quinte's whelan hopes to hear name called in first round of ohl priority selection in kingston
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lauchlan whelan, a coburg native who played for the quinte red devils, is projected to be a first-round pick in the 2026 ontario hockey league priority selection. he stands by a sheet at his team's home rink at the sport and wellness centre in belleville, ontario, on june 4, 2026. (photo by gare joyce/the kingston whig-standard)
having sat in on dozens of national hockey league scouting department interviews with entry draft prospects, i can assure you the dynamics of the process are unusual and varied. by turns at the nhl combine, 18-year-old prospects who enter the rooms face lines of questioning that run the gamut, going from teasing to curious to skeptical to confrontational and back within a session that wouldn’t run longer than 20 minutes.
though the players who are up for the ontario hockey league’s priority selection are only a couple of years younger than those in the nhl draft, the vibe is a sharp contrast.
the experience of lauchlan whelan, a centre for the quinte red devils, would be representative of the players who’ll be in the stands at slush puppie place friday, hoping — or in the cases of the heralded elites, waiting — to hear their names called by teams.
the consensus ontario 100, a ranking of the top 2010-birthday prospects in the province released by the ohl last week, slotted whelan 12th. the coburg native’s name appears farther down comprehensive lists that include u.s.-born prospects — elite prospects’ list ranked him in at no. 16 and mckeen’s hockey at no. 18. the latter described whelan as “a speedy forward who accelerates very well, creating separation on the rush, and has some slick hands to increase his threat level.”
whelan offers up his own thumbnail breakdown of his game: “i’m super-responsible player who prioritizes team first. i’m a student of the game and i can adapt to any sort of system. i’m coachable.”
the priority selection is but the payoff event, the games played piling up into the thousands and the prospects scouted into the hundreds over the course of the season. the interview process is a further winnowing: frontenacs gm kory cooper said he has sat in on interviews with as many of 30 of the highest-ranked players and estimates that his scouting staff has met with upwards of 100 selection-eligible teens.
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much of the process behind the scenes hasn’t evolved much over the course of time.
“most teams are asking the kind of person i am,” he said after a workout at the belleville sport and wellness centre. “they’d ask me to describe myself as a player. they’d ask what type of challenges i’ve had to face and who i lean on for advice, what advice i’ve been given.”
on occasion a team would offer up an outlier in an interview.
“the most interesting questions was from the erie otters,” whelan said. “they asked me, ‘do you prioritize winning or culture?’ i went with culture because i believe culture builds winning, but it could go either way — if you want to win, that could also build culture.”
erie’s question might be better posed from a team owner to a prospective general manager or job-hunting coach than a young man who’ll turn 16 in august, but then again, the otters have the second overall pick in the draft by virtue of a 18-41-5-4 record, so any degree of help with winning or culture would be appreciated.
whelan admitted that his first interview was the cause of jitters unlike anything he experienced on the ice this season. “i was extremely nervous,” he said. “i didn’t really know how to prepare for it. i wrote down every question they might ask days before — i just didn’t want to screw anything up.”
as he was heading to talk with a 17th team, he acknowledged repetition has made interviews more relaxed if not casual. “i’ve gone through it so many times and prepared so much for each one and now it’s just natural,” he said. “i don’t have to second guess anything because there is no wrong answer at all.”
a significant difference between the nhl and the juniors in the interview process is the presence of parents in the room with the latter. for the pros, they’re doing business with agents, and while agents are involved with virtually all the top kids in ohl, parents are pivotal in the mix. (once in a conversation long ago, brian kilrea, the hockey hall of famer who coached the ottawa 67’s back in the day, summed up his old-school outlook on parental involvement in their kids’ careers: “in all my years, all my best players were orphans.”)
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back when the major-junior ranks were the only show in town, kilrea and kindred spirits could be imperious in their handling prospective draftees — major-junior was the only show in town for elite teens. the chl remains the best development path, but it’s no longer in a monopoly position.
in growing numbers, parents and agents will let some teams know that a player won’t report if they choose to draft him — that’s how it worked out with max domi and his backers forcing the frontenacs to trade him to london even though kingston’s gm at the time, doug gilmour, was an ex-teammate of the player’s father, tie domi. more recently, the frontenacs rolled the dice on drafting caleb malhotra in 2024, knowing it might be a challenge to coax him to report.
lauchlan whelan’s father, jody, has been sending the right messages to progeny and interested teams.
“each experience for lauchlan is going to be what he makes it,” said jody whelan, a durham region police officer. “if he lives far away and he has to learn to be an adult far away from mom and dad, great. he’ll thrive that way. if it’s closer, cool, he can pop home more often. i just think you make of it what you’re going to put into it, and that’s the only message we’re giving to him.”
for all the intel a team might draw out of an interview with a prospect, there’s no way of knowing if the player might decide at age 18 or 19 to cast his lot with a u.s. college and accept a ride to the ncaa ranks like porter martone did this year, eschewing a season with the brampton steelheads.
lauchlan whelan is 16, but enough of a student of the game to understand that there’s no offering guarantees of loyalty and service. “i’m currently committed to whoever drafts me here on the 12th of june,” he said. “i’m never going to turn down any opportunity that will send my academics or my hockey career in a certain way. i’m committed to who i am with in june (at the priority selection) and i’m building my path off that.”
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“i see older guys i know come through (and) like the league. andrew mcneil, my best friend, just won the memorial cup with kitchener, which was really cool for me, something i want to do one day. but there are a lot of great schools out there and to be able to attend one of them at some point would just be as amazing as well.”
frontenacs gm cooper understands that it’s caveat emptor — the player you develop now might head to college in his age-19 season, like centre kieren dervin will this fall at the university of michigan. that’s just the state of the game in 2026.
and parents are in the discussion because cooper and other gms understand that it’s no longer a market dictated by the league. the gms must sell the player and parents on their teams. their job entails identifying the players they want and then winning their confidence.
this evolving human drama will be staged live and in public for the first time since 2000 when the frontenacs drafted justin mccutcheon, a forward from upstate new york, in the first round — in 2001 the ohl conducted the draft on a conference call, and it has remained online until this year. doors open friday at 5:30 p.m. with the first round starting at 7 and the later rounds commencing at 9 a.m. saturday.
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