There was some tense waiting in the Brandon Wheat Kings’ office, but the tension ended with them calling the name they’d wanted to all along.
The Wheat Kings traded their first round pick (15th overall) back three slots with the Saskatoon Blades to pick up a third round pick in the WHL prospects draft, knowing they were going to get someone they wanted. The player they got: forward Rylan Edwards, the one they’d wanted at 15th overall to begin with.
“I’m extremely happy,” said Wheat Kings director of hockey operations Chris Moulton. “He was one of many, there were a lot of good players. He was one of the guys we liked a lot and coveted. He was one of the ones we thought would be a great fit for our program. When the pick came with us going from 15 to 18, we had about five guys we liked and we thought ‘Well, we’re going to get one of them so let’s roll the dice a bit,’ but the fact is he was the top guy at the time. We still got the guy we were going to take at 15 which is great.”
Edwards has been an offensive dynamo with a competitive edge both last season and in years prior. Last season, he posted an impressive 43 points in 28 games with NAX, and the year before he was almost unstoppable in the Sask U15 ranks with Regina, putting up 72 points in 27 games to lead his team in scoring even though he was a year younger than most of his competition. In fact, he was a top-six scorer in the league despite being one of the youngest players there.
“Him and a bunch of guys that played in Saskatchewan went to schools,” said Moulton. “We were excited that he went to a great program, the fact that we could watch him and monitor his progress for two years has been great. He was lights out as a first year, and sometimes that doesn’t transition, but for him he managed very well and showed how good of a player he was.”
There was an odd sense of deja vu in the Wheat Kings’ draft room after the trade. Last year, the Wheat Kings had hoped for and ultimately gotten defenseman Cruz Jim from NAX. What Moulton described as an oddly superstitious atmosphere settled in before the pick was made, and the same was true this year as they waited to see if Edwards would fall to them.
“I’m that weird superstitious guy,” Moulton said. “I’m telling guys to shut it, I tell guys not to mention names when we talk near the end, I say let’s talk about defensemen and forwards and not mention names. It’s a weird thing where sometimes when we mention a name, they go. We just basically wait and hold our breath a little bit and we hope.”
Edwards may have spent last season at NAX (a program the Wheat Kings are well familiar with by now, as three of their top prospects played their last season) but he’ll be at another equally familiar program in 2026-27. His plan is to play for the Regina Pat Canadians, whom the Wheat Kings have trusted with several of their top prospects’ development in the last two seasons.
“That’s a big deal for us, we look at where they’re going to play,” said Moulton. “We know this player is highly regarded by the people in Regina, he works out with kids we know, families in Regina know the young man, and he plays in a program where just in the last little while we’ve had Ethan Young and Chase Surkan, we have Logan Dosenberger there now, we’re very comfortable with the job that Ryan Hodgins and previous coaches have done in Regina.”
The Wheat Kings will pick in the second round at 42nd overall. The remaining rounds of the Prospects Draft begin tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM Central Time.
