The Kelowna Rockets tried and failed to convince Brogan O'Brien to play for them in the Western Hockey League.
The Prince George Cougars face a similar uphill battle trying to get O'Brien to change his mind now that they own his WHL rights.
The 17-year-old Prince George Spruce Kings centre has a college hockey future in mind and that will likely mean he will never play for the Cougars, who acquired his rights from the Rockets on Friday in a trade for 20-year-old forward Chance Braid.
"Brogan is a very good young player who possesses all kinds of abilities and the WHL has been after him for a long time," said Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes. "He was drafted by Kelowna and was on their list for several years and they made several attempts to get him to go, but Brogan and his family are committed to the college route."
The Rockets picked O'Brien, a native of Prince George, in the 10th round of the 2012 WHL bantam draft, 100th overall. In November, NHL Central Scouting listed O'Brien as a C prospect for the 2015 draft in June in Philadelphia. He's been picked to play in the CJHL Top Prospects Game in Oakville, Ont., Jan. 20.
The six-foot-two, 195-pound O'Brien had six goals and 15 assists in 35 games with the Spruce Kings. He was in the lineup Friday in Vernon, where the Kings took on the Vipers to start a three-game tour of the BCHL Interior Division.
Hawes expects O'Brien to finalize details of a scholarship commitment with an NCAA team within the next few weeks.
"Brogan's style of play is very suited to the NCAA," said Hawes. "He's such a big-bodied kid with skill and a tremendous skater and NCAA hockey is quite often played on Olympic-sized ice and he loves to drive the puck wide around d-men. He's very goal-oriented and he's a tremendous student."
Hawes said the phones were busy Friday while the Spruce Kings contemplated the possibility of trades in advance of the roster deadline today, which is 6 p.m. for trades outside of the league and 8 p.m. for any deals involving other BCHL teams. The Spruce Kings have two player cards available which they had reserved for forward Justin Rai and defenceman Karan Toor, both of whom are injured and won't play for the rest of the season.
