WALKER DEAL STILL PAYING DIVIDENDS
(Courtesy of James Shewaga, Sports Editor – Brnadon Sun) It appears Kelly McCrimmon has done it again.
No, the head coach, GM and owner hasn’t turned the Brandon Wheat Kings into a WHL champion — at least not yet — and his club still hasn’t locked up a playoff spot, as we enter the final weekend of the regular season.
But a masterful move made by McCrimmon two years ago will soon add yet another blue-chip building block to the foundation of a franchise that is starting to turn the corner.
Whether the Wheat Kings make the playoffs or not, Brandon will have a shot at picking first overall in this year’s WHL bantam draft and is guaranteed to pick no worse than fourth overall. In the deal that keeps on giving, the Wheat Kings’ 2012 trade of Brenden Walker to the Saskatoon Blades not only gave Brandon a bevy of draft picks in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but also the option to swap first-round selections with Saskatoon in this year’s bantam draft. Since the Blades are out of the playoff picture and already part of the WHL draft lottery, that swap will result in giving the Wheat Kings either the No.1, No.3 or No.4 pick in the May 1 bantam draft, with a 19 per cent chance of being awarded the first pick overall. (As a side note, the Blades will have to ship the pick they get from the Wheat Kings to the Vancouver Giants to complete another trade).
After selecting highly touted forward Nolan Patrick fourth overall and brilliant blue-liner Kale Clague sixth overall last year, Brandon has a chance to wind up with three top-six picks from the 2013 and 2014 bantam drafts, clearly a franchise-changing position to be in.
For Wade Klippenstein, the Wheat Kings’ new director of scouting, it’s like Christmas come early.
“It’s fortunate when you have the opportunity to double up and have back-to-back drafts where you can pick those kinds of guys, absolutely,” Klippenstein said. “There’s definitely some great players (in this draft class). I don’t know if the depth goes as far as it did last year … but there are some very good players that can be impact guys, for sure.”
It will still be a year or two before McCrimmon’s moves start paying big dividends — with Wheat King fans getting an early Patrick preview this week — but the future is bright, indeed.
The WHL’s annual Bantam Draft Lottery will be held Wednesday afternoon in Calgary.
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition March 14, 2014
