PHOTO COURTESY JAYLYN WERELY/CHARISMA PHOTOGRAPHY - Josh Van Mulligen, seen in this undated photo playing for the Southeast Athletic Club bantam AAA team, signed with the Medicine Hat Tigers Tuesday less than two weeks after being drafted by the club.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Medicine Hat’s Josh Van Mulligen has put pen to paper with his hometown Tigers, the team announced Tuesday.
The 14-year-old defenceman joined the Tigers as the 39th overall pick of last month’s Western Hockey League bantam draft and becomes the second member of the class to sign a standard player agreement with the team.
“It’s still hard to believe. Always watching the Tigers playing, obviously you always dream of it but you never actually think you can do it,” Van Mulligen said in a Tuesday phone interview. “A couple guys reached out, just welcoming me into the organization and just making me feel at home. I mean, obviously I am at home, but they wanted to make me feel like it’s my team.”
The 6-foot, 169-pound blueliner became the first hometown product to be drafted by the Tigers since Jordan Taupert was selected 113th overall in 2013. The last Hatter to earn a spot on the team after being drafted was Blake Penner, taken 18th overall in 2011.Â
Van Mulligen was one of three Southeast Athletic Club Tigers to get drafted this year, with Dawson Seitz going 20th overall to the Edmonton Oil Kings and Cole Unger joining Van Mulligen in Medicine Hat at 206th overall. Former SEAC Tiger Shane Smith, of Cessford, was also picked by the Tigers at 51st overall.Â
Van Mulligen, Seitz and Unger are the first Hatters to have their names called in the bantam draft since Caleb Wyrostok was selected by the Swift Current Broncos with the 197th pick in 2018. The last time multiple Hat products were selected was 2013, when Jaeger White led a group of four Hatters as the 72nd overall pick.Â
“It’s really cool. Medicine Hat, we always have a good hockey program but it’s just nice that we’re finally getting rewarded for it,” said Van Mulligen. “It’s really cool that all three of us got to go through it. Obviously me and Cole have good chemistry and it’s going to be really fun to play with him in the future.”
Van Mulligen earned the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League’s top defenceman honour after recording 13 goals and 14 assists over 31 games with SEAC. Van Mulligen was also named top defenceman at the Hockey Hounds Major Bantam Hockey Tournament in Medicine Hat back in November.Â
“We had an opportunity to watch him all year, and we thought he was one of the guys who just really started to improve since the beginning of the year,” said Tigers director of player personnel Bobby Fox. “We’re really excited to get him. He’s a player that’s physical and aggressive, and he’s a two-way guy. He’s going to be able to contribute on both sides of the puck. I believe he’s just a gamer. He’s a guy who wants to be a difference maker, he wants the puck at important times.”
