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Liam(15) Ruck was selected ninth overall by the Medicine Hat Tigers on Thursday in the first round of the WHL prospects draft. 13 picks later the Tigers took his twin brother, Markus Ruck with the 22nd overall pick.
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For the second Western Hockey League draft in a row, the Medicine Hat Tigers added two first-round talents to their prospect pool.
The Tigers selected twin brothers Liam and Markus Ruck from the Okanagan Hockey Academy U15 prep team with the ninth and 21st overall picks in Thursday’s prospect draft.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says the duo from Osoyoos, BC are an exciting add for the franchise and he is looking for them to have some magic together and be top-end players.
“The other guys who are coming in they’ve never played with anybody (on the team) but they’ll have an adjustment time as well,” Desjardins said. “It’s a different league but they’re good, too. Because they’re not just scorers, they’ll go into the tough areas, they play hard, they compete hard, they work hard. So it’ll be exciting to have those guys involved and you look at the group of forwards that we have to add them to and that’ll be pretty exciting.”
The 5-foot-11 Liam had 53 goals and 90 points in 27 games for Okanagan.
“It obviously feels really good, with Markus coming as well it’s way better,” Liam said.
“Medicine Hat’s a great place, good organization, it’s going to be fun.”
The Tigers originally held the ninth pick and before the first round could end, they made a trade with the Saskatoon Blades for the 21st overall pick. Medicine Hat sent the Blades their second round pick (29th overall), their fifth round selection (97th) and a 2024 second-round pick.
With that pick they selected Markus, the older twin, who stands at 5-foot-10 and had 22 goals and 87 points in 27 games. He says it stood out to him that Medicine Hat moved up to pick him.
“It’s just super exciting, the family was here and it was just a really cool experience for me and my family,” Markus said. “It just shows that they really love me and that makes me feel special. I can’t wait to join them.”
Desjardins says the move came from viewing Markus as a first-round talent and to ensure they could get both brothers.
“We had him right up top, those two guys were really high on our list,” Desjardins said. “That happens quite often where you’ll have a guy in the top three and no one else will have them and that’s where guys are good. So (Bobby) Foxxy had them real high and we knew we’d take one and the only reason we got the other one is because they said they wouldn’t play apart. That’s the only reason we got them, if they would have been two separate entities, Markus would have been gone way before 21.
“So at 29, we knew it was tough because teams are looking at it thinking, ‘This guy’s a top-five guy, how can I not take him, let’s hold Medicine Hat hostage a little bit.’ So we knew we had to move up and so we moved up to get him.”
When the dust settled on the draft, the Tigers were left with a haul of six forwards and four defencemen.
Third round
With the 53rd pick in the draft and their first since taking Markus, the Tigers picked right shot defenceman Koray Bozkaya from the Yale Hockey Academy U15 prep team. The 6-foot-2 Maple Ridge, B.C. product had 10 goals and 20 points in 24 games this season.
“He’s a real big guy, real competitive who plays hard,” Dejsardins said. “He’s good all over the ice, he has some offensive ability, he can defend, but just a guy who is a good all-round player but we liked his compete.”
Sixth round
The Tigers double dipped for the second time in the draft, going back to the Yale Academy with their 119th pick, selecting forward Brayden Ryan-Mackay, a 5-foot-5 Calgary product with 28 goals and 50 points in 28 games.
“He’s going to be great,” Desjardins said. “He’s really excited to come to the rink, he’s a guy that loves the game and it was too bad for him because he got hurt in the Alberta Cup within the first five minutes. That really put his value down, he would have been taken a lot higher if it wasn’t for that.”
Just eight picks later at 127, Medicine Hat went back to Okanagan and drafted defenceman Riley Steen. The 5-foot-11 Ladysmith, B.C. product had six goals and 36 points in 26 games.
“He played with the Rucks, that same team and is a really good skating defenceman,” Desjardins said. “He’s another guy we thought would go way higher, like, way higher. He has the ability to contribute from the back end.”
Seventh round
The Tigers made their first selection not from an academy team, drafting Sutton Verot 141st from the Regina Pat Blues U15AA. The 5-foot-9 Regina product had 32 goals and 57 points in 27 games for the Blues.
“He’s a hard player who plays hard, really competitive,” Desjardins said. “I asked him what his biggest strengths are and he said, ‘I work pretty hard but I just love the game and I love to get better.’ You couldn’t have had a better answer.”
Eighth round
With the 159th pick, Medicine Hat drafted forward Avery Watson from the Edmonton KC U15AAA Squires, the 5-foot-11 Edmonton product had 24 goals and 52 points in 34 games for the U15 club.
“Another real good player, a guy that has lots of offence to his game,” Desjardins said. “He’s a smart, skilled guy and I think he can grow and can get better and he has an upside.”
“We talked about that before (the draft), let’s take players with upside, let’s take players we think can get better,” Desjardins said. “Not necessarily where they are right now but where we think they can end up.”
Ninth round
In the ninth round with the 185th overall pick, the Tigers selected forward Liam Chartrand from the Pilot Mound HA U15 prep team. The 5-foot-10 Winnipegosis, Man. product had 15 goals and 34 points in 27 games for Pilot Mound.
“Just a good, all-around player who adds good skill to our group,” Desjardins said.
10th round
With the 207th pick in the draft the Tigers selected defenceman Tafari Chingwaru from the Edmonton MLAC U15AAA. The 5-foot-10 Edmonton product had four goals and 24 points in 33 games this season at the U15AAA level.
“I don’t know if he was hurt a little bit this year but certainly has the upside, he’s a good skater,” Desjardins said. “He’s a late birthday and he’s a guy we think can really develop and we’re really excited about him.”
11th round
The Tigers wrapped up their draft with the 229th pick, taking forward Matyas Fischer from the Los Angeles Jr. Kings U14 team. The 5-foot-10 California product had seven goals and 23 points in 31 games at the U14 level.
“He’s got a late birthday, he’s another guy where we talked to him yesterday about the American draft but I told him we would be taking him in this one today,” Desjardins said. “He was injured the year before so there’s a few things that might give him a chance to reach a certain level that some guys won’t.”
12th round
The first Medicine Hat product was selected in the 2023 draft, with defenceman Theron Bensler going to the Lethbridge Hurricanes 256th overall.
The next step for the Tigers is rookie camp with their newly drafted players and looking to put pen to paper and officially get them in the orange and black. Desjardins credits director of player personnel Bobby Fox and his scouting staff for their work heading into the draft and says they’ve earned some vacation time.
“You have to give a lot of credit to his staff, Bobby Fox especially, we kind of knew who was going to get picked on other teams ahead of time, his list was really good,” Desjardins said. “We’d be sitting there and the same in the U.S. draft, we’re going, ‘We have two guys we really want,’ one went a pick ahead and the one went right ahead of us, so he knew exactly the guys that were good and when they’d be going, he was really on task with that.
“They probably need a couple of weeks off just to recuperate but they were fantastic. We’re really happy and you look at our team, that comes out of the scouts and they’ve been good for us.”
