Ice busy signing draft selections to contracts

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This article was published 04/05/2020 (1989 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s that time of the year in the WHL.

News of player signings are a daily occurrence and the Winnipeg Ice’s management team has been busy. On Monday, the club announced that bantam draft pick Brayden Edwards, a Yale (B.C.) Hockey Academy forward chosen in the sixth round of 2019, had inked a WHL education contract.

Three days earlier, the club signed seventh-round choice Hayden Pakkala, a 6-1, 180-pound forward with the Okotoks Oilers who led the Alberta Minor Midget Hockey League in scoring with 92 points in 35 games.

Earlier in the week, 2020 third-rounder Aiden Oiring of the Alberta AAA Bantam League’s Calgary Royals and 2020 first-round selection Zach Benson of Yale Academy bantam prep team signed. Both are centres who also led their respective leagues in scoring.

Benson’s deal — he’s one of at least 14 first-rounders chosen in the 2020 draft to agree to terms — isn’t that surprising. WHL clubs routinely lay the groundwork to sign their top picks, gauging the interest of all top prospects and their families in playing major-junior hockey.

“When you look back at the first-rounders, there’s a very strong track record of those picks signing,” Ice GM Matt Cockell said Monday. “Speaking for our organization, it’s pretty common in the first days or the first week of the draft we confirm the first couple of picks. So I’d say that’s probably status quo in terms of how that’s typically gone for our organization.”

The deals for 2020 picks has been accelerated because of prospects camps being cancelled due to the pandemic. Most teams usually wait until players have attended their spring prospects camp before brokering a deal.

On Friday, the Ice will host a virtual development camp to give new draft picks a wider introduction to people in the organization. Players will be able to put a face to the names of various staff, personnel and players in the organization and the prospects and their families will also get an intro to the organizational depth chart, how players are developed and what schooling is like after they earn a spot on the WHL roster.

“A lot of them will be teammates for four or five years, so we wanted take the opportunity to make sure we still took the time to build those relationships,” said Cockell. “That will start on Friday with our orientation.”

As of this week, Winnipeg had six members of their 2019 draft class signed, including forwards Matt Savoie (first round), Conor Geekie (first), Edwards (sixth), Pakkala (seventh), defenceman Owen Boucher (eighth) and goaltender Daniel Hauser (sixth). More signings from the 2020 class are expected this week.

The most noticeable exclusion from that list is fourth-round pick Rieger Lorenz, a centre from the Edge School midget prep team. The Calgary product has committed to the University of Denver for the 2022 season and slid into the fourth round of the 2019 draft despite being a first-round talent. On Monday, he was chosen in the first round of the USHL Draft, 14th overall by the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Prospects get credit for one year of scholarship money the moment they sign a WHL deal.

“When you look at player like Hayden Pakkala, who was a top forward in his league and the type of year Edwards had, he has a late birthday and a real good year at Yale, we just decided that those players needed the opportunity to be part of our organization,” said Cockell.

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14