The wait was worth it for an Okotoks Bow Mark Oilers duo at the draft.
Bow Mark Oilers forward Conner Radke and goaltender Marek Schlenker heard their names called by the Kamloops Blazers and Portland Winterhawks, respectively, in the Western Hockey League Prospects Draft, belatedly held on Dec. 9 due to the impacts of the pandemic.
“They’re 15-year-olds but they play older than their age is,” said Bow Mark Oilers head coach Chris Beston. “They work hard, they commit to every practice, they put in the effort to get to where they are.
“They deserve to be here and it shows with the junior teams paying attention to them, for sure.”
Radke was the Blazers’ fifth-round selection, 109th overall.
The 15-year-old, who calls Langdon home, leads the Bow Mark Oilers in scoring with 19 points in 21 games.
“I was really nervous,” Radke said. “But it was very special to hear my name called. I went earlier than expected so it was really nice.
“It’s pretty special to be drafted at school with all of our friends around.”
Schlenker, an Okotokian, was the Winterhawks’ 8th round selection and 170th overall.
“It was definitely nerve-racking, especially as a goalie there’s not many guys that get picked,” Schlenker said. “Leading up to it, I was pretty nervous and then all day at school, I got picked right at the end of the school day in the eighth round.
“That was pretty crazy, my dad called me right away and I walked out of class. And our whole team came into our classrooms and congratulated us.”
Where the draft day experience didn’t converge for the Bow Mark teammates was on which teams came calling.
Schlenker said he spoke the most to the Winterhawks and if any team was going to take him it was likely going to be Portland.
For Radke, it was certainly not a case of predicting his landing spot.
“I talked to quite a few teams, but Kamloops I never said a word to,” Radke said. “I was really shocked to see my name called by them.”
Radke, a 5-foot-8, 150 pound forward has a strong track record through his minor hockey with a pair of MVP trophies from his Peewee days as well as a South Division championship with Wheatland prior to joining the Notre Dame Hounds program for one season.
“Conner is a complete player,” said Robbie Sandland, Kamloops’ director of player personnel, in a team release. “He works hard and can make plays. We think he will be a very good player.”
With the Bow Mark Oilers, Radke has earned the opportunity to play big minutes at even-strength and on the man-advantage.
“He has great vision, he’s very offensively talented,” Beston added. “He is the guy that quarterbacks our power play, we trust him as a 15 year-old to run our power play. He’s very gifted offensively and he battles and competes and has a little bit of an edge to him.”
Schlenker, a 5-foot-11 netminder, has impressed as a 15-year-old rookie in the U18 AEHL league with a .909 save percentage along with five wins and a shutout.
“Marek is a guy that just wants to work,” Beston said. “He wants to get better every day, day in and day out he comes to practice just wanting to get better. He’s a workhorse, he’s fundamentally sound and just a good all around goaltender.”
Both Radke and Schlenker said the postponed draft afforded them the time to make a top team like the U18 Oilers and further get opportunities to showcase their skills coming off a 2020-21 season that never really got off the ground amid the pandemic.
In normal years, the draft is held following players’ second season at the U15 level.
“I’m a firm believer the draft should be a year later because these kids when they (usually) draft them are 14-year’s old and you never really know what you’re going to get,” Beston said. “I think having that advantage of that extra year pays off for the junior teams and it pays off for the kids. They can develop a little bit more.”
