PHOTO COURTESY DAN HICKLING
The Medicine Hat Tigers selected Belarusian forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov with the 60th pick in the CHL Import Draft held on Wednesday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers had to wait a long time to make their lone pick in Wednesday’s CHL Import Draft.
The Tigers selected Belarusian forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov with the 60th pick, the second-last selection in the first round of the three-round draft. The 6-foot-3 lefty played in the USHL last season, putting up 10 goals and 17 points in 51 games with the Des Moines Buccaneers. The 18-year-old is committed to Merrimack College for 2026-27.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says they’re excited by his size and the fact that he’s already played a season of North American hockey.
“You looked at the Memorial Cup, there’s lots of big, big guys and you look at the NHL, there’s been lots of big players taken, so he’s a guy that’ll fit in,” Desjardins said. “He’s been over to North America, that helps. It always takes (import) players until basically after Christmas before they kind of get going, so he’s had a year under his belt. He’s a year older, too, so there’s lots of things that’ll make him ready to have a good year with us.”
Bryzgalov is just the second Belarusian player the Tigers have selected in the Import Draft since 1992, the first being forward Andrei Kostitsyn who did not play for the club.
The Tigers made just one selection in the draft Wednesday as they plan to have Finnish defencemen Veeti Väisänen and Niilopekka Muhonen back for a second season after being selected in the 2024 Import Draft. They’ve had a string of success as of late in the import draft, from Latvian defenceman Bogdans Hodass who played three seasons, to the two Fins.
“This is a really tough draft especially when you pick 60th, that’s a long ways down, so it’s hard to get good players,” Desjardins said. “I think we got a good one. I think we got a guy that can play and it’s good for us. The two guys we got last year have been good for us, it’s the same agency and they have a history of good players, so we’re excited about it.”
They also announced the signing of 18-year-old forward Gavin Kor from the USHL’s Fargo Force. The Rochester, Minn. product has played the last two seasons in the USHL, putting up three goals and 12 points in 52 games last season. He played 25 games in 2023-24 as a rookie, with two goals and five points, part of the Force’s championship season.
Kor was a first-round pick of the Portland Winterhawks in the 2022 U.S. Draft. He is the seventh U.S. player the Tigers have signed this calendar year, joining fellow 2007-born players forward Kade Stengrim, defenceman Kyler Heger and goaltender Carter Casey. They’ve also signed 2008-born forward Noah Davidson and 2009-born forwards Jaxson Craig and Owen Hayes.
Several signings have been made to address an offseason of change, with the graduation of forwards Mat Ward, captain Oasiz Wiesblatt and Cayden Lindstrom, who committed to play for Michigan State University. They will likely lose overage forwards Hunter St. Martin and Andrew Basha, who have signed NHL contracts with the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames respectively, and can play pro hockey next season.
Desjardins says they weren’t going to sit back and wanted to fill out the lineup ahead of their strength on defence and goaltending with the amount of returnees they’ll have.
“We’ve turned over a lot of forwards, we have a good defence and good goaltending but forwards, that’s a struggle for us this year with all the guys (graduating),” Desjardins said. “So you can kind of sit back, or you can be proactive and try to go get some guys if you’re going to fill in, and we’re proactive.
“We’ve got some players that I think are going to be good players for us, exciting players and that’s good. We’re young, but we’re good.”
The next moment on the calendar for the Tigers is training camp in the fall with the biggest question in the hockey world still looming. Where will Gavin McKenna play next season?
Elite Prospects’ content director Cam Robinson has reported the CHL and WHL player of the year has visited Michigan State University and Penn Sate University but is still yet to make a decision on whether he will return to the WHL or play in the NCAA next season. Robinson previously reported that forward Ryder Ritchie had committed to Boston University, a claim that is still yet to be confirmed.
With the amount of uncertainty surrounding the best player in the junior hockey in McKenna and his running mate in Ritchie, Desjardins says they will look to make the best of whatever answers they end up getting.
“We just have to make the best team we can but I think we have a really exciting team,” Desjardins said. “If you ever look at winning a championship, you start usually with your back end and goaltending and our defence, we’re as good as there is in the league. That defence will allow younger guys to play and I don’t think it’s any different from last year, we hit our stride after Christmas and that’s kind of where we’ll be again this year.
“We have a really exciting young group, with the Rucks coming in, (Shaeffer) Gordon-Carroll, the Davidson kid coming in. Davidson’s a really skilled player, Kor was Portland’s first-round pick in the U.S. draft. We’ve got some really good young players and our 16-year-olds in (Luke) Ruptash, Hayes and Craig, which is really exciting for us. It’s exciting to have a young group of talent, Bobby Fox has done a great job with the group.”
