OHL North Bay Battalion

Battalion Goes Abroad for Kislinger, Kovacs

Published on June 30, 2015 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


NORTH BAY, Ont. - The North Bay Battalion selected German left winger Max Kislinger in the first round of the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft on Tuesday before taking right winger Robin Kovacs from Sweden in the second round.

While Kislinger, who's had a year's experience in Canadian hockey, is eager to join the Ontario Hockey League club, Stan Butler, Battalion director of hockey operations and head coach, acknowledged that Kovacs, something of a flyer pick, will have to be convinced to report.

Kislinger, 17, is a six-foot-two, 200-pound left shot who played last season with the EC Salzburg under-18 team in Austria. In a total of 30 regular-season games, he scored six goals and earned seven assists for 13 points while accumulating 57 penalty minutes.

The Garmisch-Partenkirchen native also played one game with the EC Salzburg under-20 squad and four games with Germany's under-17 team, with which he had one goal and one assist, at the Mac's AAA Hockey Tournament at Calgary.

Kislinger attended Lakefield College School, a private school in Lakefield, Ont., in 2013-14, playing for the top boys' team at the school and for the Peterborough Petes minor midgets, with whom he had 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points in 36 regular-season games before adding two goals and two assists in four games at the OHL Cup.

"He wants to get back here," said Butler. "His goal is to play in the National Hockey League. He's had a taste of Canadian hockey playing minor midget triple-A in Peterborough and, if you watched him that year, in his last half of the year he just got better and better."

Kovacs, a left shot who has skated on both wings, played last season with Stockholm-based AIK of HockeyAllsvenskan, the second-tier Swedish league, scoring 17 goals and adding 11 assists for 28 points in 52 games while drawing 63 penalty minutes. His goals, points and penalty totals led the league's junior-aged players.

He also played nine games with the AIK J20 team of the SuperElit league, scoring five goals and earning five assists for 10 points, and four games with Sweden's under-19 team, registering four goals and two assists for six points.

A Stockholm native of Hungarian descent who turns 19 on Nov. 16, Kovacs was selected by the New York Rangers with the first pick of the third round, 62nd overall, in the NHL Draft at Sunrise, Fla., on Saturday. He was rated No. 8 among European-based skaters by the NHL's central scouting department.

Kovacs played for Sweden in the 2014 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, held in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and in the 2013 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge at Drummondville and Victoriaville, Que., winning gold in a 7-5 decision over Russia.

"If we get him, and that's the key word, it's a home run," Butler said of the six-foot 172-pounder. "I just got off the phone with the Rangers, and he's leaning to go back to Sweden right now, but he's a guy who, if he had said he's coming, we wouldn't have seen. He'd have been a top-10 pick."

Said Butler, recalling a Russian winger selected by the Battalion in 2008: "I had a similar situation in Brampton with Evgeny Grachev, whom the Rangers drafted in the third round. We worked on him all summer and finally got him to report, and he scored 40 goals for us.

"I don't think there's any doubt that, if (Kovacs) comes, he's not a top-six forward, he's a top-three forward."

Butler, who said he's spoken with Kovacs's agent, noted: "You've got to convince him that for his development the best thing is for him to come here. I think it would make him more ready to play in the NHL quicker than staying where he is now."

Said Butler of Kovacs, who has a reputation as an agitator: "He's a pure goal-scorer. I thought he would have gone a lot higher in the NHL draft than he did. Everybody I know loved him."

The 60 CHL clubs from the OHL, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League select players in inverse order of the preceding season's standings, with the leagues rotating selections. The Battalion, which held the 48th and 108th slots in the two-round process conducted via telephone, actually picked 43rd and 71st because teams passed once their two-man import complements were full.

A total of 78 skaters, made up of 50 forwards and 28 defencemen, were taken, as goaltenders are ineligible. Russia ranked first among 14 countries of origin with 21 players selected. The QMJHL's Acadie-Bathurst Titan made Russian left winger Vladimir Kuznetsov the first overall pick.

Swedish right wingers Alex Henriksson and Hampus Olsson, both born in 1995, were the Troops' imports last season.

Check out the North Bay Battalion Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Ontario Hockey League Stories from June 30, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central