MJHL bantam draft full of intrigue

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This article was published 09/06/2019 (2592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pre-draft deals involving four of the top seven picks added intrigue to proceedings at the Manitoba Junior Hockey League Bantam Draft Sunday morning.

And it was the Waywayseecappo Wolverines who made the boldest move, packaging their fourth-overall choice in the first round with Graeme Patrick, a 2002-born forward, in a deal to acquire the No. 1 overall choice from the Neepawa Natives.

The Wolverines then selected Carberry’s Luke Robson, a forward who had 17 goals and 32 points in 32 games with the Southwest AAA Bantam Cougars in 2018-19.

Wolverines GM and head coach Taylor Harnett and the club’s director of scouting, Troy Hickman, decidied to target Robson about a month ago.

“(Hickman) was really high on the kid and in doing out homework we realized he was the guy we wanted as our first pick,” said Harnett. “Troy was familiar with the family and familiar with the kid. To go that high, he’s obviously gotta have a good skill set and character is big. We kinda felt if we went fourth, we might not get him. So we really pushed to get that first pick.”

“It makes me very proud knowing that a team is willing to trade one of their players to have me as part of their organization,” Robson told the Brandon Sun. “I was very proud and happy that a team would sacrifice so much for me.”

Robson, the son of former Brandon Wheat Kings forward Ryan Robson, was also recently picked in the ninth round, 178th overall, of the WHL Bantam Draft by the Moose Jaw Warriors.

“The obstacle down the road is whether these players are gonna make the jump and the other thing to is there’s a lot of undrafted players that play in the Western Hockey League,” said Harnett. “You’ve gotta take a chance and hope it works out.”

Meanwhile, Virden also brokered a deal to move up in the first round, shipping its seventh overall pick and the rights to forward Riley Zimmerman, who was born in 2002, to the OCN Blizzard for the No. 2 overall pick.

The Oil Caps used the pick to grab forward Carson Buydens, a Gladstone product who played for the Central Plains AAA Bantams last season.

Neepawa proceeded to take centre Nicholas Guberman of the Winnipeg AAA Monarchs at fourth overall while OCN tabbed defenceman Karson King of the Interlake AAA Lightning with the seventh pick.

The Winnipeg Blues, meanwhile, made four selections beginning with first-rounder Kyle Grysiuk, a forward who scored 13 goals and 24 points in 29 games with the RHA Bantam Prep team in 2018-19. Grysiuk went sixth overall.

Grysiuk was seventh-round draft pick of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds last month.

“Grysiuk is someone we liked all year — just a real hard-nosed player, who has some skill and competes on the puck,” said Blues GM Taras McEwen. “He’s really familiar with the RHA program and we’re really excited about getting him at that pick.”

In the second round, Winnipeg went in-house again with forward Evan Friesen, who had seven goals and 16 points in 29 regular-season games with RHA Bantam Prep.

“He was the captain of the RHA bantams last year and obviously a real good leader,” said McEwen. “He’s a hard-working guy, on the ice, off the ice. A good character person.”

McEwen followed that selection with forward Rylan Ringor in the third round. The Winnipegger had seven goals and 16 points in 30 games for the OHL Mavericks of the Ontario East Bantam AAA League. The Blues recently auto-protected Ringor’s twin brother Ryder with one of their two territorial choices.

Winnipeg, having already traded away its fourth- and fifth-round picks, chose goaltender Ethan Buenaventura from RHA Bantam Prep in the sixth and final round. 

The highly touted Buenaventura, a fourth-round selection of the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL Draft, had a 2.48 goals-against average and .925 save percentage in 14 games last season.

 “With those late picks we were looking at someone who has a good opportunity to play in the Western League so I think Ethan is going to be a goalie in the Western Hockey League but maybe we get him for a year at 16 or to help his development (at some point).”

NOTEWORTHY: McEwen said he has started interviewing candidates for the Blues head coaching vacancy and expects to announce his hiring choice by the end of June. 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14