The WHL's Prince George Cougars Are Set For The Future

 

There are a lot of teams in the WHL that have bright young cores. The Prince George Cougars are one of those teams. Even though they’ve been at the bottom of the standings for the past few seasons, they have been  stockpiling picks and have turned them into star prospects. Let’s see who these players are and project how they can do as Prince George Cougars! 

Young & Dynamic Forwards

There are a ton of really good and solid forwards for the Prince George Cougars. In the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft, they drafted forward Koehn Ziemmer fourth overall. Koehn is a player who can generate offense for you, go in and around the net, find teammates, play with pace, be a pest out there at times and an overall good leader. He’s already 6’0 185 lbs, so his body should be able to handle the WHL next season just fine. With their 26th pick in the 2019 Draft, they drafted forward Kyren Gronick. Kyren had no issues adjusting to the u18 game this season in the SMAAAHL He posted 49 points in 38 games. Kyren should hopefully be able to step in next year and hopefully make an impact. In the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft, the Cougars moved up from 4th to 2nd overall in the lottery and selected highly skilled and dynamic forward Riley Heidt from the Saskatoon Contacts u18 team from the SMAAAHL. Riley is a tremendous player. He describes his game that he’s a complete 200 ft player, smart and fast player and also tries to make his teammates around him better. Although he can’t play with the Cougars next season, he’s going to be on a very stacked contacts team and will hopefully dominate. With their 17th pick in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft, the Cougars selected RW Caden Brown from Delta Hockey Academy. Caden describes his game by saying that he’s a power forward style of player who can either play a heavy game or skill game. With their 22nd pick in this year's WHL Bantam Draft, Prince George picked forward Ryker Singer from the Lloydminster Bobcats u15 AAA squad. He doesn’t like to lose, he’s competitive and he’ll do whatever it takes to win. He should be a fun player to watch for Cougar fans when he arrives in 2021-22. Overall, Prince George has a very good young forward core who will look to damage as soon as they get to the WHL. 

The Bright Defensive Core: 

Prince George also has a solid defensive core led by 2019 WHL Bantam Draft 3rd overall pick, Keaton Dowhaniuk. Keaton will be Prince George’s number one defenceman for the future and rightfully so. He’s a two-way defenceman who can play in all three zones. He will play full time next season and will look to make an impact with Ziemmer. With their 36th pick in the 2019 Draft, they picked 6’1 defender Jaren Brinson. Jaren could potentially become a top four defender for the Cougars in the future. With their 26th pick in the 2020 Draft, they picked 5’10 defender Bauer Dumanski. Bauer will be another pillar on the Cougars blueline and will be playing with the Saskatoon Contacts u18 team next year. The Cougars have a lot to look forward to and the blueline will be fun to watch. 

Goaltenders: 

The Cougars have a very good goalie tandem for the future. They have Taylor Gauthier (2001) who they can have until Tyler Brennan (2003) can be their starter. They can probably get a ton of picks for him if someone is looking for a legit number one goalie. Both are legit netminders who will be able to stop pucks for the Cougars and they’re going to help the team rack up wins. 

The Prince George Cougars are going to be a very fun team in a few years and I can’t wait to watch them play and grow! 

By: Luka Tkalcevic (Instagram: luka_tkalcevic, futurehockeystars)