NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB --
Warm-up pucks are stacked ahead of the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-3 overtime win over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Jan. 12.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Western Hockey League draft is like Christmas Day for scouting staffs and this year, the Medicine Hat Tigers get the biggest gift of all.
After their difficult season the Tigers won the WHL’s draft lottery and were awarded the first overall pick. It will be the first time the team has selected first since drafting Jay Bouwmeester in 1998 and Ryan Hollweg in 1999. Medicine Hat’s director of player personnel Bobby Fox described draft day as like Christmas for his scouting staff. This will be his ninth draft at the helm of scouting and he said he’s very excited.
“I get excited for them, you work all year, you put the hours in the rink and you make sure you’re doing your due diligence and putting it put in the work,” Fox said. “This one in particular, there’s different elements with us because we’ve never had multiple picks this high and that’s exciting and obviously we’re gonna get a really special player at No. 1.”
On top of the first overall pick the Tigers will also select a player at 16 and will be back on the clock not long after with the first pick of the second round at 23. Fox said their approach with their top three picks is to take the best player available.
“We’re going to put together the list exactly how we want and how we pick guys, it’s not going to be by position. If it’s three forwards, fine, if it’s three defencemen, it’s the same thing,” Fox said. “It’s next-guy-up mentality and I don’t think you should draft for now. You can look obviously look at your roster now and you can project but there’s so many things that can change in the next two years when these guys are ready to play.”
Fox and his staff have been busy since the 2021 WHL prospect draft in December where the Tigers took Tomas Mrsic with the eighth overall pick. The last few weeks have included scouting the B.C. Cup with the top 160 players in B.C., the Alberta Cup featuring the top 120 Alberta players and talking with agents to discuss player options, commitment levels and do character checks.
Fox called the process of making phone calls to agents and conducting character checks a necessary evil as all scouts thrive in the rink evaluating talent. He said when calling agents or coaches they have to take all of the info with a grain of salt because of personal reasons.
“There’s situations where jealousy might be a factor,” fox said. “There might be situations where people just don’t get along and it’s tricky. I think you have to take in all the info but filter a bunch of it out as well.”
The Tigers have also been putting in work internationally, as they will hold a high pick in the July import draft. Head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins was in Germany at the U18 world championships in April.
Fox would not say who the Tigers were looking to take but said they have a player in mind, however they still have work to do before they announce the top pick.
The prospect among the 2007 draft class who has stood out the most this season has been forward Gavin McKenna out of Kelowna’s Rink Hockey Academy program. McKenna, who turned 14 years old back in December, led the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s U18 prep division with 65 points in 35 games.
With all sports drafts, but especially in junior hockey, the rewards for high draft picks don’t come to bloom for years down the line. When asked how he approaches that line of work, Fox said it’s a funny job that he’s lucky to have and said a lot of it rides on teenagers.
“I’m really lucky to have it but at the same time, these are 14-year-old guys and you can’t rip their chests open,” Fox said. “You can do as much as you want and you can try to project how bad these guys want it, but that’s what it really comes down to, who wants it the most. Who wants to be a player the most.”
U.S. Priority Draft
The Medicine Hat Tigers opted for a pair of forwards with their two picks in the WHL U.S. Priority Draft on Wednesday, selecting Max Silver and Ben Davis at 22nd and 23rd overall.
Silver, a Poway Calif. product, recorded 17 goals and nine assists in 18 games with the Fairmont Prep Warriors 15s this season.
Statistics for Davis – who hails from Denver and played this season with the Colorado Thunderbirds 14U – were not available.
