Plenty of local talent available at Thursday’s WHL Prospects Draft
By DANNY RODE
The Red Deer Rebels will be adding to their talent pool this week.
The WHL holds their U.S. Priority Draft on Wednesday followed by the 2024 Prospects Draft on Thursday.
The Rebels will pick 15th and 37th overall at the two-round American draft. The club also owns the 15th overall selection for the Prospects Draft.
“There’s a strong group in Alberta this year,” noted Rebels Associate GM Shaun Sutter, who leads the team’s scouting department.
One player the Rebels won’t be landing is phenom defenceman Landon Dupont of Calgary, who follows Connor Bedard in receiving exceptional status to play in the league full-time as a 15-year-old. Barring something completely unforeseen, Dupont he will go first overall to the Everett Silvertips.
Dupont played with Rebels rearguard Luke Vlooswyk with the Edge School U18 team this past season, winning the league title. Dupont finished with 19 goals and 43 assists for 62 points in 30 games.
“Landon is a slam dunk first pick,” said Sutter. “He’s the next best thing since Bedard … you can take that to the bank. Then there’s a strong group right behind him with Eli McKamey likely to go second (to Prince Albert).”
McKamey of Cowichan Bay, B.C., is a forward who played with the Shawnigan Lake School U18 Prep program where he collected 23 goals and 25 helpers for 48 points in 28 games.
Brock England of Red Deer, who played for the Edge U15 squad this season, is expected to go high as well. England was named to the Alberta Cup all-star team this month after leading the tournament in scoring with nine points on four goals and five assists.
“I expect him to go early as he had a really strong year,” said Sutter, who indicated the Red Deer U15 AAA Rebels should see several players drafted Thursday.
Forward Easton Nafziger, who also played in the Alberta Cup, Crew Martinson and Tayte Hoiland are all ranked. Defencemen Lucas Graham and Finn Kelly, son of former Rebels forward Diarmuid Kelly, also played in the Alberta Cup and could potentially be on the radar along with rearguard Brock Dingman and goaltender Drake Mooney.
Edge School and the Northern Alberta Xtreme both have a number of top end prospects on the board.
Forwards Mirco Dufour and Matthew Hilderman and defenceman Aden Bouchard and goalie Leif Oaten are a few of the other players who attended the Edge School.
Forwards Blake Chorney, Ben Harvey and Jagger John are out of the Xtreme along with defenceman Aiden Wagner and goalie Cam Hoose.
Sutter, though, isn’t tipping his hand on who the Rebels might be interested in.
“As it stands now, we’ll take the best available player. The only thing is we’ll unlikely take a goalie that high,” he suggested.
“We’re certainly happy with the goaltending depth in the organization. We have a good stable with two good goalies and several younger players we’ve signed, drafted, or listed. But at the same time, we’ve drafted a goalie every year of late. You can never have enough goalies.”
Meantime, the Rebels have had success with their selections in the U.S. Priority Draft.
Jeremiah Roberts and Quentin Bourne were both on the team this season, while Sutter hopes 2023 first round pick – forward Cooper Soller of Los Angeles – will join the team this fall.
The Rebels selected forward Kue-Gene (Ethan) Park, who has family in Red Deer, in last year’s second round.
Soller played 57 games for Shattuck St. Mary’s this season, scoring 37 goals to go with 35 assists. He had five goals and four helpers in five games at the US U15 Nationals. Park played with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres, collecting 43 points in 70 games.
The U.S Priority Draft is tougher, Sutter suggested, in that a lot of available players don’t know much about the WHL.
“They’re unfamiliar with the league, so you have to build a relationship with them and their family. As well the top players are looking at the U.S. Development Program.”
“Teams will swing for the fences taking guys they may never see. We like to take guys who, at a minimum, will come to camp… guys who can come in and be impact players.”
Meantime, the CHL Import Draft is set for July 3 with the Rebels picking 44th.
“We have the ability and the right to pick one player, and I can’t see why we won’t,” said Sutter.
The Rebels do have two imports, the most you have on a CHL roster, in Czech forwards Frantisek Formanek and Samuel Drancak. Formanek will be 20 next season, while Drancak will enter his second season with the team as an 18-year-old.
“We could possibly end up with three Europeans at the beginning of the season,” concluded Sutter.
Here is the list of pick the Rebels own (as of Tuesday) in the first 10 rounds of the 2024 WHL Prospects Draft…
Round | Selection |
1 | 15 |
2 | 37 |
4 | 77 (from Vancouver via Tri-City, acquired in Oct 30/2023 trade for goaltender Kyle Kelsey) |
4 | 84 (from Swift Current via Regina, acquired in Oct 11/2022 trade for defenceman Tanner Brown) |
5 | 98 (from Prince Albert, acquired Oct 4/2023 sending Carter Anderson to Prince Albert for Tayem Gislason and a conditional 2024 5th round pick |
6 | 126 |
8 | 170 |
9 | 192 |
10 | 214 |