D-men a rich crop in WHL’s draft pool

It’s that time of the year again.

Coinciding once again with the annual Dogs Breakfast is the annual Western Hockey League Bantam Draft on the very same day.

This year’s WHL Bantam Draft will be held in Red Deer, Alta., where somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10-12 Saskatoon Minor Hockey League players, who were born in 2003, will likely get their name called.

It’s a strong crop of 2003 defencemen from Saskatoon and Saskatchewan available for this year’s draft.

The Western Elite Hockey Prospects newsletter has 10 SMHA players ranked among its Top 200. They include Logan Bairos (No. 35 overall), Karter Prosofsky (51), Matt Hodson (64), Adam McNutt (71), Jacob Hoffrogge (72), Liam Bell (73), Brett Mirwald (79), Karter McNarland (115), Alex Bernauer (137) and Hunter Larocque (188).

Bairos, Prosofsky, McNutt, Hoffrogge, Bell and Larocque are all defencemen. Hodson, McNarland and Bernauer are forwards. Mirwald is a netminder.

Goalie Will Zerebecki is the only other Saskatoon player cracking the WEHP’s top 250 for Western Canada.

The Draft Geek has Saskatoon’s Prosofsky (Pacific Coast Hockey Academy) rated No. 19th in its WHL Draft rankings and a potential first rounder.

Sully ’s WHL Bantam Draft rankings, from the Dub Network, does not project any Saskatoon players being taken in the first round.

Top Shelf Hockey Prospects has Prosofsky ranked No. 3 in the province behind Regina’s Cole Sillinger and Davidson’s Nolan Allan (Humboldt Broncos). Also making the Top Shelf top 50 are Bernauer (6), Bairos (9), Mirwald (16), Hodson (17), McNutt (20), Bell (22), Hoffrogge (23), McNarland (27) and Larocque (42).

Warman’s Keenan Allan, who played at the Rink Hockey Academy this past season, is ranked No. 58 in Western Canada by WEHP. Top Prospects has Allan at No. 11 overall among Saskatchewan prospects.

Last year, 10 SMHA players were picked in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft. That included one goalie (Ethan Hein), four defencemen (Tom Cadieux, Graham Skinner, Kaeden Watkins, Logan Holm) and five forwards (Cohner Saleski, James Form, Boston Maxwell, Alec Saretzky and Josh Paulhus).

There were also 10 Saskatoon players chosen in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft among the 42 Saskatchewan players picked.

Greater Saskatoon Hockey League selections that year included Cole Beamin, Connor Zary, Jack Michell, Adam Beckman, Cole Nagy, Alex Morozoff, Kade Olsen, Riley Little, Logan Rawlyk and Jagger Prosofsky.

Saskatoon peaked back in 2007 with 16 SMHA players chosen in the WHL Bantam Draft. Another good crop was in 2010 when 15 players from the Saskatoon ranks were picked.

Saskatoon Blades general manager Colin Priestner sees a deep talent pool of D -men in the province.

“It’s not a great year up front, with high-end players from Saskatchewan, but it is a really good D year,” Priestner said. “There are five or six defencemen who are all really strong WHL prospects. I was just in B.C. for the BC Cup and those (Sask.) guys would have stood out there. It’s a good sign that we’re developing really good defencemen.”

Priestner says the lack of a SaskFirst selection camp in April may affect rankings.

“I’m a little concerned for some of these Sask. kids because I don’t know if they had the amount of views from some teams that they would need to be picked in that first or second round,” said Priestner.

“We’re very comfortable without the SaskFirst but there will be teams who haven’t seen them enough and the Sask. kids may take a tumble in the rankings because of that.”