Colton Kitchen was in school at Thursday morning at Prince George secondary school waiting to see his name on the list of 2001-born players taken in the Western Hockey League draft.
The 15-year-old Kitchen was glued to his classroom computer for the first two periods of the day, then had to leave to get to the rink to play in the PGSS hockey program.
He was skating at the Elksentre, involved in a scrimmage, when one of his PGSS coaches, Ryan Howse, broke the news. Howse had been monitoring the WHL website on the bench and saw the Kootenay Ice picked Kitchen with the first choice of the ninth round, 177th overall.
"Ryan runs our hockey classes on ice and he called me over in the middle of our four-on-four game and he told me I got drafted," said Kitchen. "It was on his phone. I was pretty excited."
Howse knows all about the thrill of getting drafted. He holds the distinction as the highest bantam draft choice of any Prince George-born player when he was taken third overall by the Chilliwack Bruins in the 2006 WHL draft.
Third or 177th, it didn't matter to Kitchen. He was just happy to be selected -- the only player from the Farr Fabricating bantam Tier I team to get picked by a WHL team. The five-foot-11, 155-pound defenceman is now property of the Cranbrook-based Ice.
"I think they liked my skating and my heads-up plays and my offensive and defensive skill and I'm just happy they had faith in me and took me in the draft -- it was unbelievable," said Kitchen.
"I definitely thought Corey Cunningham and maybe Declan MacEachern would go (in the draft)."
Kitchen has wanted to play in the WHL for as long as he can remember. He's grown up with high-profile hockey players in his home all his life. His parents, Chris and Annette, were Cougar billet parents who provided hockey homes for Ronald Petrovicky, Blair Betts, Ty Wishart, Devin Setogucci, Cutis Cooper, Blake Robson and Tyler Brough.
Kitchen began skating when he was three, started played hockey when he was four, and for most of his minor hockey career he's played defence. Kitchen didn't put up outrageous point totals but was consistently among his team's leaders in plus/minus ratings.
"Everyone thinks it's all about scoring goals but I like to make sure the other team doesn't score and I like breaking the puck out and rushing and helping out the offence in the zone on the point," he said. "My parents put me through a lot of power skating so I can thank them for that because I'm pretty sure that's my strongest (asset) as a hockey player."
The bantam Cougars had a successful season and played well in the provincial tournament in Coquitlam, and Kitchen was a big part of that final push.
"We proved that P.G. could compete with teams like Burnaby and North Shore in provincials, and I feel I had a really strong provincials," said Kitchen.
Kitchen, whose 17-year-old brother Landon played midget Tier 2 rep hockey this past season, is attending the Cariboo Cougars identification camp this weekend at the Elksentre. He would like to play at the major midget level but knows it will be tough to crack the roster of the team which will host the Telus Cup national championship next year.
He plans to follow Howse's summer conditioning program this summer and will utilize his membership at the Northern Sport Centre gym to work out with weights to improve his strength and add some bulk for next hockey season.
"Colton is such a smooth skater with great vision and he's a great passer and he's a big kid," said Farr head coach Mirsad Mujcin. "That's what teams look for and Colton deserves every piece of it, I'm happy for him. He really picked up his game on the aggressive side throughout the year, which probably helped him a bit in the draft.
'He played with young Jacob Gendron this year and the two complemented each other so great. They were really smooth puck-moving players and it's hard to find those kind of guys."
Mujcin says it's no big deal there aren't any other drafted players from his team. That does not mean they won't become WHL players.
"If you look at young Corey Cunningham, he had a lot of eyes on him all year and there aren't many goalscorers like him around," said Mujcin. "The kid was the top scorer at provincials and he's a natural goalscorer and he's going to get many invites to camps.
"Every kid on that team has developed. They learned to play the game and played hard and they did P.G. proud in the bantam league and they're going to do good things down the road."
Mujcin, a former WHL centre who played three seasons in the league in the early-'90s with Tri-City and Regina, says players probably put too much stock in the Western Elite Prospects website and get their hopes up too high when they see their names in the rankings, which he says often does not mesh with the ratings lists of WHL teams.
"It gets to people's minds that this is how it will play out but nobody knows except those GMs and those scouts what they like and what they're looking for to build the chemistry of their team," said Mujcin. "That website is probably wrong after the first round. It's a bunch of dads making these picks in a mock draft and it builds a lot of false promises from kids."
