Prince Cougars head scout Todd Harkins and general manager Dallas Thompson are on the road through Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Minnesota to evaluate some of the team's top prospects.
They drove this week to Regina, where they'll watch their Cougars play the Pats tonight, then head to Brandon to evaluate the team in action Saturday against the Wheat Kings. The injury-riddled Cats plan to call up a couple of bantam draft prospects now playing midget hockey in Winnipeg -- centre Aaron Boyd (second round, 43rd overall, 2012) who plays for the Winnipeg midget Thrashers, and forward Kolby Johnson (third round, 52nd overall, 2013), now with the midget triple-A Swift Current Legionnaires. They'll also take a look at Winnipeg midget right winger Josh Curtis (eighth round, 156th overall, 2013).
The timing of the roadtrip, right in the middle of high school exam week, is not ideal for picking up affiliated players and that might limit their availability to the Cougars.
On Tuesday, Harkins and Thompson will head to Minnesota to check out a few Cougar list players now on the radar of Bill Horton, the team's Minnesota regional scout. Harkins and Thompson will be in Warroad, Minn., to scout 16-year-old high school forward Jared Bethune, who just signed a letter of intent to play in the NCAA at Minnesota-Duluth. Then they'll fly to Minneapolis to see Blaine high school prospect Riley Tufte,15, a six-foot-four, 180 pound forward, and forward Miguel Fidler, 17, of Edina high school, whose father Mike played in the NHL.
The Cougars listed Tufte after a tip from Harkins's brother Don, head scout of the OHL Plymouth Whalers. Harkins is also acting on recommendations from his brother Brett, a former NHL forward for Boston and Florida who coaches the Cleveland Barons under-16 team.
Harkins has had six chances this season to see six-foot-three, 216-pound defenceman Josh Anderson, the Cougars' first-round pick (third overall in 2013) play for the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League South Island T-birds and has come away impressed with the 15-year-old each time.
"I talk to the coaches a lot and they keep saying they're excited about him and how fast his development is and how he's grown as a player with his patience, his puck-handling ability and his offence," said Harkins. "His coach, Geoff Grimwood, says many junior A BCHL teams as well as junior B teams on the Island want to affiliate him and I said absolutely. The more opportunities he gets to play with bigger, faster, stronger guys, the quicker he'll develop so he can step in next year and contribute, just like our '97s did this year."
The Cougars hired Harkins last summer, after he twice coached the Vancouver Northwest Giants to the BCMMHL playoff title. He now oversees a scouting staff of 13.
The draft will be held May 1 in Calgary and Harkins says his scouting team is already well-prepared for it.
