The Seattle Thunderbirds selected right wing Payton Mount in the first round, 19th overall, in the Bantam Draft last Thursday.
Mount, a 5-foot-8 and 169-pound right-hand shot from Victoria, British Columbia, had 30 goals and 37 assists in 30 games with the Delta Hockey Academy Bantam Prep team this past season.
“Payton Mount is as a pure goal scorer as there is in this draft,” said Cal Filson, Thunderbirds director of player personnel. “He is a very intelligent player who is very good in all zones on the ice.”
In the second round, with the 41st overall pick, the T-Birds selected defenseman Tyrel Bauer from the Airdrie Extreme Bantam AAA team.
“Tyrel is the captain of his team and real leader. He is a big, strong, physical defenseman,” Filson said.
The 6-1, 189-pound Bauer had three goals and 14 assists in 36 games with Airdrie this season.
The T-Birds selected defenseman Luke Bateman (6-2, 177 pounds) in the fourth round, 85th overallt. Bateman, from Kamloops, British Columbia, had three goals and 23 assist in 57 games for the Thompson Zone 1 Bantam T1 team last season.
“Luke is a big, physical defenseman who really came on in the second half of the year,” Filson said. “He has a ton of upside and growth in his game and he is a real presence on the ice.”
In the seventh round, the T-Birds took right wing Greg Nelson and in the eighth round they selected goalie Ty Marcinkowski – who both played for the Camrose Red Wings Bantam AAA team. Nelson had 23 goals and 32 assists in 33 games with the Red Wings, and Marcinkowski had a 2.78 goals against average and a .922 save percentage with a 12-6-0 record.
The T-Birds selected forward Cameron Berg from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, in the ninth round.
“Cameron is a two-way forward that competes like an animal,” Filson said. “He thinks the game very well and makes his line mates better.”
Berg had 24 goals and 30 assists with 22 penalty minutes in 26 games for the White Bear Lake Bears 14UAA team this season.
Seattle selected left wing Josh Paulhus in the 10th round. Paulhus had 35 goals and 25 assists with 80 penalty minutes in 29 games with the Saskatoon Generals Bantam AA team this season.
The T-Birds had a second pick in the 10th round and used it to take defenseman Ian Kern from the Vancouver Thunderbirds Bantam A1 team.
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