"It's a real good day for the Swift Current Broncos - we feel we had a good draft, and only time will tell if we've had a great one."

Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations, Dean Brockman, appeared as pleased as someone at the helm of a WHL organization's on-ice staff could be so soon after the 2020 Bantam Draft on Wednesday.

Brockman and the hockey ops staff selected 11 players and shuffled in a draft-day trade on the April 22 event - all players are listed below with their draft position, along with comments from the Broncos' bench boss.

Breaking down the prospects by position, Swift Current selected seven forwards, four defensemen, and a goaltender. Brockman noted that adaptation was needed as the draft developed. 

"It is always kind of 'best player available'. Once we got past the two forwards that we wanted, we saw those three defensemen there and took them consecutively because we felt that they're all going to be Western Hockey League players. Once you get to that point too, again it comes down to best player available or maybe needs throughout your depth chart."

The draft picks displayed a nice balance of character, skill, and size, according to Brockman as well.

The regional breakdown of the picks heavily favoured the eastern section of the league, and carried a decent dose of continuity. Swift Current drafted five players from Saskatchewan, five from Manitoba, and one from B.C.

Of those 10 players from the two eastern provinces in the WHL, there are two pairs of Bantam AAA teammates, four players from the Winnipeg area, and two from Saskatoon.

"That's just kind of the way it fell. We weren't going to prioritize [province]," Brockman said. "Obviously regional biases kind of help us out in that regard, but kind of where the players went is where we had them in our lineup or stacking. It wasn't anything in particular. There's always a connection when you can have multiple kids from a province. They all seem to play with each other throughout summer hockey or whatever it may be. When you can get a connection on one, it kind of leads to another."

1st Rd (21st overall): F- Brady Birnie (Regina, SK)

2nd Rd (42nd overall): F - Rylan Gould (Headingley, MB)
2nd Rd (44th overall): D - Grayson Burzynski (Winnipeg, MB)

3rd Rd (60th overall): D - Liam Saxberg (Winnipeg, MB)

4th Rd (67th overall): D - Nolan Stevenson (Shaunavon, SK)

4th Rd (68th overall): F - Tyson Yaremko (Saskatoon, SK)

Draft-Day Deal With Silvertips

The Broncos had another fourth-round selection to start the day, though they used that in a trade to acquire a proven forward in a much-needed age group.

Swift Current traded the 87th overall pick to the Everett Silvertips - a selection that originally belonged to the the club. In exchange, the Broncos received 2003-born forward Carter Halamandaris.

"We don't have a lot of [2003] prospects in there - a couple kids that'll play for us, but after that we didn't," said Brockman. "Carter's name came up earlier in the week. We thought we had the opportunity to get him. He's a character kid, he can score goals. There's a lot to like about him."

The product of Portage la Prairie, Man. was drafted in a similar position to the pick that was dealt to acquire him. The Silvertips took him 86th overall in 2018.

This past season with the Winnipeg Midget AAA Wild, Halamandaris had 35 goals and 63 points in 47 regular-season and playoff games as an alternate captain.

 "We just felt with the four fourths that we had, we felt comfortable in giving up one of them for a player that's going to be in our lineup next year," Brockman added.

4th Rd (88th overall): F - Van Eger (Willow Bunch, SK)

5th Rd (89th overall): F - Connor Gabriel (Saskatoon, SK)

5th Rd (109th overall): G - Joey Rocha (Nanaimo, BC)

7th Rd (133rd overall): F - Joey Lies (Flin Flon, MB)

10th Rd (199th overall): F - Brandon Funk (Winnipeg, MB)

As those hearing Brockman's comments can attest, the characteristic of 'character' was used in a plentiful manor by the Broncos' head coach.

"Character is a big thing. It's important that they have it. A lot of the families, they want to be coming to Swift Current and watching hockey games. Character's a really important ingredient," he said.

The next step during the off season for Brockman and the Broncos involves the steps that help the organization draw closer to the shift from a good to great draft, as noted to open.

"We're certainly going to recruit some of these kids. Obviously it'd be nice to go see them, but it's not going to happen, so we'll do a lot of meetings on the phone, we're going to obviously try and sign some of these guys, and prepare for camp," he said. "There's a lot of things on the go with the recent circumstances. You've got to always be able to adapt and change things."