Wheat Kings add Slovakian blue-liner Adam Belusko during CHL import draft

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This article was published 04/07/2024 (517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings strengthened themselves on the back end Wednesday morning after they grabbed 18-year-old Slovakian defenceman Adam Belusko with the 41st overall scheduled pick in the Canadian Hockey League’s annual import draft.

The five-foot-11, 195-pound Belusko, who is from Kosice, Slovakia, played for his national U18 team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2022 and 2023 and also skated in this year’s 2024 U18 World Championship.

The left-shooting defenceman had 13 assists in 11 games with Reprezentacia SR U18 this season, and six assists in six games with U20 Kosice.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said he’s a player the club has been monitoring for a while.

“He played a real significant role with Slovakia’s U18 team this summer that lost the bronze medal game, so he played in important situations and important minutes for them,” Murray said. “He has a good history with the national team and that experience can help us.”

Russian defenceman Andrei Maliavan, who is entering his overage season, has been waived by the team after two seasons in Brandon and won’t return.

Murray said Belusko brings an array of skills to the ice.

“He can move the puck up the ice,” Murray said. “I don’t know if anything completely jumps off the page but he does everything pretty well and competes hard. He makes good exits, and we feel with our forward group, that getting pucks out of our end is critical and we feel he is a guy who can get the puck up the ice.”

Murray has spoken to his agent, and the indications are that he wants to come to Canada and take the next step in his career. The teenager was thrilled to hear from Murray on Wednesday.

“Just texting the player himself, he’s real excited and looking forward to coming to a new country,” Murray said.

Belusko joins a blue-line featuring five veterans, 20-year-old Luke Shipley, 19-year-olds Quinn Mantei and Rhett Ravndahl, and 18-year-olds Charlie Elick and Seth Tansem. The signed rookies competing for jobs include 17-year-olds Emerson Clark and Gradey Hope, and 16-year-olds Giorgos Pantelas, Nigel Boehm and Cameron Allard.

Brandon took Czech forward Dominik Petr with the 18th overall pick in last summer’s import draft, and he proved to be an impactful addition. In 67 regular season games in his 18-year-old campaign, he had 17 goals and 28 assists with 16 penalty minutes.

He added a goal and two assists in the playoffs as the Wheat Kings were swept by the eventual league champion Moose Jaw Warriors.

Brandon also had the 101st overall pick on Wednesday, but didn’t use it since Petr is returning.

In recent years, Brandon grabbed a pair of superstars in defenceman Ivan Provorov (first round, 30th overall, 2014) and Jiri Patera (second, 104th, 2018), the first European goalie in team history, and acquired talented players in Rihards Bukarts (first, seventh, 2013), Richard Nejezchleb (first, 35th, 2012) and Alessio Bertaggia (first, 33rd, 2011).

The Wheat Kings have also swung for the fences in the past, drafting players who ultimately turned pro instead and never played a game in Brandon, including Erik Brannstrom (first, 44th, 2018), Martin Kaut (first, 24th, 2017) and Oliver Kylington (first, 60th, 2015).

Wednesday’s draft featured one significant new wrinkle with the reinstatement of Russian and Belarusian players, who were made eligible again for the first time since 2021: They were banned in 2022 due to the invasion of Ukraine.

The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Val-d’Or Foreurs took Russian forward Matvei Gridin with the first overall pick, with the Kamloops Blazers snagging Czech forward Vit Zahejsky with the second selection and the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires grabbing Belarusian forward Ilya Protas with the third pick.

Eighteen players were also National Hockey League picks, with 45 forwards, 30 defencemen and seven goaltenders selected overall from 12 countries.

Czechia led the way with 23 players taken, with a record 15 from Finland, nine from both Slovakia and Russia, seven from Sweden, five from both Switzerland and Germany, four from Latvia, a record two from Kazakhstan, and one each from France, Denmark and Belarus.

Murray will continue to take calls from other general managers around the league during the summer, but the next major event on the docket is training camp. The players sign in on Aug. 29, and take to the ice the next day.

Brandon opens the 2024-25 season at home against the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sept. 20 and ends the regular season in Regina on March 22.

“In July it kind of gives you a little bit of anticipation that the season is not too far away,” he said. “It will be here before we know it.”

ICINGS: Four of the 60 teams passed in the first round, including three who were ahead of the Wheat Kings. The WHL teams who have both imports returning are the Tri-City Americans and the Everett Silvertips. In the second round, 28 teams made another selection … If you’re a fan of alliteration, Brampton, Brandon and Brantford made their selections in a four-pick span two-thirds through the first round … Prince Albert took German defenceman Norwin Panocha 26th overall. They did OK with the lanky young German forward they took second overall in 2012, a youngster named Leon Draisaitl … Saskatoon made the final pick, German forward David Lewandowski, at 11:54 a.m. (CDT), less than two hours after the draft began … More than 2,100 players have been picked since the import draft began in 1992.

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