May 7 is shaping up to be an extremely busy day for the Brandon Wheat Kings for reasons both exciting and nerve-wracking.
The exciting part is obvious. The WHL will hold the first round of the Prospect’s Draft tomorrow night at 6:00 Central Time and the Wheat Kings have a pair of first-round picks. What’s a little less exciting is the thought of losing a player in the expansion draft.
Before the WHL draft takes place, the Wheat Kings, and every other WHL franchise, will be waiting to see which of their listed players the Penticton Vees select in the expansion draft. The Vees will begin play in the B.C. Division next season.
“It’s certainly something new on the table, something we haven’t gone through before,” said Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We’ve spent a lot of time on it. I think I speak for everyone around the league when I say you don’t want to lose anybody, but it’s kind of the nature of the beast that we’re going to lose a player.”
This isn’t the first time the WHL has undergone an expansion draft (the Edmonton Oil Kings and Chilliwack Bruins, in 2007 and 2006 respectively, both had one) but it is the first time many of the executives around the league have been through one. Teams are allowed to protect either 16 players from their 50-player protected list (born from 2005-2008) or 14 such players and three 20-year-olds. In either case, they can also protect six players on their college list. This means the Wheat Kings can protect most of last year’s roster.
“We have a really good core group that we want to make sure doesn’t get exposed,” Murray said. “At the same time, there are some players there that we’re kind of cringing to think they might be taken. We’ll see what tomorrow brings… it’s maybe the only bad thing about having a deep roster and talent pool is you’re going to lose a player you don’t want to lose.”
The roster, however, is not the only pot the Vees can dip into. Listed players from those birth years, even those not signed, can be selected as well. So some of the team’s prospects from what looks to be a strong 2023 draft, for instance, are on the table. The one saving grace is players born in 2009 won’t be available for the Vees, whether they’re signed or not.
“To throw them into the mix would’ve really put things in a blender and there would’ve been some really, really good players available,” said Murray. “You take that as a win, I guess, but we are still going to lose a player we don’t want to lose.”
The Vees have a history of success in the BCHL, one that is very much ongoing (they’re in the league semi-finals at the moment against the Brooks Bandits) and being competitive right out of the gate would be huge for their franchise. With that in mind, might we see some of the wheeling and dealing that defined the NHL’s recent expansion conversations?
“You’ll more than likely see some deals come out tomorrow that were done prior,” Murray said. “It depends who’s available to them and who might be on the lists they receive. There very well could be some deals done up front, and a lot of guys will have submitted their lists today.”
The Vees, like the rest of the B.C. Division, will visit Brandon this season.
