The SJHL traveled north to Nipawin the weekend of June 1, for the annual SJHL AGM and summer meetings.
Part of the annual summer meetings is the SJHL bantam draft, which saw the Humboldt Broncos pick seven times in six rounds.
“We had a list of the top kids that we wanted and it really focused around skilled forwards with strong skating and then we also wanted to bring in a minimum of two defencemen,” noted Broncos assistant general manager Jason Neville of the Broncos pre-draft goals. “Just puck moving, smart defensemen, and then if we could get a goalie, we didn’t take a goalie last year so we were interested in adding a goalie as well.”
The Broncos were able to accomplish all three goals, adding three forwards, three defensemen and a goalie, which Neville says is a nice mix of not only positional players, but quality players, saying he was surprised that a lot of the players they were able to select were still around when it came time for them to pick.
“We’re very happy with that and I think it really shows the work that our scouting staff puts in across the province. I feel we really knew what we wanted, we had the players identified that we wanted and I was pleasantly surprised on draft day of how many of the quality guys, the top kids that we did get.”
With players in the draft having either just turned 15 or approaching their 15th birthday, none of these players will be eligible to play in the fall.
With that in mind, Neville says despite the club needing to ice a team in the fall, their draft plans never changed.
“Ideally, if one of these guys, or two maximum, can play in two years that’s fantastic but the draft is really a three, four years down the road piece. So to immediately help us with putting a team together for next year, we’ll be doing a lot of things other than the bantam draft.”
The first few rounds of the draft played out as normal for the Broncos, as they held each of their own picks in the first three rounds.
The green and gold used those picks to select forward Karter McNarland in round one, and defensemen Rylan Jockims in round two, and Michael Neumeier in round three.
The fourth round was the lone round of the draft where the Broncos were without a pick, as it was sent to La Ronge in the Derek Patter deal.
The final two rounds of the draft saw the Broncos select twice each time.
With four picks in the final two rounds, typically teams would be afforded the opportunity to take a chance on a player who either could end up in the Western Hockey League, or who has an outside shot at making the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, but Neville says with the quality still available, the Broncos did not need to go down that path.
“We were still picking players that we were projecting maybe we’d get in the third, fourth round… we were trying to pick between those options late. We had a lot tougher decisions I thought than we were going to have just because we felt there were a lot of quality players still there.”
In round five the Broncos used the pick acquired from the Weyburn Red Wings in the Dawson Atamanchuk trade to select forward Logan Olsen, and used their own pick to select another forward in Keagon Little.
The final round of the draft saw the Broncos take two more players, selecting goaltender Brett Mirwald with a pick acquired from La Ronge in the Patter deal, and defenseman Drayton Hvidston with their own selection.
Overall, Neville was pleased with how the draft played out for the club, giving credit to the scouting staff for their efforts all season long.
“They put a lot of time in the rink so days like that is kind of their celebration day and I think we did a fantastic job.”
