2024 NHL Draft player profile: Andrew Basha, Medicine Hat Tigers

Andrew Basha is a player who has had to fight for every inch of ice he’s given.

So now that the Medicine Hat Tigers forward is considered a top prospect ahead of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, he’s soaking in every moment leading up to the big weekend in Las Vegas, Nev.

“I say it’s the coolest thing in the world, getting to talk to NHL teams,” Basha told FlamesTV at the NHL Combine in Buffalo, N.Y. “You can look at it being a lot and very nerve-wracking or  you can kind of turn that into excitement- and that’s what I tried to do.”

The 6-foot, 185-pound winger tends to live up to his name- a brassy power forward who can make things happen quickly when he smells blood in the water.

He’s coming off a statement season that saw him bury a career-high 30 goals and 55 assists for 85 points in 63 games.

Not bad for a guy who the Tigers took a flyer on in the fifth round of the 2020 WHL Prospects Draft.

“We projected him as a guy that may or may not play, but if he played he’d be a skilled player,” Tigers General Manager and Head Coach Willie Desjardins explained. “He’s certainly lived up to that. His first year we let him go at 16 and we brought him back at Christmas time. He’s a guy that certainly motivated. He’s put in his time as well and certainly has a steep trajectory from where he was last year to where he is now.”

Desjardins attributes a lot of the growth Basha has experienced to the work he puts in during the offseason, where he trains with other draft-eligible standouts like Calgary Hitmen defenceman Carter Yakemchuk.

Basha, a Calgary, Alta. native who wears number 34 as a tribute to one of his favourite players, Flames legend Miikka Kiprusoff, has helped build the Tigers up from one of the worst teams in the WHL’s Central Division to one of the best, along with bonafide stars like potential top-10 pick Cayden Lindstrom and CHL Rookie of the Year Gavin McKenna.

Basha started the season on a line with Lindstrom before Desjardins split them up ahead of the New Year and was called upon to take a larger role with the team when Lindstrom went down with an injury- another opportunity he gladly pounced on with more and more scouts filling the stands at Tigers games.

“It was important for me to show everyone that, you know, I don’t need elite players to play with and I can drive my own line and maybe use it as an opportunity,” Basha added. “Anytime you share the ice with other good players you know you’re going to get some looks.

You’re always fortunate to play on a really good team with some special players. But at the end of the day, I think the scouts are coming out to watch me as well and see what I could do out there.”

Basha’s efforts have seen him climb to 26th among North American Skaters heading into the draft, as projected by NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings and be named to the WHL Central Division Second All-Star Team.

Whichever NHL team ends up calling his name on the weekend of June 28, Desjardins is confident the upstart youngster will continue to bring his dogged mentality to real life and the ice.

“He’s ready all the time,” Desjardins said. “Every shift he wants something to happen. He doesn’t take shifts off.”