Jets Add Seven in 2019 NAHL Draft

By Mason Lyttle (@MasonLyttle) | June 4, 2019 | 6:07pm

JANESVILLE, WI — The Jets rounded our their 30-man protected list Tuesday afternoon with seven selections made in the 2019 NAHL Draft. It was the first NAHL Draft conducted together by general manager Joe Dibble, head coach Corey Leivermann, and assistant coach Lennie Childs, who focused on shoring up the organization’s attack with six new forwards.

Click here for the complete 2019 NAHL Draft results.

F A.J. HODGES (Rd 1, 13th overall)

With their first pick of the day, the Jets picked A.J. Hodges, a Littleton, Colorado, native with new status as a junior hockey veteran. Hodges (6-0/170) skated in 54 BCHL games last season with the Wenatchee Wild, a team familiar to long-time NAHL fans as a former league member. In Wenatchee, Hodges tallied 14 goals and added 21 assists for 35 points, finishing eighth in team scoring. Before his BCHL rookie season, the ’01 forward developed with the Colorado Thunderbirds U16 program, and won the 2016-17 T1EHL U16 Championship with his teammates. Hodges was also a high selection in last month’s Phase II USHL Draft, when the Muskegon Lumberjacks spent a 3rd round pick (39th overall) on him. He already carries a commitment to Union College.

F LOGAN ANDERSON (Rd 2, 39th overall)

In the 13th slot of the second round, Janesville bulked up with the selection of Logan Anderson (6-2/175) out of Duluth East High School. A late ’01, Anderson just finished his junior season with the Greyhounds, a program that has also seen alumni Reid Hill and Luke LaMaster advance to Janesville. In 23 games last year, Anderson scored eight goals with 20 points, and continued his flair for playmaking into the playoffs, where he put up 10 assists in the Hounds’ five-game run. His USHL rights are owned by the Des Moines Buccaneers, who selected him 162nd overall in last month’s Phase II Draft.

F RYAN BOTTRILL (Rd 3, 75th overall)

Right-shooting Arizona forward Ryan Bottrill became the Jets’ third pick of the day with a selection originally owned by the Fairbanks Ice Dogs. Bottrill (6-1/181) is a native of Scottsdale and developed in the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes youth program before moving to Colorado to join the Thunderbirds. There, as a teammate of Hodges, Bottrill blossomed. In two seasons of T1EHL play, he logged 57 points and 21 goals across 63 games — only a little shy of a point-per-game player.

F JAKE DUNLAP (Rd 5, 129th overall)

With their first of back-to-back picks closing out the fifth round, the Jets looked eastward with their selection of Jake Dunlap (5-8/170), a late ’01 forward. Dunlap played two seasons at New Hampton School, a prep school about an hour from his hometown of Windham, New Hampshire. In 69 total games for New Hampton, Dunlap scored 20 goals and 29 assists. He committed to UMass Amherst last summer, and he was a 10th round selection from the Fargo Force this May.

F CHARLIE SCHOEN (Rd 5, 130th overall)

Speedy forward and Arizona State commit Charlie Schoen became the fifth Jet selected Tuesday with the final pick of the fifth round. From Andover, Minnesota, a far-north suburb of the Twin Cities, Schoen played four years as a Husky and led his high school teammates as an alternate captain last year. He scored 161 points in 97 total games over his high school career, and drew interest from the USHL’s Lincoln Stars last summer. The Stars picked Schoen in the eighth round of the 2018 Phase II Draft. He earned a call-up after finishing his senior season this spring, and scored his first junior hockey goal in his seventh game.  Perhaps most impressive from Schoen’s young hockey career is a clutch factor: he scored 18 points (6G, 12A) in six playoff games over the last two Minnesota high school postseasons.

F MARCUS JOUGHIN (Rd 7, 169th overall)

Another pair of former teammates were given a chance to reunite in Janesville when the Jets selected ’01 forward Marcus Joughin in the seventh round. The Canadian forward played last season with Jake Dunlap at New Hampton School, scoring 39 points over 35 games in his second season of hockey in the United States. From suburban Windsor, Joughlin (5-10/161) first moved to New England in the 2017-18 season, which he spent developing with the USPHL’s 16U Islanders. Joughlin becomes the third Canadian selected by the Jets in the last four NAHL Drafts, joining elite company in goaltender Cole Brady (20th overall, 2018) and fellow Windsor forward Jakov Novak (8th overall, 2016).

D BLAKE DANGOS (Rd 8, 195th overall)

’02 blueliner Blake Dangos, the Jets’ only defenseman taken today, was selected with their seventh and final pick. Dangos (5-9/159) is from St. Louis, Missouri, and played this season with the NA3HL St. Louis Jr. Blues, a program who six years ago developed former Jets captain and current Northern Michigan Wildcat Adam Roeder. Dangos shoots left and skated to a +25 mark in 40 games this season, while adding 16 points.