Defenceman Kyle Auger was the first local player selected in Saturday's Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection.
The Thunder Bay Kings blue-liner was drafted 39th overall in the second round by the Windsor Spitfires, after scoring 15 goals and adding 33 assists in 48 games this season.
"What an awesome feeling! thanks to everyone who has supported me through life especially my family, also couldn't thank @SpitsHockey enough," Auger tweeted minutes after being selected.
He was the 12th defenceman taken in the draft.
Three rounds later it was Rainy River, Ont.'s Cole Tympkin's turn. The six-foot, 180-pound Tympkin, who had 26 goals and 38 assists in 49 games for the Kings, was taken with the 91st pick by the London Knights.
Kenora's Alex Peterson was the next local player off the board. The Kings blue-liner was grabbed in the ninth round, 171st overall, by the Kitchener Rangers. Peterson had 10 goals and 31 assists in 45 appearances last season.
Kings goaltender Dougie Newhouse went 241st overall to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, while teammate and centre Jake Robinson was selected 14 picks and one round later in the 13th, by the Ottawa 67s. Robinson had 20 goals and 37 assists this past season.
Kapuskasing-born defenceman Maxime Fortier was picked in the 14th round by Mississauga, the 265th player drafted.
Auger becomes the first player from Northwestern Ontario taken as high as the second round since Thunder Bay's Nathan Cull, selected 30th overall in the second round by the Guelph Storm in 2010. Cull's current Lakehead Thunderwolves teammate Justin Sefton was the most recent Thunder Bay first-rounder, going fifth overall to the Sudbury Wolves a year earlier.
Sefton, the fifth-overall pick of the Sudbury Wolves in 2009, was a third-round draft pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2011.
Fort Frances' Joe Basaraba was grabbed in the second round to the Erie Otters 2008. Basaraba was a third-round pick of of the Florida Panthers in 2010 and split this past season between the ECHL and the American Hockey League.
Bradley Belisle, who spent 2014-15 with the Thunder Bay North Stars, was the highest-picked local player taken last year, going in the third round to the Sarnia Sting.
The Sudbury Wolves took RW David Levin from the Don Mills Flyers with the first overall pick.
