Albertans go 1-2 at 2017 WHL Bantam Draft | Full list of Albertans drafted

For the third straight year, an Albertan has been selected first overall at the 2017 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft. In total, 74 players from Alberta were drafted, one more than in 2016.

2017 Alberta Cup All-Star Kaiden Guhle (Sherwood Park) was the top pick in the draft, going to the Prince Albert Raiders. Connor McLennan (Wainwright) was selected right after by the Kootenay Ice, giving Alberta yet another 1-2 punch at the draft.Another Alberta Cup All-Star, Garin Bjorklund (Calgary), was the first goaltender taken in the draft, going 21st overall to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Seven Albertans went in the top 10 picks, and 11 player were selected in the first round, the most of the four Western provinces.

Fourty of the players drafted are forwards, 25 are defence, and nine are goaltenders.

A recap of the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft can be found by clicking here.

Pick	Player	Team	Position	Hometown
FIRST ROUND
1st	Kaiden Guhle	Prince Albert Raiders	Defence	Sherwood Park
2nd	Connor McClennon	Kootenay Ice	Forward	Wainwright
4th	Jake Neighbours	Edmonton Oil Kings	Forward	Airdrie
7th	Luke Prokop	Calgary Hitmen	Defence	Edmonton
8th	Ridly Greig	Brandon Wheat Kings	Forward	Lethbridge
9th	Joel Sexsmith	Swift Current Broncos	Defence	Edmonton
10th	Kyle Crnkovic	Saskatoon Blades	Forward	Chestermere
16th	Noah Boyko	Lethbridge Hurricanes	Forward	Redwater
20th	Ronan Seeley	Everett Silvertips	Defence	Olds
21st	Garin Bjorklund	Medicine Hat Tigers	Goalie	Calgary
22nd	Ethan Rowland	Red Deer Rebels	Forward	Calgary
SECOND ROUND
23rd	Anson McMaster	Kootenay Ice	Defence	Siksika
25th	Ozzy Wiesblatt	Prince Albert Raiders	Forward	Calgary
26th	Logan Dowhaniuk	Edmonton Oil Kings	Defence	Camrose
31st	Braden Plaschewsky	Saskatoon Blades	Forward	Calgary
32nd	Dallon Melin	Victoria Royals	Forward	Camrose
36th	Sebastian Cossa	Edmonton Oil Kings	Goalie	Fort McMurray
41st	Tyrel Bauer	Seattle Thunderbirds	Defence	Cochrane
43rd	Scout Truman	Medicine Hat Tigers	Forward	Lethbridge
THIRD ROUND
46th	Krz Plummer	Vancouver Giants	Forward	Whitecourt
48th	Raphael Pelletier	Edmonton Oil Kings	Forward	St. Albert
52nd	Kaden Reinders	Victoria Royals	Defence	Grande Prairie
53rd	Talyn Boyko	Tri-City Americans	Goalie	Drumheller
59th	Peyton McKenzie	Moose Jaw Warriors	Forward	Sherwood Park
63rd	Jordan Borysiuk	Red Deer Rebels	Forward	Mannville
66th	Sheldon Kwiatkowski	Calgary Hitmen	Forward	Grande Prairie
FOURTH ROUND
67th	Jake Sanderson	Kootenay Ice	Defence	Calgary
71st	Cole Carrier	Kelowna Rockets	Forward	Strathcona
74th	Jack Zayat	Brandon Wheat Kings	Defence	Calgary
79th	Cole Dubinsky	Regina Pats	Forward	Ardrossan
82nd	Jarod Newell	Tri-City Americans	Defence	Wainwright
86th	Blake Lyda	Everett Silvertips	Goalie	Edmonton
87th	Noah Danielson	Medicine Hat Tigers	Forward	Olds
FIFTH ROUND
89th	Owen Pederson	Kootenay Ice	Forward	Stony Plain
92nd	Samuel McGinley	Regina Pats	Defence	Calgary
93rd	Ty Yoder	Victoria Royals	Forward	Camrose
95th	Braydan Peters	Calgary Hitmen	Goalie	Taber
107th	Jace Isley	Red Deer Rebels	Defence	Grande Prairie
108th	Brayden Morrison	Everett Silvertips	Forward	Calgary
110th	Brett Meerman	Medicine Hat Tigers	Forward	Blackfalds
SIXTH ROUND
111th	Benjamin Zloty	Kootenay Ice	Defence	Calgary
117th	Alex Thacker	Swift Current Broncos	Forward	St. Albert
118th	Noah Lamb	Victoria Royals	Defence	Camrose
124th	Jackson Berry	Moose Jaw Warriors	Goalie	Chestermere
131st	Kadyn Chabot	Medicine Hat Tigers	Forward	Lethbridge
SEVENTH ROUND
133rd	Gage Alexander	Kootenay Ice	Goalie	Okotoks
136th	Brendan Kuny	Edmonton Oil Kings	Forward	Camrose
139th	Greg Nelson	Seattle Thunderbirds	Forward	Veteran
142nd	Michael Benning	Victoria Royals	Defence	St. Albert
148th	Riley Fiddler-Schultz	Calgary	Forward	Edmonton
151st	Riley Ginnell	Kamloops Blazers	Forward	Calgary
152nd	Ryley Morgan	Everett Silvertips	Forward	St. Albert
154th	Daron Cyr	Swift Current Broncos	Defence	St. Albert
EIGHTH ROUND
157th	Cole Tisdale	Kelowna Rockets	Goalie	Lethbridge
162nd	Bode Hagan	Brandon Wheat Kings	Forward	Beaumont
163rd	Chase Leslie	Red Deer	Defence	Camrose
165th	Ethan Edwards	Portland Winterhawks	Defence	St. Albert
167th	Nickolas De Beurs	Red Deer Rebels	Forward	Cochrane
173rd	Ty Marcinkowski	Seattle Thunderbirds	Goalie	Camrose
NINTH ROUND
177th	Aidan Bangs	Regina Pats	Forward	Calgary
187th	Jacob Boucher	Lethbridge Hurricanes	Forward	St. Albert
193rd	Robert Kincaid	Kelowna Rockets	Defence	Barrhead
197th	Brayden Kapty	Medicine Hat Tigers	Defence	Coalhurst
198th	Carter Savoie	Regina Pats	Forward	St. Albert
TENTH ROUND
204th	Ethan Leyer	Portland Winterhawks	Forward	St. Albert
207th	Blake Gustafson	Red Deer Rebels	Defence	Sherwood Park
211th	Daylan Kuefler	Kamloops Blazers	Forward	Stettler
216th	Stephen Rosier	Medicine Hat Tigers	Forward	Calgary
ELEVENTH Round
218th	Hale Schoneck	Calgary Hitmen	Defence	Calgary
219th	Nathan Morgan	Victoria Royals	Forward	Calgary
222nd	Maxwell Goldade	Everett Silvertips	Defence	Calgary
223rd	Tyler Bates	Medicine Hat Tigers	Defence	Calgary
224th	Jared Miller	Regina Pats	Forward	Crossfield
TWELFTH ROUND
227th	Austin Spiridakis	Everett Silvertips	Forward	Sturgeon County

RED DEER - While it’s a common sight every winter to see outdoor rinks across Canada full of youngsters learning to skate, you’ll also see the odd adult hitting the ice for the very first time.

Although admittedly “late to the party”, Duane Moleni took the opportunity this past winter to embrace Canada’s pastime. Originally from New Zealand, he moved to Canada 11 years ago, but only decided to learn to skate this year.

“Peer pressure,” Moleni said of his motivation to take up hockey. “When you’re in a country like Canada, and hockey’s a national sport, I think I’d being doing a disservice to myself if I didn’t come out and try to at least learn to skate. Winter in most parts of this country is six-plus months long, so I’d go crazy if I didn’t come out and do this.”

Moleni works with the Central Alberta Refugee Effort (C.A.R.E.), which hosted the Learn to Skate in Red Deer, an initiative the Hockey Alberta Foundation partnered to help deliver. The Learn to Skate program ran Saturdays during the winter at an outdoor community rink, offering New Canadians of all skill levels a chance to play hockey, or learn the basics of the game.

“It’s fantastic, the facility and the ice is fantastic, as is the support from the Hockey Alberta Foundation,” Moleni said. “You’ve got kids playing hockey, and you’ve got kids who are learning to skate working with coaches as well, which is where I’m at. It’s fantastic, just little techniques that when I first started learning how to skate, I had no idea, and no one showed me what to do or gave me any tips, so it’s just helping me get that confidence to keep going and try and a little bit harder, and do a little bit more, and lo and behold, I’ll be doing a toe-pick triple-axle in no time.”

A former Rugby player, Moleni said the concept of hockey is something he’s still learning, even after living in Canada for more than ten years.

“It blows my mind that in this sport, you can go crazy fast on a surface like ice, with steel blades that are miniscule, and you make it look effortless," he said. "Then you throw in a puck and stick-handling, and navigating through players that are out there that are allowed to hit you, it blows my mind, that’s why I love the sport.”

After more than a decade of watching the sport, Moleni can pinpoint his love of the sport to one source - one of the hardest-hitting, toughest hockey players of all-time.

“When I first started watching the sport, Scott Stevens was (my idol), he was awesome," Moleni said. "He’s big, he’s strong, skates really well obviously, but the guy was just physically dominant. That’s not what hockey’s about, and hockey has changed since then.”

Moleni’s determination and attitude caught the attention of many at the rink, especially the people who were helping him.

"Duane is one of the big reasons why we had so much fun working with the C.A.R.E. program this winter," said Tim Leer, the Hockey Albert Foundation’s Executive Director. "Although we were there as part of the Every Kid Every Community program, Duane proved that it’s never too late to learn how to play."

With a full season on the ice now under his belt, Moleni said he’ll continue to work on his skating and skills, and without a doubt will be found out on the ice once again every Saturday this coming winter.

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Hockey Alberta is proud to unveil a new section at hockeyalberta.ca. Home Ice Feature stories will focus on interesting stories about the individuals and groups who make a difference within the hockey community in Alberta. If you have a suggestion for a Home Ice Feature story, email [email protected].

LETHBRIDGE - After a slow start to the tournament, South Black defeated North Grey 4-1 to capture the 2017 Peewee Prospects Cup.

South Black and North Grey both lost their first games of the week, but both rebounded to finish second in their respective pools, and won their semi-final games to earn a berth in the championship final.

It’s an extra-special victory for South Black Captain Liam Watkins and teammate Gavin Schmidt, as their older brothers Lucas and Hayden won the Alberta Cup with Team South just two weeks prior.

South Black’s win also marked a clean sweep for South teams this year, with South winning the Alberta Cup, and South Black winning the Alberta Challenge.

Prior to the Championship game, the 2015 Peewee Prospects Cup Champions, Capital Green claimed third place with a 5-1 win over Calgary White.

The next Peewee Prospects Cup will be held in 2019.

Schedule/Results > | Roster >

CALGARY - Six Albertans were on the list as Hockey Canada announced it’s 28-player Olympic Centralized roster on Thursday.

Goaltender Shannon Szabados (Edmonton) and Defender Meaghan Mikkelson (St. Albert) were both selected as players. Melody Davidson, James Emery (Calgary), Brad Kirkwood (Calgary), and Christine Atkins (Fort Mcleod) are all a part of the team staff.

Szabados, Mikkelson, and 26 other players will be centralized in Calgary throughout the 2017-18 season in preparation for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Emerance Maschmeyer (Bruderheim) is one of two alternate goaltenders who will be available to support the centralization roster throughout the 2017-18 season but will remain with their club teams.

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Hockey Alberta is proud to unveil a new section at hockeyalberta.ca. Home Ice Feature stories will focus on interesting stories about the individuals and groups who make a difference within the hockey community in Alberta. If you have a suggestion for a Home Ice Feature story, email [email protected].

OLDS - South Black went wire-to-wire as the tournament’s top team to win the 2017 Alberta Challenge.

South Black went undefeated (4-0-1) through the tournament, and clinched the Alberta Challenge with a 1-0 win over South White.

This is a special win for South Black’s DOP Val Alexander, who’s daughter Cylenna won the last Alberta Challenge as DOP with the North Predators in 2015. Alexander was also in competition with daughter Channia this weekend, who served as DOP for the North Grey team.

South Green claimed bronze earlier in the day. A couple of second period goals saw them defeat the third place ranked South Yellow by a score of 2-1.

Earlier in the day North Blue defeated North Grey by a score of 3-1 to claim fifth place in the tournment.

2017 is the first year the Alberta Challenge has been held in Olds. The next Alberta Challenge will take place in 2019.

Standings > | Leaders > | Schedule >

Day One Recap > | Day Two Recap > | Day Three Recap >

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5TH Place

North Blue 3 - North Grey 1

Players of the Game: North Blue - #10 Alexis Butz | North Grey -#9 Payton Basterash

Boxscore >

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Bronze Final

South Green 2 - North Yellow 1

Players of the Game: South Green- #16 Isobel Pettem-Shand | North Yellow - #9 Jillian Gulli

Boxscore >

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Gold Final

South Black 1 - South White 0

Players of the Game: South Black - #17 Josie McLeod | South White - #4 Gracie Gilkyson

Boxscore >

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Alberta Built Player of the Day

The Alberta Built player of the day is the athlete who best exemplifies the qualities of an "Alberta Built" player. Alberta Built is defined as:

1 - Good person - Know who you are.
2 - Character player - Believe in yourself.
3 - Grit player - Thrive on adversity
4 - Leadership - Treat yourself & people right
5 - Standard of performance - Focused approach on process - ALWAYS COMPETE - EVERY-DAYERS