Cape Breton Eagles General Manager Sylvain Couturier announced that his franchise will completely bypass its third-round selections at No. 145 and No. 157.
The team has already reached its European roster capacity.
The Eagles filled their three international slots by retaining Adam Klaus and acquiring German tournament partners Maxim Schäfer and Elias Schneider through earlier trades.
"We're not going to be drafting with (Maxim) Schäfer, (Elias) Schneider and Adam Klaus returning," said Couturier.
"We had to trade Maxime Sauthier, a guy who we really liked, because we had no room."
The front office prioritized the existing chemistry between the newly acquired German players who previously competed together at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.
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"They know each other really well and they played together," said Couturier.
"We thought it was a really good fit for us to bring both of them on board.
Schneider had over a point per game in Shawinigan in his first year, so we know he's going to bring offence."
The asset management strategy involved leveraging draft picks from previous deals.
"When the Schäfer deal happened and we knew that Schneider was available, we knew it was going to cost us a good Euro like (Maxime) Sauthier, but the return of a second-round pick was a good return for us and we used that from Val-d'Or to pick (Samuel) Nowlan," said Couturier.
The executive expressed satisfaction with the team's broader recruitment efforts. "For now, most of the announcements that we've made, we're very happy," said Couturier.
