Wheaties add size in Import Draft
Brandon Sun
Perry Bergson
The Brandon Wheat Kings added two defencemen and a giant goalie in the Canadian Hockey League import draft on Wednesday.
The team took 17-year-old Finnish defenceman Samu Alalauri with the 43rd overall selection, 19-year-old Czech defenceman Adam Hlinsky with the 95th selection and 17-year-old, six-foot-six Czech goalie Filip Ruzicka with the 104th pick.
Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said he was pleased with the draft, which included teams from the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritime Hockey League.
“Obviously some players got knocked off the board as you go,” Murray said. “Probably a lot of the same lists are spread out across the Canadian Hockey League so it’s only natural some those guys get checked off.
“Overall, we’re happy. We addressed some needs personally at different positions. We’re excited to get these guys into camp and see how they fit in.”
Alalauri, who shoots right, is a six-foot-one, 199-pound blue-liner who spent most of last season with the under-20 Lahti Pelicans, where he had two goals, three assists, two penalty minutes and a plus-minus of +9 in 26 regular season games.
The right-shooting defenceman played with Finland’s U17 and U18 national teams on the international stage and at the world championships, getting in another combined 37 games, with two goals and five assists.
“Samu came highly regarded,” Murray said. “He played on their U18 team as an underager for team Finland. We’ve liked what we’ve seen and we’ve had real good reports on him. We don’t know 100 per cent if he’s coming right now or at Christmas or a year from now but he’s a player who we coveted … At the end of the day, we’re happy he’s under our umbrella.”
Hlinsky played in Sweden’s U20 league last season with HV71, contributing five goals, eight assists, 28 penalty minutes and a plus-minus of +17 in 43 games. He also skated in four international games with the Czech U19 team, adding an assist and drawing 25 penalty minutes.
At the U18 world championship in 2023-24, the left-shooting Hlinsky served as captain of the Czech squad: He also played with the national team at the U16 and U17 levels.
“He’s a veteran defenceman who was captain of their U18 team for Team Czech, and he’s played a lot of minutes in the top junior league in Sweden the last two years,” Murray said. “I think he has a real good chance of playing for the Czech world junior team. He has some experience and I think he does everything pretty well. I think he’ll be a nice addition.”
Brandon acquired the pick from the Portland Winterhawks for a 2029 sixth-round WHL pick in 2029. With Ruzicka, you can’t teach big, and the goaltender certainly brings size.
The lanky goaltender played with the U17 Mountfield HK last season, posting a 1.80 goals-against average, .943 save percentage and a 23-15-0 record in 38 appearances. He also saw action in four games with the U17 Czech national team, with a 2.98 save percentage, .882 save percentage and 2-2-0 record.
“The first thing that jumps out is his size,” Murray said. “He moves well in net but he is a little raw. He’s an ‘08 young player who is going to come in and challenge. I think our goaltending situation will be competitive and he adds another piece to it. The fact he is six-six and moves well is a heck of a start for him.”
Ruzicka is just the second goalie Brandon has taken in the draft, following another Czech netminder, Jiri Patera, back in 2018.
While it’s early, the signs are positive all three could be Wheat Kings one day.
Murray spoke to their agents during the draft process, but was hoping to contact all three on Wednesday.
“We had a Zoom with Hlinsky a couple of weeks ago and he was real excited about the possibility of playing in Brandon,” Murray said. “The reports from both agents with Filip and Samu was they were very excited to be chosen by the Wheat Kings.”
The draft began with the Kelowna Rockets grabbing 18-year-old Czech forward Tomas Poletin, who was a teammate of Alalauri.
Teams always go into drafts with a list, but then the age-old quandary of deciding between the best player or positional need inevitably takes over. Murray said his club picked based on what they already have.
“One thing we kind of agreed on was we had quite a bit of forward depth going into this season,” Murray said. “There are some good players, but was there a player who pushed another forward out? We just didn’t think so at the time so it came down to positional needs and I think we agreed as an organization that D and goaltending were areas we wanted to shore up a little bit.”
Murray said the addition of an extra import pick as the CHL went from two to three brought a whole new level of flexibility that he appreciated.
“I think it had its moments,” Murray said. “You have the ability to maybe look a year down the road with one of the picks where there isn’t as much pressure to bring guys in right now. Will we have three Euros in the lineup at once? That’s an option but we haven’t deemed it in concrete yet so we don’t know how it’s all going to play out.
“Just adding that extra pick maybe gave us the ability to look for some real high-end kids. We hope not to draft high in this draft in a year and use this ability to get a head start on a player, especially like Samu.”