Wheat Kings prepare for draft

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This article was published 09/05/2023 (1123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marty Murray has been a player, a general manager and a head coach in his time with the Brandon Wheat Kings, but another new experience awaits on Thursday.

Murray is ready for his first Western Hockey League draft, one day after the team makes a pair of picks in today’s U.S. Priority Draft. He certainly won’t do it alone, with director of player personnel Chris Moulton and the team’s experienced group of scouts leading the way.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Murray said of the draft, which will focus on players born in 2008. “This will be my first go at it and our guys have put a lot of work into it, led by Chris. Hopefully, we have a good day (today) and Thursday.”

Murray’s hiring as GM was announced on Aug. 29, 2022, so he joined the club well after the May draft. It will be the third draft for Moulton, who came on board on July 2, 2021. Moulton will lead at the draft table, especially since Murray spent the last several months on the bench and didn’t see as many prospects as he might have hoped.

“At the end of the day, you need to trust your scouts and Chris leading the way as far as draft picks,” Murray said. “There’ll be conversations if trades come up and things like that and we’ll work on them as a team.”

Brandon has the fifth and 19th picks in the first round, with the latter from trading veteran forward Jake Chiasson to the Saskatoon Blades on Jan. 10 at the trade deadline. It also has two picks in the fifth and seventh rounds, but doesn’t have selections in the third or sixth rounds because of other trades.

“It’s been an interesting year,” Moulton said. “We have two first-round draft picks. We debate all year about moving players like Jake Chiasson and it culminates. We were having conversations like ‘We really want to win here, but if we’re still in the middle or in the bottom half, what are we going to do?’ Then we moved Jake and he becomes a draft pick and another draft pick. Everything always comes back to the draft.

“It’s not that there is extra pressure, but it’s ‘OK, we traded a heck of a player away, we better make sure we get a good one at 19.’”

At least Moulton was able to focus on just one draft this winter. The 2021 draft was moved from May to December to give scouts a better look at players after much of the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to the pandemic, and the 2022 draft was conducted a few months later in May.

That essentially doubled the workload for WHL scouts, who had to watch two draft classes instead of one.

“I wouldn’t say we worked less but it was definitely just calm,” Moulton said. “It went back to me being me and doing my thing instead of freaking out over the two drafts. It just went back to some normalcy. Not only was I more calm and our staff was more calm, the entire league was like ‘OK, this feels right, it feels normal.’

“We got a better read and were way more thorough with this group just because you have more time to interview players, parents and coaches. We’ve done a lot more of that and been ready for this for a long time. We just had to get through those year-end tournaments.”

The pandemic also had another impact that might be permanent.

The draft, which was moved back a week from its usual spot in the first week of May, will once again be held remotely instead of in a Calgary hotel, which was the previous tradition. That allows the brain trust to set up shop in the team’s boardroom and conduct the draft from there.

You can count Moulton as a big fan of the boardroom draft rather than the larger gathering in Calgary.

“It gives us the ability to talk as a group and not whisper at a table,” Moulton said. “I was never a fan of the big extravaganza and bringing everyone in and wearing suits for a few hours and sweating and whispering.

“I love the fact that we can get our staff engaged, whether in person or online, and we can actually have discussions instead of whispering.

“In Calgary, you were at a table within four feet of another team so you were always wondering who was looking over your shoulder and who was listening.”

Murray was one of many general managers who attended the B.C. and Alberta Cups, which are provincial tournaments featuring the top draft-eligible players. He said there were lots of discussions at those events, including about the draft format.

“I’ve heard mixed feelings about it,” Murray said. “Some of the GMs I talked to thought it was good because you could just walk over to a table and go ‘Hey, are you interested in this and this?’ rather than getting on the phone while you’re on the clock.

“But there’s also being four feet away from your competitor talking about strategy and players. That gets a little nerve-wracking too.”

The Wheat Kings boardroom will play host to Murray, Moulton, head scout Mark Johnston, Craig Anderson of Brandon, Brennen York from Edmonton and likely owner Jared Jacobson.

Most of the scouts — a list that includes Liam Liston, Brian Lundberg, Mark Sauer, Kori Pearson, Brendan Wust, Bill Chow and Mark Penny — will be at home sitting in front of their computers on a Zoom or Microsoft Teams call, so they will be involved in the decision making remotely.

It’s hard to overstate how important their work is to the team’s future.

Moulton said a junior team simply can’t win without drafting well, even if teams like the Winnipeg Ice and Seattle Thunderbirds fortified their groups with plenty of trades this season.

“Always remember the core of their group is drafted players,” Moulton said. “If Winnipeg doesn’t have (Matt) Savoie, (Zach) Benson, (Conor) Geekie, (Carson) Lambos, they’re not good enough. Sure they traded for good players, and if Seattle doesn’t have (Thomas) Milic and some of these other guys, they’re not as good.

“You cannot win in this league by making trades. It’s impossible. For us, everything starts with the draft. I just think it’s important to build from within and grow as a group. This is the most important day, in my opinion, for a junior hockey team.”

In the past year, the Wheat Kings lost a pair of very good scouts in Mark Gasper and Dallas Fidierchuk, but Moulton replaced them with Penny and former Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League president Chow, both of whom he had worked with in the past. The two have been around long enough that they already knew some of Brandon’s other scouts, so it was a seamless transition.

“I have an amazing scouting staff,” Moulton said. “Good people, super fun, smart. When I bring in new guys, they fit in quite easily. Our group is so tight and works so cohesively. I like my guys to be good people first and the hockey is almost secondary. We work as a group anyway.

“I like to go into a rink and my scouts know people and people can come up to them and realize Brandon scouts are great people first and foremost because that’s most important to me because we’re trying to get to send their 16-year-old kids to Brandon so they have to trust us as people first.”

That extends to the team’s general manager. Moulton said he and Murray have become tight over the last nine months.

“He’s just a good person, and it’s really easy to work with good people,” Moulton said. “Obviously he has a good hockey mind and I like to think I do too but you have to be on the same page, you have to be unselfish, you have to be able to work with others. Marty and I get along great and we’ve become good friends. That sure helps a ton because there are stressors all the time with people.

“To have someone who understands the value of relationships, understands the value of family, understands how much I care about kids. I have to have someone who cares as much as I do and Marty does, which is huge.”

Murray sees it the same way.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Murray said. “The thing that gives me the most peace of mind is the people we have. Chris has been involved in countless bantam drafts and been through it all. I’m really comfortable with him and having him with his experience by my side.

“We have a great working relationship and our scouting staff has done a tremendous job this year of identifying players and we feel like we’re good to go.”

» See plenty more pre-draft coverage in Thursday’s edition of The Brandon Sun.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson

 

WHEAT KINGS’ 2023 PICKS 

1. 5 — Their own. 

1. 19 — From Saskatoon for Jake Chiasson. (Jan. 10, 2023) 

2. 27 — Their own. 

4. 71 — Their own. 

5. 93 — Their own. 

5. 96 — From Vancouver for Ty Thorpe. (Aug. 12, 2021) 

7. 137 — Their own. 

7. 142 — From Everett for Jonny Lambos. (July 14, 2021) 

8. 159 — Their own. 

9. 181 — Their own. 

10. 203 — Their own. 

11. 225 — Their own. 

BRANDON’S TRADED PICKS 

3. 49 — Brandon sends Trae Johnson, a third-round pick in 2023 and a fifth-round pick in 2024 to the Kelowna Rockets for Nolan Flamand. (Jan. 10, 2023) 

3. 64 — Brandon sends Tyson Zimmer to Lethbridge for third-round pick and a fifth-round pick in 2024. (Sept. 27, 2022) Brandon sends Lethbridge’s pick plus Teydon Trembecky and other picks to the Victoria Royals for Luke Shipley and Tony Wilson. (Nov. 24, 2022) 

6. 115 — Brandon sends sixth-round pick in 2023 to the Prince Albert Raiders for Eric Pearce. (Oct. 14, 2021) 

BRANDON’S PREVIOUS FIRST-ROUNDERS 

(Number denotes overall pick) 

2022 

12. Joby Baumuller 

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