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Cougars eyeing Leduc d-man

When Todd Harkins went to the annual Mac's midget hockey tournament in Calgary on a scouting mission this past winter, Jack Sander caught his attention.
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Jack Sander, a defenceman with the Leduc Oil Kings at the 2017 Telus Cup, is on the 50-player protected list of the Prince George Cougars.

When Todd Harkins went to the annual Mac's midget hockey tournament in Calgary on a scouting mission this past winter, Jack Sander caught his attention.

Harkins, general manager of the WHL's Prince George Cougars, watched the smooth-skating, puck-moving defenceman play in a couple games with the Leduc Oil Kings and quickly added his name to the Cougars' 50-player protected list. Sander is now in Prince George, here with the Oil Kings for the Telus Cup national championship, and he's showing the attributes that could make him a member of the Cougars in the near future.

Sander, six-foot-one and 166 pounds, is a quarterback on the Leduc power play. In that role, he shows tremendous poise with the puck and has the ability to find open teammates with pinpoint passes. Sander can also shoot, as he showed in a 4-1 win against the Mississauga Rebels on Wednesday. With time winding down in the third period and Leduc in a man-advantage situation, he fired a wrister from the high slot, into the top of the net behind goaltender Christian Purboo.

Sander, who comes across as humble and intelligent, said the goal was "lucky" and that he "didn't have to do much." He also said, however, he tends to be at his best against tough competition and that's yet another quality that makes him a good prospect to play junior hockey at the highest level.

Harkins knows other teams are also interested in getting Sander into uniform. So, in that sense, the clock is ticking if the Cougars are intent on signing him to a WHL player agreement.

"Right now, he's got a chance to go to the (junior A) AJHL next year so we're actually thinking about doing something here soon if we make a decision on him - if he's going to play for us next year or not," Harkins said.

"We're looking for a skating, left-handed-shot defenceman to kind of complement Cole Moberg and Jonas (Harkins) because they're both right-handed shots," the GM added. "We had one in Reid Perepeluk but now he's a forward so we needed to go try to find a left-hand shot."

In terms of his hockey future - junior A or major-junior - Sander is keeping things wide open right now.

"My family has talked about it," he said. "When we're offered something we'll definitely think about it and see how it goes from there.

"(The Cougars) haven't really offered me a signing or anything yet so I'm just saying whatever is happening, is happening, and my family will discuss it."

Sander, on the verge of his 17th birthday, hails from Beaumont, Alta., and is the son of Darren and Andrea. They are here watching their boy at the Telus Cup and Todd Harkins took the opportunity to speak with them on Tuesday.

"We kind of have an idea of where we're at with it," said Harkins, who is now in Canmore at the Alberta Cup, a high-performance tournament for 2002-born players. "We told them we want to make a decision before our (bantam) draft (on Thursday) because he would get an extra year of education out of it if we do it before the draft.

"That's one thing we talked about (Wednesday) night in Canmore - depth chart and where we're at with some of these players and signing players."

If Sander does play for the Cougars in 2017-18, Harkins envisions him being like this season's Ryan Schoettler, who finished with 10 points in 58 games and was named the team's top scholastic player.

"Most kids like (Sander), if he plays for us next year as a 17-year-old, they're going to have their ups and downs until probably December or January, until they figure it out, just like Ryan Schoettler did last year," Harkins said. "Same thing. But I think (Sander) can think the game and get around the ice well enough that he could play at our level for sure."