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WHL Brandon Wheat Kings

Wheat Kings Prepare for Bantam Draft

May 1, 2019 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Brandon Wheat Kings News Release


Red Deer, AB. - The Western Hockey League's Annual Bantam Draft is scheduled for this Thursday and barring any last minute wheeling and dealing, the Brandon Wheat Kings will have four of the first 23 selections.

In addition to owning the sixth overall selection in Thursday's draft, the Wheat Kings will select tenth, sixteenth and 23rd.

The Wheat Kings, who chose Abbotsford, B.C.'s Jake Chiasson with the 15th overall pick in last year's bantam draft, will be selecting in the top six for the first time since 2014 when they opted for Stelio Mattheos with the number one pick.

"With four picks in the first 23 selections (Thursday), we will be adding four very good players," says Darren Ritchie, the Wheat Kings' Director of Scouting. "Our staff has worked extremely hard this past winter and we look forward to adding some excellent prospects that will hopefully graduate to the WHL one day."

Since the WHL introduced the bantam draft in 1990, the Wheat Kings have selected a total of nine "top 6" picks.

Besides Mattheos, Brandon has chosen the following players with a top six pick over the years:

2013 Nolan Patrick (4th) and Kale Clague (6th)

2000 Eric Fehr (5th)

1993 Darren Van Oene (2nd)

1992 Wade Redden (2nd) and Just Kurtz (6th)

1991 Colin Cloutier (2nd)

1990 Bobby Brown (4th)

Since choosing Mattheos in 2014, the Wheat Kings have drafted the likes of Caiden Daley (2015), Braden Schneider (2016), Ridly Greig (2017) and Chiasson (2018) in round one.

Among the top picks this year is expected to be Strathclair forward Conor Geekie, who is expected to be a top ten pick. The son of former Wheat King defenceman Craig, Geekie scored 49 goals and 86 points in 31 games for the Yellowhead Bantam AAA Chiefs during the 2018-19 campaign.

Meanwhile Matthew Savoie of the Northern Alberta Xtreme is believed to be the top prospect heading into Thursday, however, he has committed to an NCAA school at this point.

Brandon general manager Grant Armstrong says that the feat of a player going to the NCAA can't be too strong of a factor at the draft table.

"Every first round pick last year eventually signed (in the WHL)," he told Perry Bergson of the Brandon Sun this week. "I would expect the same thing will happen this year. It doesn't matter if kids have committed to schools....I don't think that we should be too concerned about that."

Geekie meanwhile is one of a strong list of Manitobans eligible for this year's draft. Others include Denton Mateychuk of Eastman, Cayden Glover of Brandon and Ethan Buenaventura of Rink Hockey Academy in Winnipeg.

"There are some excellent players from Manitoba available this year and we believe that one or two will get some attention early in the draft," Ritchie went on to say. "Manitoba should be well represented this year."

In addition to their first four selections, the Wheat Kings have one pick in the second, two in the third, three more in the fifth and another in round six. If needed, Brandon also has single picks in the eighth, tenth, eleventh and 12th rounds. The Wheat Kings have two selections in the ninth round.

The Winnipeg Ice, who finished last in the WHL this past season when they were based out of Cranbrook, British Columbia, will have the first overall pick, followed by the Prince George Cougars and Saskatoon Blades.

Players eligible for the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft will be 2004-born players who reside in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The order of the second round and all other rounds will be the inverse order of final 2018-19 WHL regular season standings.

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