The New Westminster Salmonbellies will pick first overall after winning the Western Lacrosse Association Draft Lottery.
The virtual draft lottery was held on Jan. 27 at Langley Events Centre.
With no Western Lacrosse Association seasons in either 2020 or 2021, the decision was made to hold the league’s first-ever draft lottery rather than having the teams draft based on their finish in the 2019 season.
“Every year we are excited to add some good young talent. The beauty of this year is we will be adding three years of new talent,” said WLA Commissioner Paul Dal Monte. “Our players and coaches are excited and can’t wait to get back on the floor in 2022 and the WLA Draft Lottery is just the first step along the way.”
The Nanaimo Timbermen will be picking second overall while the Burnaby Lakers are slotted to select third. The Maple Ridge Burrards and Langley Thunder are choosing fourth and fifth overall while the Victoria Shamrocks will pick sixth and the Coquitlam Adanacs have the seventh pick in the opening round.
Another new wrinkle to the 2022 draft is it will be a snake draft over its six rounds, meaning Coquitlam will make consecutive picks at seventh and eighth overall while the Salmonbellies won’t make their second pick until the last pick of round two, 14th overall.
Another announcement from Dal Monte was that the 2022 WLA season will get underway on May 27 with New Westminster travelling to Victoria to face the Shamrocks. The full schedule is set to be released on Feb. 3.
The 2022 Graduating Junior Player Draft, which will be hosted virtually at Langley Events Centre on February 10 at 7 p.m. The draft may be streamed at www.tfsetv.ca.
