Considering the circumstances, Langley Thunder general manager Rob Buchan was pleased with his draft haul.
The Thunder senior A lacrosse team has no picks in the first three rounds of the Western Lacrosse Association’s junior draft as the result of making trades and loading up in the past couple of seasons.
“(For) where we picked, I thought we did really good,” Buchan said.
“I thought we did very good with the picks we had.”
The annual draft for players born in 1992 was held on Feb. 6 at the Langley Events Centre.
Langley held the 27th and 28th overall picks — the final two of the fourth round — but swapped those to the Nanaimo Timbermen for the second pick in the fourth round, 22nd overall, which they used on Quinn Smith.
Smith, an offensive left-handed player, is from Kamloops and played his junior with New Westminster. He was ninth in the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League with 27 goals and 76 points.
“I had him pegged as a 14 or 15 (pick overall) so to get him at 22, so we were real happy with that,” Buchan said.
“Same with Adam Will — we got him at 29 (fifth round) — and he is a good two-way player and we thought he could have gone much earlier.”
Will comes from the Langley Junior Thunder program. He was fourth on the team with 23 goals and 52 points.
“Our intentions were to hopefully get one player who could make our team (this year) and contribute,” Buchan said.
“I think both of those kids will make our team and contribute for a number of years.”
The Thunder also drafted five other players: Nathan Henare, Nash Harrison, Michael Bosch, Keenan Staples and Garrett Span with their sixth through tenth round picks.
Henare, Bosch and Staples all played junior with Langley while the other two are from the Port Coquitlam junior squad.
“Any of those guys will have the same opportunity to come out and work hard and try and make the team,” Buchan said.
“Obviously the later in the draft (they are taken) the tougher it is for them, but guys in the past from the fifth and sixth rounds have ended up making our team.”
In addition to the three Jr. Thunder players taken in the draft by Langley, another 11 from the organization were also selected. Altogether, the Langley junior organization led the way with 15 players selected, followed by a dozen from Victoria, nine from New West and eight from Coquitlam.
Sean Lundstrom went in the second round (eighth overall) to New Westminster while Reegan Comeault, Brandon Bull and Nick Stone all went in the third round. Comeault went to Nanaimo while the other two were taken by Victoria.
Maple Ridge grabbed Zach Porter in the fourth round, Tyler Glebe went to Coquitlam in the fifth round and Matt Messenger (New Westminster) and Dylan Quinn (Maple Ridge) were taken in the sixth round. The seventh round saw Spencer England (New West) and Spencer Evans (Maple Ridge) selected while Brenden Kidd went to Maple Ridge in round eight.
Another Langley product, Brendan Rouse of the New Westminster Jr. Salmonbellies, went in the second round to Burnaby.
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Three of the draft picks, including Lundstrom, are also members of the National Lacrosse League’s Vancouver Stealth.
Tyler Garrison, a second-year member of the Stealth, was the top overall pick in the WLA draft, going to Coquitlam.
And Chris Wardle went in the second round to Victoria.
