By @MichaelCaples –

MT. CLEMENS – There was tension. There was drama. There was backstabbing.

OK so there wasn’t.

It was rather ridiculous, actually.

One would expect a little more professionalism on a day that held such a great deal of importance for the 2017 Eastside Elite Hockey League All-Star Challenge hopefuls.

But this guy was in charge, so, what more could you expect.

And he let these guys pick the teams.

Here are the results. We have video footage from the draft and deep, insightful interviews immediately after the conclusion of the event with two of the Team Captains. We also checked in with the first overall pick and the last overall pick to gauge their reactions, feelings, interest level in the event itself, etc.

By the way, the 2017 Eastside Elite Hockey League All-Star Challenge will take place on July 27 at the Mount Clemens Ice Arena. Tickets are $15, and fans in attendance will see two semifinal contests, a championship game, and an all-star game for the women’s division of the Eastside Elite Hockey League, as well.

It is important to note that these picks are in order of selection, which means Oleksy was taken in the seventh round of his own all-star game (more on that later).



Team DeKeyser

Shawn Szydlowski

Austin Czarnik

Austin Grzenia

Charles Williams (goaltender)

Mackenzie MacEachern

Garret Ross

Steve Oleksy

Reed Seckel

Jack Kopacka (sub)

Team Larkin

Alex DeBrincat

Tyler Spezia

Paul Cotter

Ryan Larkin (goaltender)

Nolan Valleau

Josh Jacobs

Zack Szajner

Andrew DeBrincat

Corey Tropp (sub)

Team Werenski

Alex Kile

Taylor Fernandez

Christian Sabin

Cam Johnson (goaltender)

Colin Larkin (yeah, Dylan’s brother)

Wyatt Bongiovanni

Shane Bednard

John Gruden

Bobby Shea (sub)

Team Namestnikov

Seth Griffith

Max Milosek (goaltender)

Nick Schilkey

Matt Taormina

Drake Rymsha

Thomas Ebbing

Matt DeBlouw

Dan Milan

Matt Williams (sub)

Some highlights (and stay tuned for some HBO 24/7 quality videos):