Wheat Kings Choose 11 in Bantam Draft

  The Brandon Wheat Kings chose Winnipeg product Stelio Mattheos with the first overall pick in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft Thursday, making him the fourth Manitoban ever selected at #1 and forever the answer to the trivia question ‘who is the only player the Wheat Kings have chosen first overall in the WHL Bantam Draft?’
 
  From all accounts, the 6-foot-2 1/2, 180 pound Mattheos is the complete package and the fact he happened to be Manitoban was the cherry on top of the sundae.
 
  There was some question on whether Mattheos would join the Western Hockey League or pursue the U.S. College route for the next stage of hockey career,  but he was quick to answer that question Thursday, saying he’s fully committed to the Brandon Wheat Kings and the WHL.
 
  "I want to be a great player in the NHL, and I thought that the WHL would be the best place for me to go," said Mattheos, "Brandon taking me really sealed the deal, I think, because it’s a great organization and, as an added bonus, it’s close to home."
 
  After the Wheat Kings selected first overall, the team add ten more prospects the rest of the day.
 
  Brandon selected five forwards, four defencemen and two goaltenders with six players from Manitoba, three from Alberta and one each from Saskatchewan and the state of Minnesota.
 
  "I was very happy with our staff and how prepared we were.  The picks that we made were guys we had in those slots.  It was a bit of a strange year where there wasn’t a lot of guys we had ranked really high that we were able to take in later rounds," said Wheat Kings Director of Scouting Wade Klippenstein, "We had a good mix of guys, couple of goaltenders, defence, forwards, guys from Manitoba, guys from other provinces.  Pretty happy, overall, with the mix of players."
 
  Here the list of Wheat Kings’ selections, along with the list of Western Manitobans chosen in the Bantam Draft…

WESTERN MANITOBANS