A day after the local Western Hockey League team landed the 16th overall pick in the upcoming Prospects Draft, the team landed the 22nd and final selection for the first round of the U.S. Priority Draft, which takes place on Dec. 8, one day before the Prospects.
Some of the ‘bad luck’ is self-inflicted — the Warriors actually landed the fourth overall pick for the Prospects but had traded it to Brandon as part of the Kale Clague deal — but random chance is random chance.
“You know what, it’s been bad luck ever since I came into the league,” Ripplinger said with a rueful laugh. “I remember a long time ago in Vancouver we had our balls and Medicine Hat’s balls in the top five and P.A.’s came out. We ended making a trade up to get Gilbert Brule anyways (in 2002). Then the same year we took Tyler Benson (2013), Regina’s ball came out. So I’ve never had any success with the lottery.”
Thing is, there’s always plenty of talent in the lower picks. Brayden Point, for example, went 14th overall in 2014 and is now an NHL superstar. And more recently, Eric Alarie went 22nd overall in 2018 and is now an almost-certain NHL Draft pick this July.
“You look at his stats compared to guys who went higher than him, in a lot of cases it wasn’t even comparable,” Ripplinger said. “He basically had a point a game and 10 goals in 20 games, he performed a lot better than a lot of guys who were picked higher than him.
“As long as I have a pick in each round, that’s what I like. It doesn’t matter where we’re picking, we just work hard and do our due diligence and make sure we pick the right guy at the right time.”
When it comes to what the Warriors will be looking for when it comes to the draft, Ripplinger plans to follow a simple philosophy — follow the team’s scouting list, pick the best players available, trust the process. But if it comes down to equivalence between a forward and a defenceman, go with the ‘D’.
“Building from the backend out, if you can get goaltending and defence, that’s how I like to build teams,” Ripplinger said.
As for specific players to watch, a lot of that is still up in the air pending planned exhibition tournaments this summer as well as how things look once players return to the ice this fall — hence the early December draft dates when they would normally take place in the spring
“I don’t think there’s anything like last year with the top 10 guys, but saying that, we haven’t seen any of these kids,” Ripplinger said. “It seems like the (Saskatoon’s Berkley) Catton kid was probably going to be the first pick overall in my mind, but he’s going to Shattuck St. Mary’s. Other than that, no one has seen anyone for a whole year.
“We’re hoping everything starts to open up as soon as possible and some games start happening… as much as you like to have summer off, I don’t want summer off, I want to be able to go out and start watching some of these 06s already.”
