Tigers’ top scout ready for draft day

By Ryan McCracken on May 3, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers have a new man at the helm for today’s Western Hockey League bantam draft in Red Deer.

Carter Sears joined up with the Tigers as their newest director of player personnel in October after spending the past five years as a scout with the Winnipeg Jets, and says he’s looking forward to putting those skills to work for the Tigers this morning.

“I worked against the Medicine Hat Tigers scouting staff my whole time in the Western Hockey League and I always had a ton of respect for the Tigers organization and their scouting staff. Over the years, if you were to do an average of it they’ve done as good a job as anybody in the league,” said Sears. “Coming back to do this job was like being 16 again — coming back to the league and making a hockey team again.”

Medicine Hat holds the 11th overall pick after clinching the Central Division banner for back-to-back seasons with a 36-28-8-0 record. General manager Shaun Clouston says the Tigers are approaching today’s draft of 2003-born prospects with a similar mentality to seasons past —take the best player available each round —and he believes Sears has done everything required to ensure the team will remain competitive for years to come.

“I think each year you want to make sure you have a well-rounded group. With junior hockey, every year you lose players that graduate and you have to fill in from underneath so each year it’s important to extract the best players that are available,” said Clouston. “Carter is an experience evaluator. He’s made his career out of doing this at different levels, at our level and the next level. He’s a very hard worker, very organized. I have a real good feeling heading into (the draft) that all of our scouts have done a great job and that we’re very well prepared.”

Sears — who brings 25 years of scouting experience to the Tigers, including 13 as head scout of the Red Deer Rebels and five as a consultant for the Kootenay Ice — spent the past season working closely with Medicine Hat’s scouting staff and says he’s confident in the list of talent they’ve managed to narrow down for him in the process.

“The scouting group is good. They’ve got a good eye and a good understand of the game and the way it’s played today. They definitely know how the Medicine Hat Tigers play and what we’re looking for as a group,” he said. “We’re prepared. We’ve had lots of little short meetings and discussions of scenarios with our scouts and Clouston.”

Sears added he expects this year’s available bantams players to be an above-average bunch, with an emphasis on defensive talent. Given the number of well-constructed players stepping into the spotlight, many of whom feature a strikingly similar skillset, Sears says that talent should remain top tier into the fourth round.

“Probably everybody would agree it’s a pretty good group this year. It’s a decent draft,” said Sears. “As an average from year-to-year, the top end is very, very good. The top four rounds should be good. We all feel, as the scouting group of the league, that there are a lot of players that are the same now, which is good.”

While the class of 2003-born players won’t be eligible to crack a full-time role with the Tigers until 2019, last year’s crop sit poised to fight for a place on the ice in the fall, and Clouston says he’s already got his eye on a few, like goaltending prospect Garin Bjorklund and recently-signed defenceman Ryan Watson.

“We would expect Garin to come in and compete for a spot and we just announced (Tuesday) that Ryan Watson had signed — he’s our top defenceman picked in the draft. He had a great midget season in Delta and was very impressive with Team BC,” said Clouston. “As 16-year-olds they have the opportunity to play and most years we have a player, or two, sometimes even three that end up playing. Each year is different. It depends on the players a lot, they have to be ready in lots of different areas. Their game has to be ready but they have to be ready mentally and physically to play in the league. Everybody’s development is slightly different.”

The Edmonton Oil Kings hold the first pick in the draft and are set to take the stage at the Sheraton Red Deer Hotel for an 8:30 a.m. start. The draft will be streamed live at whl.ca.

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