Regina Pats will pick first overall when the Western Hockey League (WHL) conducts its 2020 WHL Bantam Draft online beginning at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday (April 22).
Real-time results will be available at WHL.ca/draft, with commentary on the league’s Youtube channel.
Winners of a draft lottery last month, the Pats have announced they will select North Vancouver’s Connor Bedard, the first exceptional-status player in WHL history, and have already signed Bedard to a WHL Standard Player Agreement. “Connor Bedard #98” t-shirts are being sold at PatsStore.ca.
The Langley-based Vancouver Giants are slated to pick 10th in Wednesday’s draft, which will involve 22 first-round picks by WHL clubs.
CLICK HERE to read a draft preview of Bedard and other B.C.-based players on the WHL’s website.
Meantime, On Monday (April 20), Giants GM Barclay Parneta announced the team’s acquisition of 2001-born forward Adam Hall from Lethbridge Hurricanes in exchange for a conditional seventh-round draft pick in the 2022 WHL Bantam Draft.
Originally selected by Lethbridge in the eighth round of the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft, the Edmonton-raised Hall has suited up in 40 career regular season games with Lethbridge over the previous two seasons. During that span he registered one goal along with four assists and 14 penalty minutes. He checks in at 6’2″, 212 pounds and is a left-handed shot.
Hall spent most of the 2019-20 season with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints where he managed seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points in 36 games. He added one goal and one assist in six playoff games.
• RELATED STORY: North Delta’s Kovacs signs with WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.comLike us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram and follow Tom on Twitter
