Forward Thinking

Bobcats Take Seven Forwards in 2013 Entry Draft

FRISCO, TX – Having lost five of their top six scorers from their 2012-13 division championship campaign, the Bismarck Bobcats went on the offensive in the 2013 NAHL Entry Draft: spending seven of their nine draft picks on forwards Tuesday.

With the departure of Adam Knochenmus, Patrick Moore, Joe Giordano, Bob Kinne and Shane Omdahl, among others, the Bobcats saw 289 of the 508 points registered last season walk out the door when the season wrapped up.

“Scoring was our primary focus for us this year,” explained Bobcats head coach and general manager Layne Sedevie, who oversaw his fourth Entry Draft Tuesday. “We have some big-time pieces to build around like Aaron Nelson, Stanislav Dzakhov and Nate Repensky so we wanted to find the right kind of players to complement the strong core we’ve got returning.”

The final step for teams to build their 2013 protected list to 30 players (plus one NA3HL tender signee), the NAHL Entry Draft was open to all hockey players born in 1993 and later. The Bobcats made nine selections to round out their protected list.

In addition to the seven forwards, the Cats also picked up one goalie and one defenseman.