The Barrie Colts injected some Finnish flavour to the stable on Wednesday through the Canadian Hockey League's 2024 Import Draft.
The Colts had the No. 15 pick in the first round, and the No. 75 selection in the second round of the annual draft, which allows every CHL member club to select players from outside of North America.
With their first pick, Barrie chose Finnish right-winger Emil Hemming, who played last season for TPS Turku. A native of Vaasa, Hemming is listed at about six-foot-one and 205 pounds.
Hemming was recently selected in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft by the Dallas Stars, with the 29th overall pick.
With TPS Turku's under-20 team last season, Hemming had five goals and five assists for 10 points in 11 playoff games. He also had 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points in 13 regular-season games, as well as seven goals and four assists for 11 games in 40 games with TPS Turku in Liiga, which is the country's top professional league.
Hemming, who just turned 18 on June 27, also picked up a pair of assists while playing for Finland at the 2024 IIHF world junior tournament. Finland finished in fourth place.
With their second pick, Barrie selected Finnish goaltender Patrik Kerkola, who stands six feet tall and weighs 163 pounds. The 17-year-old played for the KalPa Kuopio U20 team this past season. Kuopio is a city of about 125,000 people in central Finland.
Whether either Hemming or Kerkola ends up dressing for the Barrie Colts remains to be seen.
Each CHL team can dress a maximum of two import players each season who are selected annually through the Import Draft.
Other notable players to come to Barrie through the CHL Import Draft include Russian forward Andrei Svechnikov, who now plays for the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes after being drafted second overall in 2018.
In one season with the Colts, the 2017-18 OHL campaign, Svechnikov had 40 goals and 32 assists in just 44 games. He also added 11 points (5G, 6A) in eight playoff games that year.
Other European players who have been picked in the CHL Import Draft and ended up playing in Barrie include Endo Meier (2022), Eduard Sale (2022), Artur Cholach and Oskar Olausson (2021), Arturs Silovs (2019), and Matej Pekar (2018).
Some other high-profile players who made their way to North America through the CHL Import Draft are Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl (Prince Albert Raiders), Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies), New Jersey's Nico Hischier (Halifax Mooseheads), Boston's Nikita Zadorov (London Knights), and Winnipeg's Nikolaj Ehlers (Halifax Mooseheads).
Since the first CHL Import Draft was held in 1992, more than 2,090 players from outside of Canada and the United States have been selected at this annual event.
