While one of their new import players is expected to contribute this season, the other should help the Vancouver Giants down the road.
The Giants selected 1999-born Slovak forward Milos Roman with the sixth overall pick in the 2017 Canadian Hockey League import draft.
The team used their second selection, 66th overall, to pick 2000-born German forward Yannik Valenti.
“Milos is your prototypical playmaking centre,” said Giants general manager Glen Hanlon.
“When you build teams, you want strength down the middle, and we’re excited that Milos will help us in that regard next season.”
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“Yannik will be a high-end player for us in the 2018/19 season. With our confidence in our current roster, we felt that we could select a player for the future to help us down the line, and we look forward to having Yannik join us at a later date,” Hanlon added.
Roman spent the 2016/17 season with HC Frydek-Mistek in the second tier of professional hockey in the Czech Republic.
The 17-year-old centre tallied four goals and two assists in 29 regular season games.
Roman, who is listed at six-feet and 194 pounds, has represented his country at multiple tournaments. He scored a goal and an assist in four games for Slovakia at the 2017 world junior championships where he played alongside former Giant Radovan Bondra.
He also had two points in five games at the 2017 under-18 world championships and amassed five points in four games at the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
Roman was selected by HC Slovan Bratislava in the third round of the 2016 KHL draft and is not eligible for the NHL draft until 2018.
Valenti played for Jungadler Mannheim U-19 in the German Junior League (DNL) in 2016/17, scoring 20 goals and 23 assists in 40 games to help his team to the championship.
The 16-year-old also represented Germany at the 2017 Under-18 world championships Division I – Group A, appearing in three games. Valenti is listed at five-foot-10 and 156 pounds, and isn’t eligible for the NHL draft until 2019.
The team also added 2000-born goaltender Todd Scott, signing him to a WHL standard player agreement.
He was a 10th round pick of the Giants in the 2015 bantam draft.
The Albertville, Minn. native split his time last season between the Coulee Region Chill of the North Amercian Hockey League and the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League. He had a 3.56 goals against average and .904 save percentage in 15 games with the Chill and had a 2.51 GAA and .903 save percentage with the Musketeers.
