Wheaties set to make three import picks

The Brandon Wheat Kings enter today’s Canadian Hockey League import draft looking for three European players for the first time.

The CHL made the decision in the off-season to add an extra import player, a decision that just happened to come during an exodus of major junior players with remaining eligibility to the college ranks.

With the trade of overage forward Dominik Petr to the Saskatoon Blades and the release of Slovakian defenceman Adam Belusko in the off-season, Brandon picks 43rd in the first round, and 95th and 104th picks overall in the second round. The 95th pick was acquired from the Portland Winterhawks for a sixth-round pick in 2029 on Monday.

That means the Western Hockey League club won’t use its third-round pick, which would have been 165th.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it’s a busy time as he makes contact with agents and National Hockey League clubs in the hunt for players willing to come to Brandon.

“This draft is so hard,” Murray said. “Our regular draft is hard enough. You don’t exactly know what’s going to be available to you. It’s literally months of information coming at you and seeing what’s available. You’re networking with your contacts and things like that. It’s not the easiest draft because obviously you can’t see the kids live but it is fun.”

The action begins this morning at 10 o’clock.

In years past, import draft picks couldn’t be traded, but that moratorium was lifted this year and there was some immediate action.

Last week, the Moose Jaw Warriors dealt the first overall pick to the Kelowna Rockets for a second-round pick at the 2025 CHL Import Draft (71st overall), a first-round WHL pick in 2026 and a third-round WHL pick in 2027.

The second overall pick was also moved, with the Brantford Bulldogs acquiring it from the Peterborough Petes for their second-round pick (111th overall) in the import draft, plus three Ontario Hockey League selections, a second-round pick in 2026, a third-round pick in 2027 and a third-round pick in 2028.

All trades had to be finalized two days before the draft.

“We just figured with us picking three, waiting again until (165), we just felt there might be some better options at that time and we could push that returning draft pick to them out as far as we could,” Murray said. “We just felt it was important to give ourselves the chance to get the best players. This is year one of this three-Euro draft so it will be interesting to look back on it and see what some teams did to navigate it.”

Clubs with no imports on their roster can draft three players, clubs with one import can draft two, clubs with two imports can draft once and teams with three imports are ineligible to take part.

The Victoriaville Tigres of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League select third, with the newest WHL club, the expansion Penticton Vees, making their first-ever selection 10th overall.

Since the first annual import draft began in 1992, nearly 2,200 players from outside of Canada and the United States have been selected.

Brandon has drafted some solid players in the past few years but really hasn’t found a star since they took goalie Jiri Patera with the 104th pick in 2018 and defenceman Ivan Provorov 25th in 2014.

With three imports on every team, the look of the event might be a bit different but Murray said it doesn’t fundamentally change his approach.

“We certainly want to get the best possible player,” Murray said. “It’s a challenge. It’s not the easiest draft. First, you have to ask if the player is coming over, how many other teams know about him and things are out of your control. It’s a challenge but we hope to get the best player available. There are some strategies in place too.”

The draft comes in a year of profound change that has roiled the major junior landscape after the NCAA decided to admit CHL players. For instance, the Wheat Kings lost their captain, defenceman Quinn Mantei, for his overage season when he chose to head to Providence College.

There have been some significant commitments around the WHL as well, including the Medicine Hat Tigers losing forwards Cayden Lindstrom and Ryder Ritchie, and the Victoria Royals parting ways with forward Cole Reschny and top young defenceman Keaton Verhoeff.

“There is a lot going on, that’s for sure,” Murray said. “Things have changed, especially with the college landscape. I think the one thing I really liked coming back from the U.S. to the Western Hockey League was your ability to kind of forecast rosters. This whole thing is so new it will probably take a few years to figure out how things are going to go.

“Certainly in the last year or so things have changed a lot. We’re just navigating through it every day.”

On the other side of the ledger, elite American players are beginning to connect with WHL teams because it won’t affect their college eligibility. The Wheat Kings have recently added 17-year-old Jimmy Egan and 15-year-old Levi Ellingsen, a pair of youngsters they likely wouldn’t have signed in years past.

“Those are big,” Murray said. “We’re talking about this changing landscape with NCAA being an option for CHL players, and we talk about the bad things a lot with losing players: Nobody wants to go down that road. But there are some things, like in the cases of Ellingsen and Egan where we’re probably going to get the opportunity to have a few more American kids coming our way.

“We’re high on them, they’re bigger kids with a good skill set and good teammates. We’re really looking forward to having them in the mix.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com