[{"id":88549,"date":"2026-05-14T12:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/?p=88549"},"modified":"2026-05-14T12:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:34:38","slug":"watch-whl-draft-interview-with-brayden-jugnauth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/video\/watch-whl-draft-interview-with-brayden-jugnauth","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: WHL Draft Interview with Brayden Jugnauth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Langley, B.C. \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Learn about the Giants\u2019 fourth overall selection in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft, recently turned 15-year-old forward Brayden Jugnauth, was named the U18 player of the year in the BC Elite Hockey League (BCEHL) this past season.<\/p>\n

Jugnauth tallied 58 points (32G-26A) in 34 games playing against much older competition. He added\u00a0nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in just six playoff games, helping the Rockets win back-to-back U18 Championships.<\/p>\n

Rapid Fire:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Q: Who is your favourite NHL player?<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Connor Bedard<\/p>\n

Q: Who is your favourite NHL Team?<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Seattle Kraken<\/p>\n

Q: If you didn\u2019t play hockey, what sport would you play?<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Golf<\/p>\n

Q: Go-to pre-game meal<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Chicken and Rice<\/p>\n

Q: Snack for a long road trip<\/b>
\nA: <\/b>Granola Bar<\/p>\n

Q: Favourite band\/musical artist<\/b>
\nA<\/b>: Not big into music \u2013 whatever the boys are playing in the dressing room<\/p>\n

Q: Favourite TV Show(s)<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Miracle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Langley, B.C. \u2013\u00a0Learn about the Giants\u2019 fourth overall selection in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft, recently turned 15-year-old forward Brayden Jugnauth, was named the U18 player of the year in the BC Elite Hockey League (BCEHL) this past season. Jugnauth tallied 58 points (32G-26A) in 34 games playing against much older competition. He added\u00a0nine goals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":88550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[{"term_id":1851,"name":"Brayden Jugnauth","slug":"brayden-jugnauth","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1851,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"6"},{"term_id":1630,"name":"WHL Draft","slug":"whl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1630,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":22,"filter":"raw","term_order":"228"},{"term_id":333,"name":"vancouver giants","slug":"vancouver-giants","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":334,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1441,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1789"}],"class_list":["post-88549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-brayden-jugnauth","tag-whl-draft","tag-vancouver-giants","category-5","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2026\/05\/14102656\/Screenshot-2026-05-14-at-10.25.42-AM-scaled.png",2560,1428,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2599505","partner_id":"31035","player_id":"47923","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/sd\/2599505.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/ld\/2599505.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/hsd\/2599505.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/fhd\/2599505.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/streaming\/2599505\/2599505.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/webp\/2599505.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":88546,"date":"2026-05-12T12:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/?p=88546"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:41:13","slug":"watch-whl-draft-interview-with-eli-vickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/video\/watch-whl-draft-interview-with-eli-vickers","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: WHL Draft Interview with Eli Vickers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Langley, B.C. \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Learn about the Giants\u2019 third overall selection in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft, 14-year-old local defenceman Eli Vickers, who tallied 62 points for Delta Hockey Academy in the 2025-26 season to lead all d-men in the CSSHL.<\/p>\n

He was named CSSHL Top Defenceman.<\/p>\n

Rapid Fire:\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Q: Who is your favourite NHL player?<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Lane Hutson<\/p>\n

Q: Who is your favourite NHL Team?<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Montreal Canadiens<\/p>\n

Q: If you didn\u2019t play hockey, what sport would you play?<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Ping Pong or Football<\/p>\n

Q: Go-to pre-game meal<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Chicken and Rice<\/p>\n

Q: Snack for a long road trip<\/b>
\nA:\u00a0<\/b>Spitz<\/p>\n

Q: Favourite band\/musical artist<\/b>
\nA<\/b>: Future and Travis Scott<\/p>\n

Q: Favourite TV Show(s)<\/b>
\nA:<\/b> Breaking Bad and Stranger Things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Langley, B.C. \u2013\u00a0Learn about the Giants\u2019 third overall selection in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft, 14-year-old local defenceman Eli Vickers, who tallied 62 points for Delta Hockey Academy in the 2025-26 season to lead all d-men in the CSSHL. He was named CSSHL Top Defenceman. Rapid Fire:\u00a0 Q: Who is your favourite NHL player? A:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":88547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[{"term_id":1852,"name":"Eli Vickers","slug":"eli-vickers","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1852,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"7"},{"term_id":1660,"name":"Interview","slug":"interview","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1660,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":14,"filter":"raw","term_order":"197"},{"term_id":1630,"name":"WHL Draft","slug":"whl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1630,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":22,"filter":"raw","term_order":"228"},{"term_id":333,"name":"vancouver giants","slug":"vancouver-giants","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":334,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1441,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1789"}],"class_list":["post-88546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-eli-vickers","tag-interview","tag-whl-draft","tag-vancouver-giants","video-channels-media-availability","category-5","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2026\/05\/12115835\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-11.58.06-AM.png",2472,1388,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2595309","partner_id":"31035","player_id":"47923","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/sd\/2595309.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/ld\/2595309.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/hsd\/2595309.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/fhd\/2595309.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/streaming\/2595309\/2595309.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/webp\/2595309.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":88542,"date":"2026-05-08T14:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/?p=88542"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:14:34","slug":"watch-dir-of-player-personnel-greg-batters-on-2026-whl-draft-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/video\/watch-dir-of-player-personnel-greg-batters-on-2026-whl-draft-class","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Dir. of Player Personnel Greg Batters On 2026 WHL Draft Class"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giants Director of Player Personnel Greg Batters touches on all seven draft picks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":88544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[{"term_id":1856,"name":"Greg Batters","slug":"greg-batters","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1856,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1"},{"term_id":1857,"name":"Brayden Leinenweber","slug":"brayden-leinenweber","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1857,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"2"},{"term_id":1854,"name":"Donovan Knapp","slug":"donovan-knapp","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1854,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"5"},{"term_id":1851,"name":"Brayden Jugnauth","slug":"brayden-jugnauth","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1851,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"6"},{"term_id":1852,"name":"Eli Vickers","slug":"eli-vickers","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1852,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw","term_order":"7"},{"term_id":1660,"name":"Interview","slug":"interview","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1660,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":14,"filter":"raw","term_order":"197"},{"term_id":1630,"name":"WHL Draft","slug":"whl-draft","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1630,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":22,"filter":"raw","term_order":"228"},{"term_id":333,"name":"vancouver giants","slug":"vancouver-giants","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":334,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1441,"filter":"raw","term_order":"1789"}],"class_list":["post-88542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video","tag-greg-batters","tag-brayden-leinenweber","tag-donovan-knapp","tag-brayden-jugnauth","tag-eli-vickers","tag-interview","tag-whl-draft","tag-vancouver-giants","video-channels-media-availability","category-5","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2026\/05\/08141213\/Screenshot-2026-05-08-at-2.11.27-PM-scaled-e1778274763536.png",2560,1423,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":{"video_id":"2588085","partner_id":"31035","player_id":"47923","width":"16","height":"9","360p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/sd\/2588085.mp4","240p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/ld\/2588085.mp4","480p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/hsd\/2588085.mp4","1080p":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/fhd\/2588085.mp4","hls":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/streaming\/2588085\/2588085.m3u8","webp":"https:\/\/cdn.target-video.com\/live\/partners\/31035\/webp\/2588085.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":88539,"date":"2026-05-07T14:38:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/?p=88539"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T01:53:39","slug":"2026-whl-draft-recap-giants-select-3-forwards-3-defencemen-1-goaltender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/whl-giants\/article\/2026-whl-draft-recap-giants-select-3-forwards-3-defencemen-1-goaltender","title":{"rendered":"Giants Select 3 Forwards, 3 Defencemen & 1 Goaltender During 2026 WHL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ladner, B.C. \u2013 <\/strong>The Vancouver Giants added seven new faces to the organization during the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft on May 6 and 7.<\/i><\/p>\n

The G-Men began with two high-end talents on Day 1, taking defenceman\u00a0Eli Vickers<\/b><\/a><\/span> and then forward Brayden Jugnauth<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>back-to-back at third and fourth overall, respectively.<\/p>\n

On Day 2, the Giants selected two more forwards, two more defencemen and one goaltender.<\/p>\n

“Overall, our group is quite happy,” Giants Director of Player Personnel Greg Batters said. “The staff worked pretty hard over the winter and identified all the players that were available and we were lucky to select these seven young men that are going to be wearing Giants jerseys here in the near future.”<\/p>\n

See below for all seven selections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
RD<\/strong><\/td>\nOVR<\/strong><\/td>\nPLAYER<\/strong><\/td>\nPOS<\/strong><\/td>\nHT<\/strong><\/td>\nWT<\/strong><\/td>\nHOMETOWN<\/strong><\/td>\n2025-26 TEAM<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n3<\/td>\nEli Vickers<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nD<\/td>\n5-9<\/td>\n159<\/td>\nSurrey, B.C.<\/td>\nDelta Hockey Academy U15 Prep<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nBrayden Jugnauth<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nF<\/td>\n5-9<\/td>\n155<\/td>\nKelowna, B.C.<\/td>\nOkanagan Rockets U18 AAA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n26<\/td>\nBrady Leinenweber<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nD<\/td>\n6-1<\/td>\n150<\/td>\nKerrobert, SK<\/td>\nNAX U15 Prep<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n33<\/td>\nDonovan Knapp<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nG<\/td>\n6-4<\/td>\n181<\/td>\nClearwater, MN<\/td>\nDetroit Little Caesars U14 AAA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\n65<\/td>\nSpencer Wilmot<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nF<\/td>\n5-10<\/td>\n163<\/td>\nLittleton, CO<\/td>\nOkanagan HA Colorado U14 AAA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\n74<\/td>\nZachary Pomeroy<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nD<\/td>\n6-1<\/td>\n173<\/td>\nCalgary, AB<\/td>\nEdge School U15 Prep<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\n149<\/td>\nLandon Reschny<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\nF<\/td>\n5-6<\/td>\n142<\/td>\nMacklin, SK<\/td>\nNAX U15 Prep<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Round 1, Pick 3: Eli Vickers, D, Delta Hockey Academy U15 Prep<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Vickers<\/b><\/a><\/span> is a 5-foot-9 defenceman who was named the Top Defenceman in the U15 Prep division of the CSSHL this past season after leading all blueliners with 62 points in 30 games, thanks to 22 goals and 40 assists.<\/p>\n

“I’ve admired his competitiveness and his will to win for the last two years,” Batters said. “The people at Delta speak super highly of him. His coaches love him, to the point where he got called up to the U17s in the championships to play forward with them. He’s that type of kid. He’s a winner; a leader. He’s going to be a fan favourite for sure.”<\/p>\n

The left-shot rearguard finished fifth among all U15 Prep CSSHL skaters in points. Having been part of Delta\u2019s 2025 CSSHL Western Championship team, Vickers had 98 points in 65 career U15 Prep games, second most all-time among defensemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Season<\/strong><\/td>\nTeam<\/strong><\/td>\nLeague<\/strong><\/td>\nGP<\/strong><\/td>\nG<\/strong><\/td>\nA<\/strong><\/td>\nP<\/strong><\/td>\nPIM<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024-25<\/td>\nDelta Hockey Academy U15 Prep<\/td>\nCSSHL<\/td>\n35<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n28<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2025-26<\/td>\nDelta Hockey Academy U15 Prep<\/td>\nCSSHL<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n22<\/td>\n40<\/td>\n62<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Surrey native was ranked as the top defenceman by Elite Prospects in their 2026 WHL Draft rankings.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

“Arguably the best skater in the draft class, he\u2019s extremely fluid, elite off his edges, and explosive across the rink,” EP’s ranking<\/span><\/a> said. “Vickers is also a high-end thinker, scanning, anticipating, and reading plays. He\u2019s a strong playmaker, finding high-value passing lanes, and a highly skilled handler…Vickers projects as a top-pair defenceman. His game is as plug-and-play as they come, too.”<\/p>\n

He was also ranked as the top defenceman<\/span><\/a> by PuckPreps.<\/p>\n

\n

Round 1, Pick 4: Brayden Jugnauth, F, Okanagan Rockets U18 AAA<\/b><\/h3>\n

Jugnauth <\/b><\/span><\/a>is a cerebral centre who was named the U18 player of the year in the BC Elite Hockey League (BCEHL) this past season after producing 58 points (32G-26A) in 34 games.<\/p>\n

He added nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in just six playoff games, helping the Rockets win back-to-back U18 Championships.<\/p>\n

“He’s a bit of an assassin when he has the puck because he can score from anywhere,” Batters said. “He’s an elite passer. His numbers in U18 speak for themselves. He’s just a special player. He’s got significant upside.”<\/p>\n

As a 14-year-old, Jugnauth’s 32 goals led the league and his 58 points were second. Jugnauth and the Rockets captured their second straight Pacific Regional Championship, advancing to the TELUS Cup National Championship where they made the semifinal, in large part thanks to Jugnauth’s 11 points in seven games (6G-5A).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Season<\/strong><\/td>\nTeam<\/strong><\/td>\nLeague<\/strong><\/td>\nGP<\/strong><\/td>\nG<\/strong><\/td>\nA<\/strong><\/td>\nP<\/strong><\/td>\nPIM<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024-25<\/td>\nOkanagan Rockets\u00a0U15 AAA<\/td>\nBCEHL<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n42<\/td>\n24<\/td>\n66<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2025-26<\/td>\nOkanagan Rockets U18 AAA<\/td>\nBCEHL<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n32<\/td>\n26<\/td>\n58<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Kelowna native was ranked 3rd overall<\/strong> by Elite Prospects in their 2026 WHL Draft rankings.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

“Jugnauth is able to control games with his brain,” EP’s ranking<\/span><\/a> said. “It starts away from the puck, as he\u2019s always open, intercepting breakouts and spacing the ice. With possession, he\u2019s a deadly shooter, firing off the catch, off the rush, and from sharp angles. Plus, he\u2019s a skilled playmaker who creates time and space with dishes, particularly in transition. While Jugnauth\u2019s not an explosive skater, his relatively thin frame suggests he has a lot more room to develop. His stock has skyrocketed this season, jumping from 14th on our first ranking to a surefire top-five pick and looking like a future first-line centre.”<\/p>\n

\n

some reeeeeel good highlights from 4th overall pick and future Vancouver Giant Brayden Jugnauth \ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8\ud83c\udf9e\ufe0f\u203c\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/04dy14KSnW<\/a><\/p>\n

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) May 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n