A look Back at A Year of Carolina Drafts

In December 2023, Draft Carolina was launched with a simple mission. Provide unique and exhaustive coverage to all things draft related in the Carolinas. The region was rich in material with a wealth of professional teams and college programs that would provide the prospects to be drafted into the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS ranks. Other sites tended to focus on a single sport or franchise. Draft Carolina identified the need to devote one location to all the major sports and their drafts.

Shortly after launch, we were out of the gate with our first draft, the MLS held their SuperDraft. Of all the teams we were to cover, the first one, Charlotte FC, was the one of which we knew the least. After a quick study we awaited the picks. Charlotte FC conducted the draft by wheeling and dealing. They traded and bought picks. By the conclusion, they made four picks in the draft’s three rounds. Their first selection was forward Tyger Smalls from Loyala Marymount. Smalls appeared in 15 games and tallied an assist. Defender JahLane Forbes was drafted in the second round out of nearby Wake Forest. He did not suit up for the Royals in 2024, but he and Smalls had their option picked up for 2025 and are being counted upon to improve Charlotte’s first round MLS Cup first round exit. Jacob Babalai, a forward from Portland, and midfielder Nathan Richmond from Clemson, were the final two picks. Neither were signed by the team and spent 2024 on inactive status.

It wasn’t until April before Draft Carolina could dive back into covering a draft. NFL fans gathered in Uptown Charlotte for our inaugural Draft Party. The last thing the festive crowd anticipated hearing at any point that night was Commissioner Roger Goodell saying, “the Panthers are on the clock.” Even though Carolina had the worst record in 2023, they did not have a first round pick due to the previous year’s trade with Chicago to acquire Bryce Young. However, as the party was winding down and there was one selection to be made, the Panthers traded back into the first round and selected South Carolina WR Xavier Leggette. Over the remainder of the draft weekend, the Panthers added seven players total. Of the new rookies, Leggette and fourth round pick, TE Ja’Tavion Sanders from Texas had the greatest impact. Seventh rounder Michael Barrett out of Michigan was traded at the end of training camp to the Seattle Seahawks for veteran CB Mike Jackson. All of the other draftees logged significant playing time, mostly as backups, with the exception of second round RB Jonathon Brooks, also from Texas, who missed the bulk of the 2024 season rehabbing a knee injury suffered in college. He finally debuted after Carolina’s game in Germany but reinjured his knee in that game after only nine carries and two receptions. The injury landed him on Injured Reserve.

In May we stumbled into our most unexpected draft and formed a relationship with one of our best content providers, the Professional Bull Riders Team Series. The newest and fastest growing sports league in America has a team headquartered in Greensboro, the Richard Childress owned Carolina Cowboys. The team already boasted multiple world champion bull riders. At the PBR Draft, General Manager Austin Dillon and Head Coach Jerome Davis added former Youth World Champion rider Ethan Winckler, Murilo Henrique da Silva, and Braden Richardson to a stable that would lead the Cowboys to second places finishes in both the regular season and the championship event in Las Vegas in October. Davis and Winckler would become frequent guests on Draft Carolina podcasts and Q&A articles.

Once again there was a gap of almost a month between drafts but the next two happened within days of each other. The NBA draft was held on June 26-27. The Charlotte Hornets held the sixth pick in the first round. There was ample speculation as to which direction the Hornets might go with that pick. Few mock drafts were able to correctly guess the newest player headed to the Hive. French PF Tidjane Salun is a very raw, but versatile talent. The organization indicated with his selection that the construction of a contender would not be rushed. The front office was determined to get the correct pieces in place for the long haul, not for a quick fix. Salun has been brought along slowly as he adapts to the physical nature and long season of the NBA. He is averaging 19.2 MPG as he tries to improve on his 31.5% shooting percentage. The Hornets other pick was Colorado G KJ Simpson, who fit the mold of looking for success down the road. Simpson has split the season between sparse duty in Charlotte and significant minutes with the club’s Greensboro Swarm of the NBA’s developmental G League.

The books were barely closed on the NBA Draft when the NHL took center stage. One day after the NBA, the NHL gathered at the Sphere in Las Vegas for their draft. The NHL is unique because even hard core fans have little knowledge of the players selected. Less than a dozen crack NHL lineups in their draft year. The overwhelming majority of players never advance beyond college, minor leagues, or dozens of professional leagues overseas. Drafting 17 and 18 year olds from all over the globe is the quintessential crap shoot.

Among the teams most adept at minimizing the uncertainty of the draft is the Carolina Hurricanes. They employ a strategy of moving about the draft board and accumulate extra picks. The philosophy is that with an increased number of prospects, the greater the odds of finding enough players that work out to sustain success. They stuck to this game plan in Las Vegas by trading their first round pick to the Chicago Black Hawks for multiple picks later in the draft. With the second round selection obtained from Chicago, General Manager Eric Tulsky grabbed Czech defenseman Dominik Badinka. Badinka was rated significantly higher than the 34th slot where the Hurricanes found him. All told, Tulsky added 10 prospects to his organization over the draft’s seven rounds.

The final major sport to conduct its draft during Draft Carolina’s rookie year was MLB, which held their draft in conjunction with the All-Star Game in July. The Carolinas were not directly involved since there are no MLB teams in either North or South Carolina. Any players that were drafted and signed could end up playing for any of the of minor league affiliates in the region. The first round did have a Carolina flavor to it. Three of the top 10 picks, Chase Burns (Cincinnati Reds), Nick Kurtz (Oakland Athletics), and Seaver King (Washington Nationals), all hailed from Wake Forest. The trio of Demon Deacons became only the second set to be from the same school and taken in the first 10 picks, joining the 2004 Rice Owls. It was also the third time any school had three players selected in the first round, with the 2015 Vanderbilt Commodores being the third.

Wake Forest didn’t have all of the first round Carolina fun. East Carolina P Trey Yesavage was taken 20th by the Toronto Blue Jays. University of North Carolina OF Vance Honeycutt was taken 22nd overall and joined the deep Baltimore Orioles system. There was even a high school player drafted when the Miami Marlins used the 16th pick on South Carolina OF PJ Morlando from Summerville High School. The MLB Draft continued for two more days and 20 rounds. Dozens of players from the Carolinas found new professional homes over those 20 rounds.

Draft Carolina’s year came full circle on December 20th with the 2025 MLS SuperDraft. Defender Mikah Thomas from Connecticut was Charlotte FC’s first-round selection. They added defender Andrew Johnson from Cornell and forward Barzee Blama from Mercer in round two. It is likely that Thomas will be signed to the Royals’ 30 man main roster. Johnson and Blama will be loaned to developmental leagues or kept with the team by being designated inactive. Management is reportedly very high on Blama and is hopeful he can eventually become an impact player.

Draft Carolina’s first year has been a whirlwind. We have learned about the veritable treasure trove of talented players populating the region. Tremendous stories have been found where we least expected it (Carolina Cowboys), and we made new friends aplenty. We are excited for our next chapter and are intrigued by where this journey will take us. We are grateful for the readers and subscribers that have come along for the ride.

If you have not, please check out our in depth stories and analysis of all of these drafts. You can find them in the Draft Carolina section of draftnation.com. Happy New Year from Draft Carolina!