Brandon set for annual talent hunt

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This article was published 19/05/2022 (1385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The upcoming Western Hockey League draft will be Doug Gasper’s last as general manager of the Brandon Wheat Kings, and he’ll have plenty of good players to pick from as he says farewell.

Gasper, along with director of player personnel Chris Moulton and their team of scouts, will pick 12th overall. Brandon has selections in all but the sixth round, with two choices in the fifth round and three in the eighth.

“This is a pretty good draft again this year,” said Gasper, who announced two weeks ago that he is leaving the club at the end of June. “I don’t know if it’s one of the deepest drafts we’ve had in the past years but certainly in the first round, when you’re starting to look at the top 20 to 25 players, there are lots of players to like.

“I don’t know if it’s as top-heavy, in my opinion, as it was last year. I think there’s going to be a bit of a drop-off partway through the round where I thought last year almost all 22 teams were going to be real excited about the guy they got in the first round.”

Brandon has good depth in its organization right now courtesy of the four extra first-round picks it’s enjoyed in the 2019 and 2021 drafts, which came from the Tanner Kaspick and Kale Clague trades.

So does the extra depth give Brandon the opportunity to take chances some teams might not? Gasper sees that two ways.

The first is simply continuing to add top-end assets and sorting things out from there.

“Do you keep the pattern going?” Gasper asked. “Do you keep adding those depth players and do you look to trade some of those younger guys? One thing in this league is being able to trade for younger players is very hard to do. If you’re a team that has a lot of younger players, I think it definitely gives you an advantage to do that.

“In saying that, there are also some restrictions as to who you can trade and who you can’t, based on signed 15- and 16-year-olds are not tradable. There are some roadblocks there.”

The second possibility is taking a flyer on a player who poses some risk. For instance, some scouts had Ridly Greig ranked at the bottom of the first round or even early in the second round in 2017, and the Wheat Kings liked him enough to grab him with the eighth-overall pick.

It proved to be a shrewd gamble.

“Whenever you have an organization with some depth, you can take a calculated risk at times if you feel the value and upside is really worth it. I think Brandon would be in that position in this draft and maybe the next draft or two. If there was a guy who we thought the upside was just too much to pass over but there was some risk to it, we’re in a position we could do that.”

The draft, which was moved back a couple of weeks from its usual spot in early May, will once again be held remotely instead of in a Calgary hotel, which was the previous tradition. Gasper actually likes the opportunity to set up shop in the team’s spacious boardroom and conduct the draft from there.

“If you’ve ever attended a WHL draft, it’s very tight, cramped quarters and difficult to talk to your scouts at the table without other tables knowing what’s going on,” Gasper said. “I like the fact it’s a comfortable environment, we can set up materials a day or two ahead of time, we don’t have to worry about taking it down. We can talk openly about players without fear of anybody overhearing it or catching wind of some different things you’re doing.

“Personally, I like the remote draft myself.”

He said he would be surprised if the league ever goes back to an in-person draft, in part because it’s also a significant cost saving for teams.

Gasper isn’t sure how many of Brandon’s scouts will actually be in the boardroom on draft day, with the annual list of players the Wheat Kings covet already prepared.

In addition, he and Moulton will go over potential trade scenarios.

“In my position as general manager, I want to have those discussions with Chris,” Gasper said. “It’s ‘OK, if we have an opportunity to move down, what players are we looking at? If we have an opportunity to move up, which players are we looking at?’ It’s going through a lot of different scenarios and trying to prepare as much as we can.”

Gasper said it’s difficult to completely prepare a game plan for draft trades, because so many of them are spur-of-the-moment decisions are based on the unexpected availability of a player.

“A lot of those are game-day calls and it’s just wait and see,” Gasper said.

Brandon has enjoyed picking forwards in the first round. The team has had 41 first-round picks since the draft started in 1990, selecting one goalie — Jordan Papirny in 2011 — 12 defencemen and 28 forwards.

Brandon has picked 12th overall twice in its history, trading up to grab defenceman Braden Schneider in 2016 and in 2012 selecting forward Braylon Shmyr, who was traded in his 18-year-old season as the Wheat Kings went on to win the WHL championship.

“There will definitely be good players,” Gasper said of his spot. “And those two names certainly put a lot of pressure on Chris Moulton now, don’t they? We’ll be happy with whoever we get at 12. We were throwing some names around and anytime you’re in a draft, if you’re not excited about your first-round pick, then there are some serious problems.

“You have to be excited about your first-round pick. That’s your future going forward and this is what you build your team on. We can’t go and buy players for a development fee, we can’t trade with teams across the Ontario Hockey League or the Quebec (Major Junior) Hockey League. To survive and be a good team, you have to draft well and develop those players.”

Overall, Gasper said his sense of the draft is that there are lots of forwards and defencemen available but fewer elite goalies.

His approach remains that it’s important to draft the best possible player with every pick because it’s so difficult to accurately pinpoint what the team’s needs will be by the time the draftees are front-line players at 18 or 19.

“I think for the most part, you go into every draft trying to get the best quality of player that you can get,” Gasper said. “You have to remember, these guys won’t play for us for two or three years down the line. If you can project what your team is going to look 100 per cent three years from now, you’re a far better hockey man than me.

“You have to get good quality pieces, and then build your team from the pieces that you have.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson

 

2022 DRAFT ORDER 

1. Medicine Hat 

2. Tri-City 

3. Victoria 

4. Calgary 

5. Swift Current 

6. Regina 

7. Vancouver 

8. Spokane 

9. Prince George 

10. Prince Albert 

11. Lethbridge 

12. Brandon 

13. Saskatoon 

14. Moose Jaw 

15. Seattle (From Kelowna)  

16. Medicine Hat (From Seattle) 

17. Red Deer 

18. Portland 

19. Kamloops 

20. Everett 

21. Vancouver (From Edmonton) 

22. Vancouver (From Winnipeg) 

BRANDON’S 2022 PICKS 

1. 12 — Their own. 

2. 34 — Their own. 

3. 56 — Their own. 

4. 78 — Their own. 

5. 97 — From Regina, for Zach Wytinck (Oct. 9, 2019) 

5. 100 — Their own. 

7. 144 — Their own. 

8. 158 — From Vancouver, for the 174th pick, eighth round in the 2021 draft. 

8. 166 — Their own. 

8. 172 — From Portland, for the 184th and 190th picks in 2019.  

9. 188 — Their own.  

10. 210 — Their own. 

11. 232 — Their own. 

12. 254 — Their own. 

BRANDON’S TRADED PICKS 

6. 124 — Sent to Tri-City for Dom Schmiemann (Oct. 7, 2019) 

BRANDON FIRST ROUNDERS 

(Number denotes overall pick) 

2021 

3. Charlie Elick 

4. Roger McQueen 

22. Caleb Hadland 

2020 

13. Quinn Mantei  

2019 

5. Nate Danielson 

6. Tyson Zimmer 

16. Rylen Roersma 

2018 

15. Jake Chiasson 

2017 

8. Ridly Greig 

2016 

12. Braden Schneider 

2015 

22. Caiden Daley 

2014 

1. Stelio Mattheos 

2013 

4. Nolan Patrick 

6. Kale Clague 

2012 

12. Braylon Shmyr 

2011  

11. Kord Pankewicz 

22. Jordan Papirny 

2010 

None 

2009 

18. Eric Roy 

2008 

13. Klarc Wilson 

2007 

17. Brandon Regier 

2006 

9. Brayden Schenn 

2005 

17. Sanfred King 

2004  

11. Keith Aulie 

2003 

18. Mike Cann 

2002 

15. Codey Burki 

2001  

9. Jeff Topilko 

2000  

5. Eric Fehr 

1999  

13. Tim Konsorada 

1998  

15. Brett Dickie 

1997  

16. Mike Wirll 

1996  

18. Wade Skolney 

1995  

16. Aaron Goldade 

1994  

11. David Darguzas 

13. Josh Woitas 

1993  

2. Darren Van Oene 

1992  

2. Wade Redden 

6. Justin Kurtz 

7. Joel Korenko 

1991  

2. Colin Cloutier 

7. Mike Dubinsky 

1990  

4. Bobby Brown