The Prince George Cougars will have the ninth overall selection in the Western Hockey League bantam draft, which happens Thursday in Calgary.
The Cats haven't picked as low as ninth since 2011, when they chose defenceman Jordan Harris tenth overall.
"It's a bittersweet feeling," said Bob Simmonds, director of scouting for the Cougars. "On one hand, we're drafting later in the first round because we're improving every season, but it also means that we have less control over how the first round unfolds. That said, we've done our due diligence and we are confident that we're going to get an impact player with the ninth pick."
The Cougars finished the 2015-16 season with a 36-31-3-2 record and made the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Simmonds and the rest of the Cougars' scouting staff consider the 2016 draft class to be one filled with quality players.
"We feel that this is one of the deeper drafts in recent memory, with depth at all positions, and we are very excited to welcome the next crop of prospects to the fold on Thursday," he said.
In total, the Cats will make nine selections. They won't pick in the fourth round because they dealt that spot in the draft to the Regina Pats for forward Jesse Gabrielle. The Cougars also won't pick in the ninth round but have two seventh-rounders (142nd and 144th overall) by way of trades with the Pats and Prince Albert Raiders. In deals this past season, they shipped grinding forward Aaron Macklin to the Pats and Cal Babych to the Raiders.
As for Harris, the Cougars' first-rounder in 2011, he played just 17 games in a Prince George uniform. Coming out of training camp in 2012, he was sent back to the midget ranks in Saskatchewan. While there, he suffered a concussion and was sidelined for about two months. He finally made his debut with the Cougars in early February of 2013 but was traded to the Swift Current Broncos that July for blueliner Zack Gonek.
Last year, the Cougars took forward Jackson Leppard in the first round (eighth overall). Leppard spent the season with the Vancouver Northwest Giants of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League and produced 14 goals and 31 points in 34 games.
The draft will start at 7:30 a.m. Pacific time and can be followed online at www.whl.ca.
