In an unprecedented weekend for Bracebridge hockey, four young men from the area were picked up in the 2008 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection.

Drafted on Saturday were Branden Eden (3rd round, 56th overall) to the Brampton Battalion, Keevin Cutting (4th round, 64th overall) to the Owen Sound Attack, and Daniel Clairmont (8th round, 158th overall) and David Lazarus (11th round, 211th overall), both to the Saginaw Spirit.

All of the boys are 15 years old, and played for the North Central Ontario Predators midget team out of Rama last year.

Not only do the boys call Bracebridge home, they live practically within shouting distance of one another. Two live with their parents on Golden Beach Road, while the other two live just around the corner on George Road.

“The joke around here is it must be something in the water,” said Keevin Cutting’s father Lawrence on Monday.

The draft was shown over the Internet, with a new pick posted every few minutes beginning at 9 a.m. At the Cutting household, about 10 friends and relatives anxiously crowded around the screen to see where, and if, the six-foot, 165-pound defenceman would go.

“It was a great experience . . . really exciting,” said Lawrence. “We just wanted to be there to share in his joy, or to support him if it went the other way.”

Lawrence said the four local players drafted are likely the most ever to go at once, and a testament to the minor hockey system in Bracebridge, where three of the boys played until moving on to “AAA” with the Predators.

Daniel Clairmont was also quick to credit Bracebridge hockey, as well as the Predators club.

“They’re both great organizations and they’ve helped me a lot,” he said.

Clairmont said the boys got a few pats on the back on Monday at Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, where all are Grade 10 students.

In addition to their usual regimen of kayaking and road hockey, Clairmont said the boys are embarking on training programs in hopes of making their OHL squads next year.

“We’ll receive packages from our teams later this week, then we’ve got to get ready for the camps,” he said.

Many rookie players don’t crack the OHL roster the first year and Clairmont said if he fails to make it, he may play for the farm team in Windsor next year, or possibly with Seguin, Couchiching or Huntsville. If he does make the team, Clairmont said he’s ready for the cross-border move to Saginaw, Michigan.

“It’ll be different but I’ll adjust. My family’s been really supportive,” he said. “This is my dream, and if I try hard enough and do my best, I think I can make it.”

Like Clairmont, Branden Eden is hoping the OHL is a stepping-stone to the ultimate dream of playing in the NHL.

Many, including Predators coach Adam Lewis, had tapped Eden to go in the first round of the draft and were surprised to hear he had not been selected until the third.

“I thought that I was going to Belleville (Bulls) with the 19th pick but it didn’t work out,” Eden said. “Now I’ve got to go to camp and prove that I should have been taken earlier.”

While some OHL teams have just one training camp, Eden said Brampton has a mini-camp at the end of May for rookies and those who didn’t make the squad last year.

“It’s going to be really competitive,” said Eden. “I think I have a good shot at it if I work out hard . . . but nothing is ever given to you, I learned that this weekend.”

Coach Lewis said he thinks Eden will make the big team in Brampton this year.

“He’s a character kid and a great player,” said Lewis. “He should have been taken in the late first or early second rounds . . . but it doesn’t matter where you get drafted. There are plenty of great players who come out of the 13th or 15th rounds, or who don’t get drafted at all. You’re still the same player the day before and the day after the draft.”

Lewis said Cutting also likely would have went much higher, had it not been for the fact that he didn’t play a single game this season until January.

“He suffered a badly broken leg last summer . . . a broken tibia, fibula, and six screws in his leg. Without question, if he hadn’t suffered that injury he would have gone much higher,” he said. “The good news is he’s 100 per cent healed. I expect him to be playing in the OHL next year also.”

Lewis said Clairmont is a hard-working, down-low player whose numbers this year didn’t reflect his true skill.

The six-foot, 185-pound Lazarus is actually from Sudbury and moved to Bracebridge last year, and Lewis said he may be a dark horse.

“He’s probably the most skilled, and the best pure skater of the bunch,” said Lewis. “He doesn’t have the consistency right now but his potential is unlimited.”

Lewis said all six players who were drafted from the Predators have put in years of hard work to get where they are. Although this year was Lewis’s last behind the bench in Rama, he intends to follow the Bracebridge boys’ progress through the camps, into the OHL and toward their dreams.