning pedigree, has joined the Brooklin Lacrosse Club. And Waters, a member of the 2019 Minto Cup champion Orangeville Northmen, will be joined by a handful of his former teammates. Brooklin selected Waters first over-all in the Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) Entry Draft which was held Thursday night via a Zoom call.
“Obviously it’s exciting,” said Waters, who also was a member of the back-to-back national Junior B champion Orangeville Northmen, winners of the Founders Cup in 2016 and ’17. “I’m honoured to be selected first over-all.”
Brooklin also scooped up three of Waters’ Minto Cup winning teammates in Thursday’s draft. They were Zack Deaken, Dustyn Pratt and Logan Swanton. Like Pratt, Deaken was also a first rounder as he was drafted fifth over-all. Pratt was the Number 7 pick over-all and the first player chosen in the second round. And Swanton was taken in the fifth round and was the 25th pick over-all.
Brooklin had also selected two players from Orangeville’s 2019 Minto Cup winning squad in last year’s MSL Entry Draft. They were Jon Donville, who was the Number 1 pick over-all, and Ty Thompson, who was drafted fourth over-all.
Shortly after Waters heard his name called on Thursday, Brooklin head coach/general manager Brad MacArthur asked if he would like to perform his first official duty as a member of the organization. That responsibility? Announcing his former teammate Deaken as the Number 5 pick. “I didn’t know until maybe two seconds before,” Waters said. “(Brad) was like did you want to introduce our pick and I said ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ We’ve played together I’d say since we were 12 years old. And we live around the corner from each other so it was really cool.”
Waters led the Northmen in scoring during the 2019 regular season averaging almost five points per outing. He racked up 97 points (42 goals and 55 assists) in 20 games. Waters added 50 points, including 21 goals, in 14 playoff contests.
Donville, who joined Orangeville midway through the season following a trade with the Mimico Mountaineers, was the top Northmen pointgetter in the playoffs with 53 points. Waters is now keen to commence his MSL career. He’s hoping pandemic restrictions will be lifted in Ontario to allow for a 2021 campaign. “Brad has seen me play for the last few years and he knows what I can bring to the table,” he said. “I think I kind of know what I can bring to the table as well. I want to prove myself that I can do it in this league as well.”
Brooklin selected a total of seven players in Thursday’s draft, which consisted of five rounds. Besides the four individuals from the Northmen, the others drafted by Brooklin were Jake Stevens, Devin Pipher and Jonathon McConvey. Like Waters and Deaken, Stevens was also a first-round pick. The former member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Braves’ Junior A side was drafted sixth over-all.
Pipher, an Oshawa native who spent three seasons with the Whitby Warriors’ Junior A squad, was chosen in the third round, 13th over-all. And McConvey, a graduate of the Mimico Mountaineers, was taken in the fourth round, 19th over-all.