(Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).

By Aaron Schulze

Hawks SJHL Draft

Hawks take Martensville’s Tysen Durant in first of eight selections at the SJHL Draft

Jun 6, 2020 | 4:07 PM

The first three rounds of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) Draft were busy for the Nipawin Hawks.

On Friday, June 5, the Hawks were up early, taking Tysen Durant – a forward for the Martensville Marauders Bantam AA team who scored 26 goals and 36 assists in 30 games – with the fifth overall pick.

“It’s tough to find that power forward,” Hawks Head Coach and General Manager Doug Johnson said. “[Durant] brings a lot of character. You look at the points, but he’s not just a big guy who goes up and down the wall; there’s a lot of skill there. There were other kids we were looking at too, but at the end of the day he was a guy that came up early and often (in discussions). When it was time to go, he was a consensus pick.”

After the Hawks took Durant in the first round and Saskatoon Stallions forward Braeden Jockims in the second, Nipawin had to make quick decisions with three picks in the third: 28, 29, and 31.

“The first and second are important, but the third round is where we’re either going to make ourselves a phenomenal team or a mediocre team,” Johnson said. “We knew we wanted to try and take two defencemen in the third. Calvert, the forward, he was sitting there staring us in the face. We discussed him in the second round too.”

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Rowan Calvert, the mentioned forward, scored 24 goals and 21 assists in 31 games for the Moose Jaw Warriors Bantam AA team. The Hawks then got their two defencemen – Gavin Sawatzky from the Warman Wildats and Caden Dunn from the Prince Albert Pirates.

The complete 2020 Draft Class for the Hawks is:

• Forward Tysen Durant (Martensville) – Round One (Fifth Overall) – 52 points (26 goals and 26 assists) in 30 games for Martensville Marauders Bantam AA
• Forward Braeden Jockims (Saskatoon) – Round Two (17^th Overall) – 46 points (25 goals and 21 assists) in 31 games for Saskatoon Stallians Bantam AA
• Forward Rowan Calvert (Moose Jaw) – Round Three (28^th Overall) – 45 points (24 goals and 21 assists) in 31 games for Moose Jaw Bantam AA Warriors
• Defenceman Gavin Sawatzky (Hague) – Round Three (29^th Overall) – 18 points (11 goals and seven assists) in 29 games for Warman Wildcats Bantam AA
• Defenceman Caden Dunn (Prince Albert) – Round Three (31^st Overall) – 12 points (two goals and 10 assists) in 31 games for Prince Albert Pirates Bantam AA
• Defenceman Brendan Quinn-Lagria (Saskatoon) – Round Four (41^st Overall) – 23 points (seven goals and 16 assists) in 31 games for Saskatoon Bandits Bantam AA
• Forward Oakland Flodell (Saskatoon) – Round Five (53^rd Overall) – 32 points (11 goals and 21 assists) in 31 games for Martensville Marauders Bantam AA
• Defenceman Brock Potratz (Cochin) – Round Six (65^th Overall) – 33 points (17 goals and 16 assists) in 29 games for Battlefords Barons Bantam AA

Of the Hawks’ eight picks, only three were also selected in the 2020 Western Hockey League (WHL) Draft: Durant (Round Nine, 194^th Overall by Spokane), Calvert (Round Nine, 187^th Overall by Saskatoon), and Sawatzky (Round Seven, 151^st by Moose Jaw).

Johnson said it’s a fine line of selected the best player available who has a greater chance of playing in the SJHL than the WHL.

“If you pick the best Saskatchewan player, you’re never going to see him because he’s playing in the WHL,” he said. “If you even talk to the guys in the WHL, it’s an inexact science. They’re looking at guys from four different provinces and the States. Any kid can play in the WHL depending on their development in the next two years. You’re taking an educated guess based on the viewings and make a decision and you live with it, whether it’s good or bad, or whether you take a guy some people value as a fourth-rounder in the first, or get a guy you value in the first round in the fourth.”

No players in Northeast Saskatchewan (Melfort, Nipawin, Tisdale, and area) were selected by the Hawks in 2020. Since the SJHL Bantam Draft was established in 2015, the Hawks haven’t selected a player from a community within 140 km driving distance of Nipawin. Johnson said the location of a player isn’t a factor for the Hawks’ draft process.

“Off-ice (characteristics) is first and foremost,” he said. “If we can get a kid that’s close, that’s nice, but at the end of the day we want the best players. The board of directors has always done a phenomenal job of letting us do our thing and not putting restrictions on us saying ‘we need local players.’”

“Our fans want winners. Not once have I heard a fan say ‘we need more local players,’ they say ‘we want a winner and championships.’ I know there were some local players drafted today and they’re very good – I wish we could have drafted them – but it’s the round and where you’re comfortable with.”

The Hawks had Jordan Simoneau from Tisdale, Andrew Schaab from St. Brieux, and Davis Chorney from Nipawin as fulltime roster players from the northeast in 2019-20. Johnson said defenceman Kyler Opp is another Nipawin-born player who will have a shot to crack the Hawks roster in 2020.

Following the SJHL Draft, Johnson said the Hawks will continue recruiting potential players throughout the summer ahead of the 2020-21 SJHL season, if it goes forward.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow