At the beginning of July, a draft of foreign players of Canadian junior hockey leagues (WHL, OHL, QMJHL) was held, in which four Latvians were selected. Petrovic got the highest number – « Tigers » chose him with number 27. Forward Krister Anson, born in 2006, was selected by QMJHL team « Armada » with number 68, another QMJHL team « Islanders » took goalkeeper Axel Ozol, born in 2005, with number 74, and the draft ceremony ended with number 120 – born in 2004 Roger Buckart and the WHL team « Wild ».
Petrovičs spent the previous season in the Finnish U18 championship, accumulating 12 (3+9) points in 35 games, but as a member of the Latvian U18 national team in the elite division, he had a negative efficiency of -7 in five games. The Latvian U18 national team beat Norway 1:0 and entered the quarterfinals, where they lost to Sweden 1:6. Before that, Petrovičs was in HS « Rīga » system and played 14 games in the top league of the Latvian championship and earned two (1+1) points.
The defender Bogdans Hodas, born in 2003, who also went to the WHL from Finland, but from the Finnish U20 league and being a year older, spent the previous two seasons in the ranks of Medisinheta « Tigers ». The Tigers finished eighth among the 12 teams in the Eastern Conference last season with 69 points in 68 games and went 0-4 in the first round of the playoffs. Hodas stood out in 56 games with 35 (11+24) points, 69 penalty minutes and positive utility +14. At one time, from 2016 to 2018, « Tigers » was represented by another Latvian defender Kristiāns Rubīns, who accumulated 51 (10+41) points, 50 penalty minutes and positive efficiency +25 in 109 games in the regular season. He came to the WHL at the tender age of 19.
Resources used:
https://tigershockey.com/article/ti…