The Lethbridge Hurricanes refilled their pipeline of future players on Thursday, taking part in the first WHL Prospects Draft since April 2020.
The club cashed in on some of the high-end offensive talent available and grabbed a promising rearguard with their pair of first-round picks.
The 2021 draft was originally scheduled to take place in May, but was pushed back to December in order to give scouts more time to see draft-eligible players compete in their minor hockey leagues. The draft was held virtually by the league and streamed on CHL TV.
The first-overall pick belonged to the Spokane Chiefs, who selected centreman Berkly Catton of the Saskatoon Contacts U18 AAA. Both the Brandon Wheat Kings and Swift Current Broncos each held a pair of top 10 selections.
Lethbridge got on the board at No. 10 — a pick they received from the Regina Pats in August in exchange for forward Zack Stringer — selecting Miguel Marques of the Delta Hockey Academy’s (DHA) U17 Prep program.
The product of Prince George, B.C. has a stat line this season that will certainly turn some heads, putting up 64 points (27G, 37A) in just 16 Canadian Sports School Hockey League (CSSHL) games.
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“He can skate, he’s a little bit of a power forward, he goes to dirty areas, he scores goals, he’s got 64 points in 16 games,” said Hurricanes head scout Rob MacLachlan on the draft livestream following the pick.
“He’s the highest scorer on their hockey team and you know it’s just somebody that we couldn’t go by.”
Marques was one of four DHA players to be taken in the first round.
“For us — picking Marques where we did — at no time did we feel that there was a scenario where he would fall to us, so that was really, really good,” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt.
The Hurricanes didn’t have long to wait before making their second selection on Thursday, taking defenceman Tristen Doyal with pick No. 17.
“We’re pretty surprised that we get to pick a player like Tristen Doyle at No. 17,” MacLachlan told the WHL draft hosts. “We see him as a Calen Addison-type player.”
It’s a lofty comparison from the Hurricanes, who drafted Addison second overall in the 2015 WHL draft and saw the defenceman put up 215 points over 252 games in a key role for the club.
Addison was then drafted in the second round of the NHL draft in 2018 (53rd overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins, and has since been traded to Minnesota, appearing in six NHL games so far in his professional career.
“That’s who we compared him to all year,” MacLachlan said. “We just like the way he plays, he puts up numbers.
“I was in Notre Dame last week and they actually put him up to forward for a few shifts and he looked great up there — he scored up there.
“This kid can carry pucks out of his own end, he can make plays — and again — we just compare him to Calen Addison, and there’s no way we can go by someone like that.”
Anholt said that the 2021 draft class was a particularly strong one, and he thinks all the clubs with high picks were happy with their selections.
“Especially the top 30 players, it seemed to me were real strong this year, and you know, the top 10 I thought was a really, really special group,” Anholt said.
The Hurricanes continued to stock up, selecting seven other 2006-born players:
- #29 (2nd rd): defenceman Trae Wilke of the Saskatoon Blazers U18 AAA;
- #83 (4th rd): forward Landen Ward of the Lloydminster Bobcats U18 AAA;
- #118 (6th rd): forward Coy Pighin of the Yale Hockey Academy U18 Prep;
- #122 (6th rd): defenceman Kale Tipler of the Lloydminster Bobcats U18 AAA;
- #140 (7th rd): forward Luke Cozens of the Yale Hockey Academy U17 Prep;
- #162 (8th rd): forward Lucas Minard of the Dallas Stars Elite 16U;
- #184 (9th rd): forward Josh Evaschesen of the Edge School U16 Prep;
A name that might stand out to Lethbridge fans was drafted in the seventh round; Luke Cozens is the younger brother of former Hurricanes superstar and captain Dylan Cozens, who was an NHL seventh-overall draft pick and now plays full time for the Buffalo Sabres.
The first Lethbridge product taken in Thursday’s draft was Carter Klippenstein of the U18AAA Hurricanes. He was taken with pick No. 64 (3rd round) by the Brandon Wheat Kings.
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