Mark Lamb is well aware that building a junior hockey team into a championship contender is a marathon rather than a sprint.
He learned that on the job during a seven-year stint as head coach and general manager of the Swift Current Broncos and laid much of the groundwork that culminated with the Broncos' run to the WHL championship last season.
Thursday in Red Deer Lamb was at the helm as GM of the Prince George Cougars when they made their picks in the bantam draft, his first turn at the Cougars' table since being hired for a four-year term last June.
For the first time since the Cougars franchise moved to Prince George from Victoria in 1994 they owned two of the top four picks in the draft and used them to select in respective order defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk and centre Koehn Ziemmer - both products of the Okanagan Hockey Academy Edmonton bantam prep team.
Lamb and Bob Simmonds, the team's director of scouting, were elated with their first rounders, who are both intent on playing in the WHL as Cougars.
"We think we got the best (defenceman) and one of the best forwards in the draft, they've played together, they have chemistry together and know each other," said Lamb. "We didn't go into it looking like that but when we rated the players that's how it came out and it's just a bonus that they played together."
The bantam teammates will have the chance to play for the same junior team a couple of seasons into the future and that enticement weighed heavily in the Cougars' decision to pick Dowhaniuk and Ziemmer together. Convincing drafted players to commit to a team is not always so certain and Lamb made sure he did his homework with the scouting staff to get their two high-profile picks right, knowing how much the draft means to the Cougars' future success.
The Cougars are coming off one of the worst seasons in their 25-year Prince George history and they finished last in the Western Conference with a 19-41-5-3 record. Mired in a prolonged slump that would eventually lead to a club-worst 17-game losing streak, the Cougars fired head coach Richard Matvichuk with 16 games left. Lamb took over as interim coach and the Cats won just three of those 16 games but showed signs they won't have to endure as many excruciating growing pains next season.
"We have needs in all areas and we're trying to get depth in all positions," said Lamb. "We want to build a team that at some point hopefully we'll have a chance to compete for a championship. We thought we had a really good draft last year with the (2003-born) group and we're going into the '04 group and next year with the '05 group, which is really deep and we have multiple picks."
The Cougars will have eight picks in the first five rounds next year, including have two first-round choices in 2020, their own and Portland's, and three third-rounders. They made a deal Thursday with the Winnipeg Ice to give up their second-overall pick to Winnipeg, which the Ice used to select forward Morgan Geekie after taking forward Matthew Savoie first overall. In return, the Ice gave the Cougars their third-overall pick they used to draft Dowhaniuk and a third-round choice in 2020. Lamb said the Cougars would have picked Dowhaniuk second overall if they hadn't made the trade.
Savoie, the consensus best player available in the draft, has already announced he intends to go the college route to Denver University and might never play in Winnipeg. He's among a handful of highly-touted bantams who made it known to WHL teams they want to play for NCAA college teams.
"That's their option and that's why we have to do all our work," said Lamb. "We want players that want to play in Prince George and we're going to sell our program and that's how we're going to build this. The players we draft and we talk to we have a very good feeling they will be committed to the league and the Cougars and that's how we looked at the draft."
The Cougars have signed their two first-rounders from 2018 - forward Craig Armstrong and goalie Tyler Brennan - as well as forward Blake Eastman, one of their two second-round picks in 2018. They're hoping to sign their other second-rounder, defenceman Hudson Thornton, and third-round forward Ty Mueller.
"Goal scoring was down on our team last year, it was a sore spot, but it's going to take a few years to get these skilled draft picks playing on our team," Lamb said. "We're going to be a team that will score a lot easier than in the past, that's for sure.
"What I'm encouraged about is the players we have who can jump into the roster next year, and that's widespread. The '03 draft was strong and we have some other guys who will be fighting to make the team. I really like how the team played down the stretch, we were starting to get some momentum and had an idea of where we're going and we're not going to be missing a lot of guys. The overagers are the guys leaving but for the most part we have a chance to have pretty much everyone back, so we need these young guys to really push for a spot and when you have that competition it only makes the team better."
Trading Tyson Phare, the 18th overall pick in 2017, became inevitable when Phare decided to leave the Cougars last fall after playing 14 games. In return the Cougars received Fischer O'Brien, a Prince George minor hockey product drafted in the fifth round last year by the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Cougars continue to search for a head coach. Lamb says he has between 25 and 30 resumes from legitimate candidates and that list will continue to grow as more coaches from the pro ranks find themselves facing unemployment and become available.
"I've talked to quite a few people and I'm going to be talking to more," said Lamb. "You've got to be able to relate to the kids, know the trends how hockey is being played now, how you communicate. Just being down there coaching, I have a pretty good idea what it's going to take and what type of coach the guys do need. I have a lot of connections not just on our league but in pro leagues and I'm doing a lot of work in those areas."
Next up for Lamb is the CHL import draft in late June. The Cougars have two European forwards who could return - 20-year-old Vladislav Mikhalchuk, their leading scorer in 2018-19, and promising centre Matej Toman. If Mikhalchuk does return he would be filling up two slots as one of the three overagers and one of the two imports each team is allowed. However the league is discussing a rule change which would allow teams to kep Europeans with at least two years experience in the league as 20-year-olds without having to declare them as imports as well.
