Eastside Elite All-Star Game rosters finalized after rink lobby draft

July 18, 2017July 18, 2017 MiHockey Staff

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.

Eastside Elite founder and All-Star draft “commissioner” Steve Oleksy. (Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey)

And he let these guys pick the teams.

All-Star Game captains and GMs (from left) Vlad Namestnikov, Dylan Larkin, Zach Werenski and Danny DeKeyser (photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey)

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