The Power Dodge Estevan Bruins didn’t have to go too far to scout their top bantam draft pick this year.
The Bruins selected Carievale’s Turner McMillen of the Estevan TS&M bantam AA Bruins with 10th overall selection at Friday’s bantam draft in Nipawin at the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s annual league meetings.
McMillen scored 13 goals and 12 assists this season in 31 regular season games and added a pair of assists in the two playoff games they had. He also played a pair of games in the playoffs for the APEX midget AA Bruins as an affiliate player but has committed to the Prince Albert Mintos midget AAA program next season.
McMillen’s brother Cade is a defenceman and is also a member of the SJHL’s Bruins’ organization and played three playoff games this spring for the team.
Players eligible for the draft include players born in 2003 who aren’t automatically protected by being in individual teams’ protected areas, or any Notre Dame Hounds bantam players.
The Bruins dealt a few picks away in the year leading up to the draft and only had two picks in the first four rounds. With their fourth round pick, 45th overall, the Bruins picked up defenceman Blake Heward, a 5’11”, 154-pounder who scored five goals and 20 assists in 26 games with the Northern Alberta Bantam Prep team.
Goaltender Draydon Ramage was picked 57th overall in the fifth round by the Bruins. He played with the Prairie Storm last season, getting into 17 games and earning a 3.10 goals against average, which dropped to 1.89 in six playoff games.
In the sixth and final round, 69th overall, the Bruins took a flyer on Cole Sillinger. The son of NHLer Mike Sillinger, the 5’11”, 180 pound forward scored 46 goals and 37 assists in 30 regular season games for the Okanagan Hockey Academy Bantam Prep team.
Since the Bruins drafted him, Sillinger has signed a standard player agreement with the Medicine Hat Tigers, who drafted him 11th overall in the WHL bantam draft last month.
Elsewhere in the draft among local players, goaltender Zane Winter from Carlyle was selected by the Weyburn Red Wings with the second pick in the third round. Winter, who is 6’3”, 165 pounds, played 44 regular season games with the TS&M Bruins the last two seasons and seven in the playoffs in that span. He was also picked in the eighth round by the Red Deer Rebels in the WHL bantam draft.
