The Humboldt Broncos’ busy offseason continued with the 2016 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Bantam Draft on Jun. 2.
Thanks to their a busy season that saw the Broncos make many trades and finish in eleventh place in the league, the Broncos had seven draft picks in the six rounds, which included the second overall pick.
The Broncos used the second overall pick to select Saskatoon’s Alex Morozoff. Morozoff played last season for the Saskatoon Stallions where he scored 26 goals and 26 assists for 52 points. Morozoff was also taken in the seventh round, 149th overall in the Western Hockey League bantam draft in early May by the Red Deer Rebels.
Haugan was pleased to be able to draft Morozoff and said that his character really impressed him.
“We managed to talk to him beforehand…good family and just a good kid all the way around.”
Haugan says that drafting players with good character life Morozoff was an important part of the draft process.
“Character is everything and I think you achieve far greater things when you have men of character.”
The Broncos’ second pick came 14th overall. The used to pick to select Rhein’s Zach McIntyre who played last season for the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League champion Yorkton Xerox Terriers. McIntrye finished the season sixth in the league in scoring with 31 goals, 26 assists for 57 points.
The Broncos had two picks in the third round, their own and one they received in a trade from Kindersley.
The Broncos used their first pick to snag Sask Valley Vipers goalie Carter Woodside. Woodside finished the season with ten wins in 19 games and had a 3.15 goals against average and was drafted by the Kootenay Ice in the sixth round, 111th overall.
The Broncos also drafted goalie Rayce Ramsay in the sixth round, 62nd overall, with their final draft choice. Ramsay had a solid season for the Saskatoon Stallions where he posted a 2.97 goals against average with one shutout.
Haugan says the Broncos did go into the draft with a game plan but admitted that a lot of the time it came down to who they felt was the best player available.
Goaltending was one area they wanted to look to shore up.
“We definitely feel that we have to make sure that we address our goaltending position and as we were looking at last year’s draft and this year’s we like both of those goalies a lot and so we feel very comfortable.”
With the Broncos’ fourth pick the team selected Alex McDougall with their second third round selection 29th overall.
McDougall spent last season playing for the Regina Pat Blues where he registered four goals and 17 assists.
David Wiens was the Broncos’ fifth pick in the draft as they selected him in the fourth round, 37th overall. Wiens spent last season playing for the North East Wolfpack where he registered 20 goals and ten assists for 30 points, while helping to lead the Wolfpack to a surprise run to the conference semi-finals.
Englefeld resident Cael Zimmerman was the Broncos’ penultimate selection as the Broncos drafted Zimmerman in the fifth round, 50th overall.
Zimmerman had a fantastic season last year as he finished third in the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League’s scoring race where he finished with 42 goals and 36 assists for 78 points, while playing for the Humboldt Bantam AA Broncos. Thanks to his great season Zimmerman was taken in the second round, 44th overall by the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL Bantam Draft.
Overall Haugan is really pleased with how the draft played out for the Broncos.
“We were able to acquire the assets that we feel are going to be very beneficial to our hockey club.”
A lot of the credit for their great draft goes to the scouting staff lead by Luke Strueby and Assistant Coach, Brayden Klimosko, says Haugan, who says they did a fantastic job preparing for the draft and were very well organized and very well prepared.
“They were on top of it. We had a real good game plan, there was a few curveballs as always but we were ready, we had the information and we made sound decisions and I think it should pay off for our hockey club down the road.”
