Broncos opt to add help up front early in Bantam Draft
The Swift Current Broncos opted to add to their offensive arsenal when they used the 12th overall pick in the 2013 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft to select forward from Tyler Steenbergen and then added another forward in the second round.
The Sylvan Lake native tied for 15th in Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League scoring with 39 goals and 28 assists in 32 games for the Red Deer Rebels White.
“I am really excited,” said Steenbergen moments after being drafted. “All I have heard is great things from their organization. I have heard their fans are really good. I am just excited to get started.”
“He was the guy that we kind of had targeted,” said Broncos Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel, Jamie Porter. “He can skate, he is really skilled, has good vision. We think he has a real high hockey IQ. He was the captain of his bantam team and although his team didn’t have a ton of success, he certainly did.”
“I am a fast player,” Steenbergen replied when asked to describe himself. “I have good vision on the ice. I work my tail off every shift and I work hard in the Dzone.”
Porter said the team had a few offers to move the 12th pick and were seriously considering a trade.
“We had discussed with the team a list of some guys that we would not move it for if they were still available and Tyler was at the top of that list. Once we saw that he was there everything else was off the table for us.”
Steenbergen was watching the draft live online when the Broncos called his name 12th overall.
“When they first said it I was just overwhelmed,” he said. “I didn’t really have any words to describe it.”
His selection was not a total surprise. “I had a little idea that I might go there. I thought I had a chance because in the interview they seemed really interested and I was just happy overall with where I went.”
His bantam team struggled to a 7-20-6 record in the regular season and missed the playoffs. Steenbergen was in on 65 percent of the 103 goals the team scored in league play.
When his bantam season ended he joined the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs for the Alberta Major Midget League playoffs and helped the team win the league title and the Pacific Regional tournament as they went on to win a second straight national title at the Telus Cup.
“It was a great experience,” said the 5’10’’, 160pound forward. “It was awesome winning two championships with them. I didn’t get the chance to go to the Telus Cup but overall it was a great experience.”
“So him getting called up by the midget team was a real bonus for us because it gave me an opportunity to go back and see him play four or five times and see what everybody else had been talking about and just reaffirm in my mind that he was a guy that does what we are interested in and he certainly was,” said Porter. “He is a prototypical Bronco.”
Steenbergen said there is no question that he wants to play in the Western Hockey League.
“Yeah for sure, the WHL is what I have wanted to do since I was a kid. I am excited.”
Steenbergen said he has plenty of work to do heading into his first WHL camp this August.
“I am very excited. I will be working out four or five days a week and I will be getting on the ice pretty much every day. I will just be working my hardest to get to the camp and do well there.”
The Broncos used their second round pick, 34th overall, to select left wing Cole Johnson from Marwayne, AB. The 5’10’’, 186pound forward was 12th in AMBHL scoring with 40 goals and 31 assists in 33 regular season games. He continued to produce in the playoffs with 12 points in eight-postseason games before his team was eliminated by the eventual league and Western Canadian champions in the Regional Finals.
“He is another guy that has some good puck skills. He played on a good bantam program this year that had a lot of success and was a real leader for them,” said Porter.
“I am a power forward. I like to work the puck down low and try and make something happen out there,” Johnson said when asked to describe himself.
In addition to his impressive scoring totals, he also led the league by a wide margin with 174 penalty minutes.
“Obviously his penalty minutes are quite high, but they are legitimate for him. He competes hard and he stands up for his teammates, but at the same time it is not a consistent parade to the penalty box,” said Porter. “He does have some puck skills and he has some finish. He looks like a gritty two-way guy that our fan base is going to be excited to see.”
“I am just really excited to be selected in the draft,” said Johnson. “But even more excited to go to Swift Current. I heard it is a real good town and lots of NHL prospects came out of that town. So yeah I am really happy.”
Johnson hails from a small town of well under a thousand people.
“Yeah I talked to a couple of their scouts before the draft but I didn’t really know I was going to get picked by that team,” said Johnson. “That was a team that I had a great conversation with the guy [Porter]. After the conversation that was the team that I really wanted to go to. I am very excited to be selected by the Swift Current Broncos.”
Porter said that he talked with Johnson a week or so before the draft. Porter said he discussed the size of the market and how knowledgeable and rabid the Broncos’ fan base is.
“He liked the idea that everybody knows what is going on with the team and everybody is involved. He seemed really excited about the opportunity to play in a small town market in the Western Hockey League,” said Porter.
Johnson said he will be working hard to prepare for training camp. “Then I have to work on my hands, my stickhandling skills and then I have to work on my skating skills.”
The Broncos added their first defenseman in the third round when they selected Matthew Parsons from Middle Lake, SK 56th overall. The 6’1’’, 160-pound blueliner registered four goals, 12 assists, and 130 penalty minutes in 22 games with the Humboldt Broncos in the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League this season.
“Matthew is a guy that it is still kind of developing,” said Porter. “He can skate, he can move with the puck, he likes to play an offensive role but at the same time he knows how to defend. I think his game has been continuously improving.”
Humboldt finished with the worst record in the league with a 3-21-3 mark.