Wheat Kings trade down, grab forward

The Brandon Wheat Kings traded down and then selected forward Rylan Edwards of Regina 18th overall during the first day of the Western Hockey League draft on Wednesday.

The rest of the draft begins this morning at 11 o’clock. Brandon Wheat Kings director of hockey operations Chris Moulton said the team added a special player.

“He’s skilled, tenacious, incredible vision, dog on a bone, great stick, great forechecker,” Moulton said. “He is not the biggest guy now but he is about five-eight and brother and dad are five-10, five-11. He’ll be big enough to play. He is a workaholic who works and works and works and a committed athlete. He’s a perfect fit for us.”

It was also apparently a good fit in the Edwards household.

“My whole family was just on the living room couch,” Edwards said. “We weren’t really expecting it. We saw it pop up on the draft and my parents jumped up and we were all super excited. I was so excited. I was pumped.”

In 28 games with the NAX under-15 prep squad, the five-foot-six, 145-pound forward had 17 goals and 26 assists, with 10 penalty minutes. The right-handed shot then added eight points in four playoff games.

A year ago, Brandon drafted NAX defenceman Cruz Jim in the first round, and NAX forward Ahmad Fayad in the second round.

Edwards is set to join the Regina Pat Canadians next season.

“Just knowing those kids, we coveted a lot of them,” Moulton said. “Between him playing at NAX and being from Regina and playing with the Pat Cs, it was just a fit we couldn’t look past.”

Edwards is a younger than Wheat Kings defensive prospect Ethan Young of Regina, but has played with and against him in the past. The young forward said he tries to play hard all over the ice.

“I think I’m a highly offensive player who plays a 200-foot game with lots of speed, lots of pace,” Edwards said. “I want to create all over the ice, setting up teammates for good plays and scoring goals.”

The Wheat Kings sent a fifth-round pick, 102nd overall and moved down three spots from 15 to 18 in the first round to acquire the 67th overall pick in the third round. Brandon didn’t have a third-round pick because it was included in the deal a year ago that saw defenceman Charlie Elick sent to the Tri-City Americans for forward Jordan Gavin and defenceman Merrek Arpin.

The 18th overall pick originally belonged to the Prince George Cougars but was acquired by Saskatoon in a package for forward Ben Riche on Jan. 8, 2025.

“It was great,” Moulton said. “We talked about it before. They brought it to our attention and we said we would do it and then they said to hold off. We anticipated it was done and when it was getting closer and there were still a lot of good players, we said ‘I think Saskatoon is going to call’ and sure as hell, he texted.

“I’ll be honest, I knew exactly who they wanted and we liked that player too, but we had three or four other guys so I said ‘You know what, we’re going to get one of these four, we like them all, but to be honest Rylan Edwards was our next pick. The fact we got the guy we were going to pick at 15 anyways is great.”

Since the draft began in 1990, Brandon has selected 33 forwards, 14 defencemen and one goalie.

There was no shortage of drama at the top of the first round, with the Wenatchee Wild and Victoria Royals making significant splashes.

The top overall pick was forward Madden Deneault of Red Deer, Alta., who was grabbed by the Kelowna Rockets.

The five-foot-11, 172-pound centre had 65 goals and 84 assists in 34 U15 games.

Vancouver owned the second and fourth picks and promptly took a timeout, as it turned out, for a very good reason. Wenatchee moved into the second spot, but paid a heavy price that included the third overall pick, a second-round pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2028 and a first-round pick in 2030.

They then grabbed Parker McMillan of Surrey, B.C., a high-scoring forward from the Yale Hockey Academy.

The Giants subsequently used their two picks to select defenceman Eli Vickers of Surrey and forward Brayden Jugnauth of Kelowna.

Wenatchee then made a second splash, sending four high picks to the Victoria Royals — a first, two seconds and a third — and grabbed defenceman Jevin Morrison of Red Deer.

Victoria then sent the seventh overall pick to the Seattle Thunderbirds with a conditional fourth-round pick for high-scoring veteran forward Cameron Schmidt.

Only two Eastern Conference teams, the Regina Pats and Lethbridge Hurricanes, drafted in the top 14 before Brandon was finally on the clock at 8:16 p.m. They took a timeout, and traded the pick to Saskatoon at 8:22.

The Blades took forward Teagan Dernisky of Delta, B.C. The Wheat Kings were on the clock again at 8:34, and the pick was posted at 8:36.

The first round ended at 8:58 when the Swift Current Broncos made back-to-back picks at 22 and 23.

“There were two big trades with Wenatchee that we thought ‘Wow!’ but other than that, I thought the players who went were probably were they thought they went or close to it,” Moulton said. Overall, one goalie, six defenceman and 16 forwards were taken.

The Wheat Kings have no pick in the fourth round today, but have two in the fifth and ninth rounds. Their next pick is 42nd overall in the second round, and now they have a third rounder too.

“When you go ahead 40, you get something that you never thought you would get,” Moulton said. “That’s exciting for us.”

NOTES: The first goalie was taken when Regina grabbed six-foot-one Fletcher MacDonald ninth overall … Brandon was one of just 10 teams that had its assigned draft pick, with the other 13 traded at some point. None of the first three picks were made by the team that originally owned them … Only eight Eastern Conference squads picked on Wednesday … The first American player was taken with the 16th overall pick when the Spokane Chiefs grabbed forward Jack Arnold. Three Americans were taken. Chris Osgood’s son Max was one of them when the Medicine Hat Tigers took the young defenceman … The Wheat Kings have two first rounders next season due to the Nate Danielson trade … Brandon has picked 18th in the first round three times and always used it on a defenceman, taking Eric Roy (2009), Mike Cann (2003) and Wade Skolney (1996).

» pbergson@brandonsun.com