How do you top off a record setting season that saw you win your second Ed Chynoweth Cup? Why you have six of your players selected in the NHL Entry Draft. Six for six as all six T-Birds rated by NHL Central Scouting were picked in the draft held in Nashville.
Technically, Seattle had six of ten players eligible for the 2023 draft chosen. This was Ashton McNelly's last year of eligibility. Same for Mekai Sanders and Sam Popowich. It was the first year of eligibility for Coster Dunn. The first three were never listed by Central Scouting. The pandemic, injuries, size, limited number of games, those are all factors for them. I'll be curious to see if any of that trio of older players gets an invite to an NHL development camp this summer. They are now free agents and while not drafted, they will, if they want to, find opportunities to play professional hockey, whether in North America or overseas, at some point in the future.
As for Dunn, to me he falls into that "limited viewing" category you often see on player rankings. He just played on a very, very deep team, which limited his opportunities to showcase his game. I consider him an unofficial "late birthday" type player. His 18-year old season will be more important than his 17-year old season. He's similar in that way to Reid Schaefer and Nico Myatovic. LIke thos two, Dunn was not a high WHL draft pick, taken in the 7th round of 2020. Dunn is going to get plenty of ice time though next season to see if he can grab the attention of the scouts the way Schaefer did in 2021-22 and Myatovic did this past season.
I'm buying Dunn as someone who will make enought noise to get noticed, if not next year, then the year after. Why? Because the same guy who told me Schaefer would get selected high in his draft (one season removed from a zero goal campaign), the same guy who told me Jared Davidson was going to be one of the best twenty-year olds in the WHL (When Davey was still an unknown sixteen year old camp invite), the same guy who told me in February that Myatovic and Sawyer Mynio wouldn't last past the third round of the NHL Draft this year, that guy told me Dunn has all the tools to join the list of recent T-Birds NHL draft picks.
Who is that guy who told me all those things? T-Birds GM Bil LaForge. And if I'm an NHL scout I'm trusting LaForge's track record enough to pay attention to Dunn and how he develops over the next two years. Look at the number of players the T-Birds have had drafted recently, not in their first year of draft eligibility but in their second or third go 'round: Matthew Wedman, Henrik Rybinski, Davidson, Thomas Milic and Jeremy Hanzel. All of that happening after LaForge arrived on the scene.
It's amazing to think that when we look back on the T-Birds 2023 WHL Championship team four or five years from now, we could be looking at a roster that, in the end was comprised of between sixteen and twenty-one NHL draft picks. I'd be shocked if defensemen Bryce Pickford and Hyde Davidson aren't somewhere on NHL Central Scoutings "One to Watch" list for the 2024 NHL Draft that will come out next September. Former T-Bird, now Kelowna Rocket, Tij Iginla will most assuredly be on that list as well. Seattle's hockey staff is unbelievabely high on Braeden Cootes who isn't draft eligible until 2025.
So, while the 2023 season may be over, the last chapter of this team's exploits has not yet been written.
Strange similarities to the draft stories of Reid Schaefer and Nico Myatovic. Both are mid to late round draft picks by the Thunderbirds. Schaefer was an eighth round pick by Seattle in the 2018 WHL Prospects Draft. His first "full" season with the T-birds was the pandemic shortened 2020-21 campaign, playing in just 18 of the 23 games. A late birthday, he wasn't eligible for the NHL Draft until 2022. He gets selected 32nd overall by Edmonton, the last pick of the first round.
Myatovic was a sixth round pick of the T-Birds in the 2019 WHL Prospects Draft. His first "full" season was the pandemic shortened 2020-21 campaign, although he wasn't orginally on the roster, he was called up and played 12 of the 23 games. He too was a late birthday so he wasn't eligible for the NHL Draft until 2023. This week he was selected 33rd overall, the first pick of the second round, by the Anaheim Ducks.
There were lots of feel good stories involving the Thunderbirds players at the NHL Draft this week in Nashville. Myatovic being the top pick of the second round and going ahead of a slew of WHL players that most pundits had rated ahead of him is one. Sawyer Mynio going from unranked by Central Scouting when the season began to a third round pick of Vancouver is right up there. Of course Jeremy Hanzel getting his name called by Colorado in the sixth rounds is shades of Jared Davidson last year when he was taken in the fifth round by Montreal.
But no story is better than the Thomas Milic story. Overlooked in the previous two NHL Drafts despite doing nothing but winning. Backstopping Canada to Gold at the World Juniors this winter. Being the WHL Playoff MVP as Seattle claimed the Chynoweth Cup. A 30-14 playoff record the past two seasons. Yet all it seemed anyone could see was his height, or lack thereof.
I almost felt it would be better for him to go undrafted, become a free agent, That way he'd be in charge and get to pick what team he wanted to go to. But there's nothing like hearing your mane called from that stage on draft day. He deserved it. I can only imagine the excitement within him on hearing the Winnipeg Jets make that selection! Milic Magic!
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