Sarnia Sting’s coach and general manager Jacques Beaulieu sees bright future of his former players
Jacques Beaulieu, general manager and head coach of the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) has predicted that his former players, Nail Yakupov and Alex Galchenyuk will do well and have a very bright future ahead of them.
Beaulieu told that they had an indication that Yakupov would get selected first but they were not sure that Galchenyuk would finish so high, though they knew that Montreal Canadiens have an interest in him. He thinks it was positive for the team as he said,
"We had a pretty good indication that Yaky [Yakupov] was going to go No. 1. Gally [Galchenyuk], we didn't know. But we knew that Montreal liked him a lot. It's been hectic for the organization, but also positive."
Both of his players were 1st round picks in the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) draft as Nail Yakupov was selected first overall by Edmonton Oilers and Alex Galchenyuk was selected third overall by Montreal Canadiens. This was also the first
time since 1999 that two players from same team have been selected in top three of NHL draft.
The last time was, when in 1999 two players of same team got selected in the top three of first round were Sedin Brothers. Henrik Sedin (3rd) and Daniel Sedin (2nd), two identical twin brothers from Sweden were selected second and third
in the draft. Both of them used to play for Modo Hockey in Elitserien Hockey League of Sweden and were selected by Vancouver Canucks.
He also said that both of them are very special and they will help their teams win a lot of games in NHL. In his opinion Yakupov is ready to play in NHL, but Galchenyuk needs some time because he missed some matches because of injury. But he still wished
him luck as he said,
"Yakupov is definitely ready to play in the National Hockey League. There's no doubt. The only thing with Alex is he missed an entire season. I don't want to say he's not ready, but his skill level and his skating and hockey sense are at a pro level already".
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