In many cases, the CHL Import Draft is a crapshoot.
Teams rely on a network of scouts and agents watching players in lands far away. The players themselves sometimes want to come to North America for an opportunity to play where they will get more “views” and acclimate to the game played on this side of the pond.
Other players don’t want to come to North America or they only want to play for specific teams, expecting that they will get more exposure and better opportunities with the “big names”. This isn’t always the case either as sometimes the team and player are just not a good fit or the player becomes homesick.
Red Deer has had some measure of success with the CHL Import Draft, with 82.4% of its draft picks reporting for full-time duty with the team.
Let’s take a look at the two import players currently available to the Rebels, one who was drafted by the team last year and another drafted just a few weeks ago.
Christoffer Sedoff
The Rebels held pick 25 at the 2019 CHL Import Draft and headed to Finland to select Helsinki native Christoffer Sedoff. It was their first selection from Finland since 2008 when they selected Tommi Kivisto.
Sedoff found his fit with the Rebels quickly, scoring his first goal with the team before the end of October. The defenseman found himself playing frequent minutes and being given more responsibility.
“He’s been playing really well, so when you are playing really well, you don’t have so many negative thoughts and that’s what’s really helped his transition. He’s fit into our system. We haven’t built a system around him so he has a lot of confidence. When you have confidence and you feel good about your game, you’re not worrying about things away from the rink as much. When your game’s bad, you’re usually thinking about things away from the rink more than you should be,” Rebels assistant coach Brad Flynn told DUBNetwork in January.
Following the trade of Rebels captain Dawson Barteaux, Sedoff became relied upon even more to eat minutes and play in all situations. He finished the season with five goals and 14 assists.
Central Scouting has Sedoff ranked 63rd among North American skaters and McKeen’s scouting service ranks him 99th overall. He played well enough to be considered a Star Rookie in the Upper Deck release of CHL Hockey Cards. 
Josh Tessler of Smaht Scouting had this to say about Sedoff: “Sedoff is a net-front defenseman, who is quite physical in his own zone. He is not a Kaiden Guhle, but plays the boards well and looks for opportunities to trap attackers.
“From a skating perspective, his acceleration needs some improvement. Similar to Colby Ambrosio of the Tri-City Storm, he tends to use one skate to help glide him forward. So instead of taking one stride with one skate and another stride with the other skate, he takes multiple strides with one skate to help him accelerate. In addition, he has a short stride, which limits his speed and that causes some issues when chasing a loose puck in his zone. Yet, Sedoff has a good first pass and will opt to complete stretch passes when looking for a zone exit. From an offensive perspective, he needs to hone in on his shot. His shot is not consistent and will miss the net quite a bit.”
With an extended off-season, these are items that Sedoff can work on before a return to play and a later than usual NHL Draft, slated for early October.
Tomas Chlubna
Fans in Red Deer and across the WHL landscape will be excited to see another offensive weapon from the Czech Republic grace the ice. Chlubna has spent some time playing in the Czech second league with players many years his senior. He was the highest-scoring U18 player in the league with six goals and 10 assists. Scouts from both Europe and North America see potential in the Jihlava, Czech Republic, native. DUBNetwork reached out to some of them; their reports are as follows.
“Chlubna is very skilled but also well-rounded winger. His speed is very good, but not on that top level.
However, he showed much progress in that area of his game throughout the season. He was more of a pure goalscorer in his early teenage years but changed his style to more of a playmaking power forward. He did this to become a more effective player in offensive zone and in transition. This helped him to make more of an impact against older competition in Czech junior leagues. His goalscoring is still there and flashes of it can be seen in some of his games.” – Dobber Prospects
“Projected to be a late-round selection at the NHL draft in October, Chlubna is a versatile winger with a powerful release and the ability to handle himself physically. He’s not a high-volume offensive threat and can be inconsistent at times, but when he finds his edge, he’s had to contain. His playmaking abilities have come a long way in the past two years – he was often criticized for holding on to the puck too long in order to force a scoring chance when a pass would have been preferable. Chlubna was forced to hone in on his defensive play this season and did a good job of keeping the opposition moving and forcing mistakes. His skating can use some work, but he’s got good enough speed to transition to junior hockey – just not the pro level yet.” – Steven Ellis, Smaht Scouting on Chlubna.
“I would highlight good body, skilled player, responsible in his own zone. But I expected more from him last season. He had a lot of poor games and off-shifts. But there is still a lot of potential in him as he is late ’02 born forward. It is definitely more likely he will play in Red Deer next season than stay in the Czech Republic. But with the virus, you never know. Playing in the CHL could help him, maybe he wasn’t ready to play at the pro level.” – Czech Prospects.
“From what I’ve been told, there’s a good chance Chlubna could end up in Red Deer in 2020-21, but the virus might have other plans,” added Ellis.
Of course, everyone is hoping the COVID-19 virus has run its course by the time October 2nd rolls around so that all the players and staff are able to get into their respective rinks and the fans can join them. When hockey gets underway, the Rebels are in good hands on the import front.
