Jan 21, 2010 - 03:49 PM

By Brad Kelly

AJAX -- The Ajax-Pickering Rock have some names and faces for their Major Series Lacrosse team.

The league held its expansion draft at the beginning of this week and the league's newest entry, the Rock, plucked 12 players from the other six teams in the league.

"We're quite excited by the players we were able to draft," said Rock GM Paul St. John. "There is some good talent in there."

The Rock selected Jordan Coffey, from Brampton, first overall. Coffey was a late cut of the Buffalo Bandits of the NLL, and is described by St. John as a "terrific kid who has a great attitude and is a hard worker. He's a guy coaches love to have on their team."

Each of the other six teams in the league (Barrie, Brampton, Brooklin, Kitchener, Peterborough and Six Nations), were able to protect 20 players, leaving anywhere from seven to 10 on each team exposed to the Rock for the expansion draft. Once a player was taken, the team losing the player was able to put three players back on their protected list, reducing the number of players available to the Rock for the second round of the draft. The Rock selected two players from each team.

"It's exciting," said St. John of building a roster. "You always wonder what you are going to get in an expansion draft. Out of 12 players, if we have all 12 play, it would be unbelievable. If we were able to get at least half of those guys in a Rock uniform and they can produce for us, we're going to be a little bit more successful than the other teams are going to realize."

The next phase to joining the league comes Sunday, when a couple of more drafts are planned. There will be a dispersal draft of players from the St. Regis tea, which has ceased operations. St. John said that how those players will be drafted and the order in which teams will pick is still undecided. The other draft will be the junior draft of overage players.

St. John also hinted that a blockbuster deal is in the works with the Brooklin Redmen. He expects that trade to be finalized prior to Sunday's drafts.