WHL Everett Silvertips

Silvertips Add 15 Prospects in WHL Bantam Draft

Published on May 1, 2014 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Everett Silvertips News Release


EVERETT - The Everett Silvertips selected a franchise-record 15 players born in 1999 during the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft Thursday in Calgary, Alberta. After choosing defenseman Jantzen Leslie of Lloydminster, Alberta 15th overall in the first round, the Silvertips selected eight American-born players (also most in team history) including two Snohomish County natives.

Leslie, 15, enjoyed a wildly successful 2013-14 season with the Lloydminster Heat of the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League. Setting the tone as team captain while the Heat went 31-1-1, the 6-foot, 167-pound defender racked up 15 goals and 40 points to go with 63 penalty minutes in 30 games. Leslie helped lead Lloydminster to the Alberta AAA Bantam Championship and the title game of the Western Canadian Bantam AAA Championships, where the Heat fell in double overtime to take the Silver Medal.

"Jantzen is a big, physical defenseman who is good on both sides of the puck," explained Silvertips Head Scout Bil La Forge. "He can play a shutdown role, but he can also work on the powerplay. He's the captain of every team he plays on and we expect that he'll be able to step in right away and have an impact. Much like our defensemen from the '97 group (Kevin Davis and Noah Juulsen), we think he is a big cornerstone to our franchise moving forward."

With no second-round choice this year, Leslie's selection was followed in the third round by Lloydminster Heat teammate Bryce Kindopp coming to Everett with the 49th pick and Manitoba forward Nick Henry at #59. Everett chose nine forwards and six defensemen in all, electing not to draft a goaltender this year. Among the Canadian prospects, four hailed from Alberta, two are from Manitoba and one is from British Columbia.

Forward Brian King of Golden, Colorado was the first American selected by the Silvertips, who then used each of their final seven picks on U.S.-born prospects. In the sixth and seventh rounds, the 'Tips again stayed close to home to take a pair of Snohomish County natives from the Bantam Junior Silvertips. Defenseman Wyatte Wylie of Lake Stevens and forward Brendan Studioso of Mukilteo became the first players ever selected in the WHL Bantam Draft out of the local Everett Youth Hockey program. In addition to the two Washington natives, Everett picked four Minnesota natives and one player each from Arizona and Colorado. A total of five Washington natives were selected in this year's draft.

"There are a lot of good players in the U.S., and we felt we needed to make a real effort to look at the U.S. region," said General Manager Garry Davidson. "Today we made that statement. We're one of five U.S. based teams, so I think it makes perfect sense that we should be aggressive in the U.S. Now we have to get these young men to look at our program, get them signed and get them into our lineup in the next couple years."

Everett Silvertips 2014 WHL Bantam Draft Selections:

Round 1: #15 - Jantzen Leslie, Defenseman (Lloydminster, Alberta)

Round 3: #49 - Bryce Kindopp, Right Wing (Lloydminster, Alberta)

#59 - Nick Henry, Right Wing (Portage la Prairie, Manitoba)

Round 4: #82 - Brian King, Forward (Golden, Colorado)

Round 5: #103 - Ryan Anderson, Left Wing (Edmonton, Alberta)

#105 - Jake Christiansen, Defenseman (West Vancouver, BC)

#107 - Connor Dewar, Center (Gilbert Plains, Manitoba)

Round 6: #125 - Riley Sutter, Right Wing (Calgary, Alberta)

#128 - Wyatte Wylie, Defenseman (Lake Stevens, Washington)

Round 7: #143 - Carson Dimoff, Left Wing (Scottsdale, Arizona)

#147 - Brendan Studioso, Right Wing (Mukilteo, Washington)

Round 8: #169 - Blake Bergquist, Forward (Duluth, Minnesota)

Round 9: #191 - Nate Knoepke, Defenseman (Farmington, Minnesota)

Round 10: #213 - Matt Anderson, Defenseman (Minnesota)

Round 11: #235 - Reid Hill, Defenseman (Duluth, Minnesota)

Click Here to recap our live coverage of the draft via our live blog at EverettSilvertips.com.

For complete pick-by-pick results of each this year's draft from the WHL, Click Here.

Visit everettsilvertips.com throughout the offseason for news and updates on our "Select-a-Seat" event, team appearances, the WHL schedule release and much more. For more information, call the team office at 425-252-5100, "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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