With their first three choices in the WHL bantam draft the Prince George Cougars addressed their future needs in all three positions – forward, goaltender and defence.
The Cougars stepped up to the draft table Thursday morning in Red Deer owning two first-round picks and used them to select centre Craig Amstrong ninth overall and goaltender Tyler Brennan 21st overall – the second time in three years they’ve picked a goalie in the first round.
Defenceman Hudson Thornton was next in line, picked in the second round, 33rd overall.
“Craig Armstrong brings a skill set that, it’s been quite some time since our organization has drafted a player like that,” said Bob Simmonds, the Cougars director of scouting. “He is tenacious and he plays the game the right way and all he wants to do is win. His teammates respect him, his opposition respects him and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have him. Craig is a leader in every way, shape and form.”
The five-foot-seven, 162-pound Armstrong played for the bantam triple-A Airdrie Xtreme this past season and in 34 games had 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points. Armstrong is a native of Airdrie, just outside of Calgary, and was a standout in the Alberta Cup top-bantam prospect tournament last month with four goals and 11 points in five games. The Cougars got their ninth-overall pick from the Prince Albert Raiders in the Kody McDonald trade.
Still four-and-a-half months shy of his 15th birthday, Brennan takes up a lot of net at six-foot-three, 178 pounds. He played 16 games for Winnipeg-based Rink Hockey Academy in the Canadian Sports School Bantam Hockey League and posted a 1.52 goals-against average and .947 save percentage with five shutouts. The Cougars obtained the 21st overall pick when they traded defenceman Josh Anderson to Swift Current.
“With respect to Tyler Brennan, we got the best goalie in the draft, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” said Simmonds. “When you look at the two teams that are left (in the playoffs), Swift Current and Everett, one thing they both have is that star goalie.
“You want to always have a succession plan in place for goaltenders and I think we’re well positioned for being looked after in net for the next few years.”
Brennan is the highest-ranked goalie taken in the WHL draft since Garin Bjorklund was picked 21st last year by the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Cougars chose Taylor Gauthier 10th overall in 2016. Last year Prince George took goalie Logan Terness of Burnaby in the 10th round.
Centre Dylan Guenther of Edmonton went first overall to the Edmonton Oil Kings. The Edmonton native lit up the Canadian Sports School Hockey League playing for the Northern Alberta Xtreme bantam prep team, totaling 56 goals and 103 points in 30 games. Defenceman Carson Lambos of Winnipeg, who also played for Rink Academy, was taken second overall by the Kootenay Ice.
The Raiders had the third-overall choice the Cougars gave up last season in the trade to acquire defenceman Brendan Guhle and used it on defenceman Allan Nolan, who played for the Swift Current Broncos double-A bantam team.
The Cougars doubled their pleasure with two picks in each of the first three rounds. All told, they selected nine of the first 112 players chosen. They used their first of two second-rounders on defenceman Hudson Thornton (33rd overall, acquired from Medicine Hat). The five-foot-10, 158-pound native of Winnipeg played 30 games for the Rink Academy bantam prep team and had 15 goals and 29 points. Thornton played with Lambos – ranked first overall by the Cougars – and Simmonds said there wasn’t much separating the two.
“Hudson is a defenceman we really coveted and we see him having the potential to drive offence from the back end and hopefully sometime become our power-play quarterback,” said Simmonds. “His skill set and his skating and his ability to move the puck quickly to the forwards and be creative is exactly what we were looking for.”
At 44th overall, the Cougars choose Blake Eastman, a six-foot-two, 178-pound forward who played for the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers bantam triple-As. Eastman put up 17 goals and 34 points in 32 games and had six goals and nine points in five games in the Alberta Cup. He’s from Ardrossan, Alta., the same hometown as Jarrett Smith, the Cougars’ first-overall choice in the 1994 bantam draft.
“He’s a big, tall winger with good hands, and he skates well and we’re thrilled to have him in the organization,” said Simmonds. “He finished the season very strongly and he was clearly one of the leaders of that team. He’s a heckuva good hockey player and he’s still growing into his body and I think the sky’s the limit with Mr. Eastman.”
The Cougars picked centre Ty Mueller 60th overall in the third round. The five-foot-nine, 163-pound Mueller, chosen with a pick acquired in the Jesse Gabriel/Jonas Harkins trade from the Regina Pats, scored 20 goals and 37 points in 31 games for the Airdrie Xtreme.
“Mueller is probably one of the smartest hockey players you will see – his hockey IQ is off the charts and if you watch him closely he does so many of the details the right way,” said Simmonds. “He brings skill and scoring and he makes the players around him better. He’s a very cerebral player.”
The Cougars had the 65th pick, in the third round, which came from Swift Current in the Anderson deal, and they took defenceman Ethan Samson, a five-foot-10, 140-pound native of North Delta who played for the Delta Academy bantam prep Green. He had five goals and 15 assists in 30 games.
“Ethan is a bigger-bodied defenceman and I believe he will be the perfect complement to Hudson (Thornton),” said Simmonds. “He’s strong in his own zone and he’s hard to play against.”
The Cougars did not have a fourth-round pick but had two in the fifth round. They went south of the border to take a Long Beach, Calif., native. Defenceman Aiden Hreschuk, who played for the Los Angeles Junior Kings 14-and-under team, went 90th overall after scoring 17 goals and 47 points in 43 games for the Kings. The Cougars are taking a bit of a chance on Hreschuk, considered one of the best players eligible for the draft, because he’s already committed to play college hockey at Boston College in 2021.
“Aiden might have been the best player in the entire draft, he’s an unbelievably-gifted defenceman,” Simmonds said. “It has often been said by many in the scouting community that if Aiden was 100 per cent committed to the (WHL) at this point he would have been ranked No. 1 on a significant majority of the teams’ lists. We realize he has a college commitment but he has pro potential and he may be drafted into the NHL.
“We’re going to form a relationship with that young man and work hard to make sure he’s familiar with the program because if he comes to play for us, he has top-end skill. We’re prepared to wait and allow him to proceed on his hockey journey and maybe at some time that will include the Prince George Cougars.”
Right winger Mike Svenson of Rink Academy, a five-foot-11, 170-pound native of Ile Des Chenes, Man., went to the Cougars 104th overall. He posted 12 goals and 28 points in 30 games last season.
“He plays the game the old-fashioned way, he’s very physical and aggressive on the body, plus he brings an element of secondary scoring,” said Simmonds. “He’s another player the fans will love in Prince George.”
The Cougars’ final choice of the draft, in the sixth round, 112th overall, was Calgary-born blueliner Kent Anderson, who had five goals and 14 points in 35 games for the Calgary Northstars triple-A team.
“He’s another defenceman who very much caught our attention this past weekend at the Alberta Cup,” said Simmonds. “It was clear his growth as a player was trending in the right direction. He skates well, he’s got offensive skill, he manages the puck and he has a good-sized body and he’s a complete defenceman.”
Simmonds conducted the draft with his scouting staff in the absence of general manager Todd Harkins. Harkins was told in mid-March at the end of the season the Cougars will not be renewing his contract after four seasons as GM. The team is currently headhunting his replacement.
“We got thrown a bit of a curve ball, honestly, but we were prepared and focused and I think the Prince George Cougars did very well,” said Simmonds. “It was a collaborative team effort. The coaching staff, Richard Matvichuk and Steve O’Rourke, supported us, and the involvement of (director of player development) Nick Drazenovic was critical to our success.
“We certainly had a lot of picks in the first half of the draft and we wanted to make sure we maximized the return on those picks. The scouting staff worked hard and long hours and we’re very happy with these young men we’re bringing into the Cougar family. I think the future is very bright indeed.”
