MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Western Hockey League Prospects Draft can be a very interesting animal indeed.
All the scouting and preparation in the world can still leave a host of unknowns when the time comes to make picks, where highly ranked players can fizzle and lower ranked players can go on to become stars.
One can go back to the 2019 Prospects Draft to get an idea.
While not to the extreme of this season, the Warriors were still short on picks in the first four rounds, with no second- or third-round selections on their board.
It’s safe to say Warriors then-assistant general manager Jason Ripplinger did a solid job regardless of their situation: their first-round pick, 11th overall, turned into current team captain and WHL defenceman of the year Denton Mateychuk.
Then, after taking the next two rounds off, the Warriors got the steal of the draft, using their fourth-round pick, 82nd overall, to select 2023-24 Four Broncos Memorial Trophy winner Jagger Firkus.
So while it’s way too early to predict how things will look four years from now, Ripplinger hopes they’ve found a handful of diamonds in the rough in their current crop of selections.
“The draft is the draft, you can sometimes hit home runs and sometimes it doesn’t go your way,” Ripplinger said shortly after making 11 selections in the 2024 Draft on Thursday afternoon. “So you just never know how it’s all going to turn out, you put together your list and go off of that and hope you find some guys who can be big contributors in the future.”
Here’s a player-by-player look at the Warriors selections in the 2024 Prospects Draft.
Round 2, 40th overall - Cohen Williams - RD - 6’ 3”, 186 lbs - OHA U15 Prep
“We go off our board and fortunately for us when we picked at 40th overall, Cohen Williams was there and there was no hesitation. When you have a 6-foot-3 defenceman that moves really well, you have to take those guys. And that’s one thing we wanted to do, get a little bit bigger on the back end from our previous draft. We have good players but we’re not real big so I just wanted to get a bit bigger.”
Round 5, 99th overall - Cooper Perrin - RD - 5’ 11”, 175 lbs - Saskatoon Outlaws AA
“He’s a player who was injured toward the end of the year and there were teams who maybe didn’t get a chance to see him, but we were able to find some time to watch him and he’s a good puck-moving defenceman who skates well. He’ll play U18 next year and we’re hoping he’ll have a great season.”
Round 5, 101st overall - Maxon Johnston - C - 5’ 11”, 154 lbs - Sask East Oilers AA
“He’s a talented player, a pretty strong kid and a centreman. I played with his uncles back in the day, and his dad was a goalie who was 6-foot-4, so we think there’s potential for some size there. He skates pretty good, goes into the dirty areas and you’re always looking for a big centreman.”
Round 6, 115th overall - Preston Hoppe - RW - 5’ 9”, 151 lbs - Humboldt Broncos AA
“Talented player, a really good skater and he shoots the puck hard. We expect down the road he’ll be able to score for us. As you watch these players, you’re watching to see if they’re scoring against teams lower in the standings or teams in the same standing as them, and he’s a competitive kid who likes to score goals.”
Round 6, 123rd overall - Carson Smith - LW - 5’ 11”, 167 lb - OHA U15 Prep
“He’s a hard-working winger, he skates really well and got better as the year went on. He wasn’t on the top of our radar at the beginning of the year, but as it went on, he kept getting better and we were really comfortable taking him in the sixth round.”
Round 7, 152nd overall - Cade Mitchell - G - 5’11, 151 lb - Swift Current AA
“I had a chance to see him lots this year. He moves really well and competes, and he gave his team a chance to win in the playoffs. Our goalie coaches have worked with him lots, too, so we’ve had a good read on him as well.”
Round 8, 173rd overall - Theran Turner - LD - 6’ 1”, 160 lb - Brandon Wheat Kings AA
“He’s a big defender who moves well. And he’s a left-handed shot, we had a few too many right-handed shot defence this year. He’s a guy who kept improving throughout the year, and that’s the whole thing with some guys.”
Round 9, 195th overall - Tobin Schaefer - LW - 5’ 8”, 125 lb - Vancouver Hawks U15 AAA
“There’s some bloodlines there, he’s Peter Schaefer’s son. I know Peter well, and what he was as a junior player and the NHL. When you get into the later rounds some of it is wait-and-see, and you don’t want to rush some of these kids. He’ll play at the highest level he can and we’ll he how he progresses.”
Round 10, 204th overall - Ethan Fidelak - RD - 6’ 3”, 171 lb - St. Albert U15 AAA
“He’s a player that it’s hard to say why he was there, you always wonder why guys like that go a little bit later, if there just wasn’t a need for other teams. But with his size and how he moves for a pretty big guy, he’s not an average skater, so I think he has a pretty good chance.”
Round 10, 217th overall - Karter Hilbig - G - 6’0”, 150 lb - Saskatoon Stallions AA
“He’s another big goalie, he had a good year, and you can never tell how these guys develop. With Fortin and Banini signed, you can never have too much competition among goaltenders, so we’ll see how far he goes.”
Round 11, 239th overall - Nash Coquet - C - 5’9”, 153 lb - Saskatoon Outlaws AA
“He’s a smaller guy with with skill and you just never know. He can skate, and maybe they grow or maybe they don’t, but if they’re smart enough and can compete, they’ll be able to play.”
