Saskatoon Blades select hometown kid Zach Moore with top pick

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Zach Moore is staying at home.

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Moore, who currently leads the Saskatoon Contacts in scoring with 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points in 20 games, was selected by the Blades in his hometown of Saskatoon, who waited until the second round to make their first pick. in the late game of the 2021 Western Hockey League Prospects. Rough draft.

“It’s a great feeling to grow up in Saskatoon and see every Blades game and now to be selected by my hometown – it’s a great feeling,” said Moore, a forward who was in the 32nd. choice in total. “You can play in front of all my family and friends. “

Moore was just one of 16 Saskatoon minor hockey products taken in the 2021 Draft and one of seven chosen contacts.

There were nine players chosen from rival Saskatoon Blazers with local ties.

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“It’s great to watch,” said Moore. “As you grow up and play with all these guys you can see that all of our hard work (pays off). It’s great to see all my friends playing somewhere.

Moore wasn’t sure the Blades were aiming for him.

“You know some things, but you don’t know exactly who you’re talking to,” he admitted. “When I got the phone call I was a little surprised, but it’s a great feeling.

“I think I bring a good aspect of leadership. I’m a good, positive guy in the locker room and bring good skills to the ice with my offense. I have a good attack and I can improve my teammates around me. I think that’s what they expect from me.

Blades general manager Colin Priestner said his team seemed to revolve around Moore.

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“He’s just the kind of guy that I can’t count the number of people who said to themselves, or Hilty (associate GM Steve Hildebrand) or (scouting director Dan) Tencer or (recruiter) Frank Dryka or our scout from Saskatchewan, that this kid is so special you gotta take him.

“I guess the guys just seem to be migrating to him over there. He’s the kind of guy you just want to help build your squad with and not only that, but he’s scoring at a pace that, in terms of goals, eclipses a lot of the better players in the draft.

“Having 10 goals in 20 games in the midget AAA at 15 is pretty remarkable and he just keeps getting better and better and we think he’s going to get even better and gives us a big potential forehand to the future who be a top six guy who can score goals and carry a letter to us.

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“It was exciting to bring him there.”

The Blades took a pair of Contacts. The other was defenseman Morgan Tastad, a Loreburn native who was selected in the ninth round, with the 194 pick.

In total, the Blades have selected 10 players, including five defenders, four forwards and a goalie.

“(Defense) was an area we wanted to look at, last year being a more advanced (project) after (Tanner) Molendyk,” Priestner said. “We took a lot of forwards in a row. It was a bit of a lopsided squad when it comes to the number of attackers against D. This year we wanted to make sure we had a good amount of defenders at the top of the game.

Three of the D-men shoot to the right.

“We’ve been very forward and D-oriented over the past couple of years and that was an area we wanted to tackle, if we could, this year,” Priestner noted.

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The Blades have bet on a few D-men whose lack of 100 percent commitment to the WHL, at this point, has likely hampered their draft order.

“We wanted to take several guys that we really, really like,” Priestner explained, “that (because) we have a really good place (to play), we can go out and recruit guys to be Blades at the. future and once they come in and see our building and feel comfortable with our staff and us, we’ll get some commitments from some of them. We took several guys in D, but I think he There are certainly special defenders in this mix.

One of them is Eric Emery, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 155 pounds, from Yale Hockey Academy. Emery, caught in the third round, is one of those precious D-men.

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“Emery is an elite player,” Priestner said. “He was arguably BC’s best defenseman at the WHL Cup and BC was the best team there by a good margin. The guy has pro potential all over him. He’s got really good athleticism, puck skills and everything. If he was 100% ready to commit to the league from the start, I think he would have been in the top 10. He also has American nationality. I think his father played professional sports in the United States. There’s a chance he’ll be a part of the national development team there and, if he does, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t play for us after those two years. If he’s not on that team, I think we’ll have a very good chance of landing him. It was a bit of a thought with this choice. We thought he was far too talented not to make that choice.

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The Blades selected three players in the third round, the others being Evan Gardner, G, Rink Hockey Academy, Lake Country BC, and Smyth Rebman, C, Rink Hockey Academy, Prince George BC.

Priestner called Smyth Rebman “one of my favorite players in the draft in terms of competition and he’s an absolute warrior in the center of the ice, a dog, a guy who makes life really hard for the center of other teams. , someone who will truly relish stepping into Prince Albert’s, the smallest barns in the world, I’m so excited to have him.

The picks were completed by: fourth round, 68th, Fraser Leonard, RD, Edge Hockey School, Cochrane, Alta; fifth round, 101st. Ryan Zaremba, LW, Regina Pat Canadiens, White City; fifth round, 106th, Michael Gallant, RD, Delta Hockey Academy, Langley, BC; eighth round, 175th pick, Finn McLaughlin, LD, Windy City Storm, Canmore, Alta; 10th round, 216th, Jackson Kostiuk, F, Rink Hockey Academy, Winnipeg, East St. Paul, Man.

dzary@postmedia.com

dzary@postmedia.com

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