It did not take long on Sunday morning for Virden’s Grady Lane to get some good news.
The son of Craig and Stacey Lane was picked first overall by the Winkler Flyers in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League Draft. The Flyers had traded Waywayseecappo their first round and sixth round pick to get their man.
“It is a huge honour being the first pick in the draft, but now I have to prove that it was a smart choice to pick me by working even harder on and off the ice,” Lane said.
Prior to MJHL Draft, two other local players received good news when Virden’s Braden Lewis and Oak Lake’s Hunter Wallace were informed they were the Virden Oil Capitals’ auto-protect selections.
“We’re looking forward to seeing both Braeden and Hunter progress and believe they’ll be become important players for us down the road,” said Oil Caps head coach Troy Leslie on the team’s website.
Each MJHL team can protect only two local players. Jamie Hodson, Virden’s director of business and hockey operations, said the organization wishes Lane all of best.Lane is excited about the future challenge of junior hockey.
“I am looking forward to working hard and getting better in junior hockey, for I can then go to the next level of hockey.”
This year’s draft picks, born in 2003, will now spend at least a season in midget hockey developing their game. Lane, Lewis, and Wallace are friends and played bantam AAA with the Southwest Cougars organization last season. They all hope to crack the Southwest Cougars midget AAA roster in the fall.
“If I am successful on making this team, I will be playing with more mature players across the province which will elevate my game even more,” Wallace said.
He emphasized the importance of family support in a hockey player’s success Wallace and Lewis both have family ties to the Oil Caps squad. Wallace’s brother Riley, a goalie, was a previous auto-protect pick and was an affiliate player for the team last season. Lewis’ brother Tanner was auto-protected by the team before playing parts of three seasons with the squad. Their father, Dale, is the Oil Capitals assistant coach.
“It's a huge honour to be protected by the team that I have been watching since they began in 2012,” Lewis said. “To be able to follow in the footsteps of my older brother is a dream come true. Tanner says there is nothing like walking through the tunnel before a game hearing the music and the cheers of the hometown fans before stepping on the ice.”
Grady Lane
The forward was picked in the eighth round of the Western Hockey League bantam draft by the Spokane Chiefs earlier this year. On the Flyers’ website, comments from that team’s coaching staff stated:
“Grady is a competitive kid and is hard to play against. He has the ability to make plays in small spaces and gets pucks and his body to the net. Great, unselfish teammate.”
He had 22 goals and 42 points in 35 games this past bantam season. His coach there, Jeff Dort, said that Lane’s strengths were he is a “Hard worker, physical, good shot, coachable, loves the game, and always willing to improve.”
Braeden Lewis
The son of Dale and Tracy Lewis was selected by the Swift Current Broncos in the sixth round of the WHL bantam draft. The forward had 23 goals and 47 points in 28 games for the Cougars.
Dort described him as “Skilled, hard worker, good shot, smart, coachable, loves the game, and quick hands/feet.”
Hunter Wallace
Wallace, a fellow forward, had 23 goals and 37 points in the bantam ranks last winter. Dort said the son of Tod and Penny Wallace is “Tough, skilled, a great teammate, coachable, loves the game, gritty, and always looking to improve.”
