McLaren Talks About VHL/VHLM Drafts

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For many young athletes, draft day is simultaneously one of the best and one of the most stressful days of their lives; an agonizing wait and the culmination of years of hard work, officially becoming a professional athlete, all wrapped into one.

For would-be VHLers, they often go through it twice in a matter of days. That will be the case for Addison McLaren this weekend with the VHLM draft going on Sunday and the VHL Draft going on Monday.
"It's a crazy time for sure," McLaren says. "GMs from both leagues are doing their scouting in the week or two leading up to this, it's a lot of phone calls to answer, a lot of interviews. It's a good thing, though. It keeps you busy and it's obviously much better to have a lot of teams interested in you than the alternative."

For a couple of reasons, the VHLM draft probably won't be quite so stressful for McLaren. It's unlikely he'll be waiting long to hear his name called in that one, and it's a home for one season rather than for an entire career. "I don't really know what to expect in the VHLM draft, honestly," says McLaren. "I had some teams reach out to me but not as much as the VHL teams, and with the way the VHLM goes, a lot of the picks are concentrated onto just a few teams every year... so we'll see how it goes. I'll be sad to leave Miami if it turns out that way, but I'm excited for next season."

The VHL draft is another matter. McLaren's ranked 16th in the last published VHCS rankings, a late 1st-early 2nd round grade. He's interviewed with a large majority of VHL teams, and hopes to hear his name called early, but it's far from a sure thing. "I mean... I think anyone would want to be a first-round pick, anyone would want to be picked as high as they can be, right?"

McLaren clarifies, however, that it won't be something he loses too much sleep over. "I can't control where I go. It's not something that's going to bother me. I mean, yeah, watching the draft is going to be stressful until I hear my name called but if it's first round, second round, wherever, it is what it is. I can only put in the work in the pre-draft process, whether it's at practice, in interviews, or whatever... all I can control is putting in the work there to show teams who I am, and I think I've done that. Personally? Take out the GM players and I don't see 10 guys better than me, but... that's just me being confident in my abilities. I'm sure every prospect who's being talked about in my position feels the same. It's a really deep draft with a lot of good players, and there are so many different things for teams to consider and evaluate players on."

Working on his side is McLaren's presence in an active Miami locker room over an improbable Founders Cup run and title. McLaren's also told teams in interviews that he's big on loyalty and would, in an ideal world, like to build a legacy with one team. On the other hand, working against him is that he's a player with no previous VHL ties, something that has in the past been a risk factor for some players.

Over the next two days we will see which teams take that risk, and we will see the fate of the next eight seasons of Addison McLaren's hockey career be determined.