Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers

By Victor Kaisar

WHL Prospects Draft

Blazers make 10 selections at 2025 WHL Prospects Draft

May 8, 2025 | 6:09 AM

KAMLOOPS — (UPDATE 2:30 p.m.): The Kamloops Blazers added 10 new players in the 2025 WHL Prospects Draft which wrapped up Thursday (May 8) afternoon.

They took five forwards, three defenceman and two goaltenders across the first 10 rounds of the draft. None of the Blazers’ draft picks were from British Columbia, as they took four players each from Alberta and Saskatchewan and two from Manitoba.

In the first round Wednesday afternoon, the Blazers took Winnipeg defenceman Mateo Ferreira 11th overall and took Falher, Alta. forward Teagen Bouchard three picks later at 14.

Ferreira scored 21 goals and 70 points in 32 games with the Winnipeg Bruins in Winnipeg AAA U-15 Hockey, good for second among defencemen and 11th overall in league scoring.

Bouchard scored 21 goals and 61 points in 30 games with Northern Alberta Xtreme’s U-15 prep team, good for 12 overall in scoring in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s (CSSHL) U-15 division. He also added one goal and two assists in three games with the U-18 team.

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The Blazers acquired the 11th overall pick from the Vancouver Giants in the Connor Levis trade and the 14th overall pick from the Saskatoon Blades in the Fraser Minten trade.

Thursday morning, the Blazers took forwards Brandy Ondrus from Sherwood Park and Dilin Coulter-Suttie from Saskatoon in the second (29th overall) and third round (53rd overall) respectively.

In rounds four and five, they returned to Alberta and took goaltender Lane Bullee from Red Deer (74th overall) and forward Briggs Fabro from Lethbridge (97th overall).

Kamloops rounded out its draft class with defencemen Kai Lanigan (166th overall) and Easton Green (177th overall) in the eighth round, forward Carter Wiggins (189th overall) in the ninth round, and goaltender Felix Derksen in the 10th round (212th overall).

Lanigan is from Regina, Green is from Winnipeg, while Wiggins and Derksen are both from Saskatoon.

There were four Kamloops kids drafted into the WHL this year – Cohen Baker in the first round to Prince George, Carter Mackenzie to Seattle in the fourth, as well as Deacon Gayfer to Tri-City and Cyrus Gurski to Spokane – both in the seventh round.

Baker, who was taken 17th overall, had 34 goals and 64 points in 33 games with Burnaby Winter Club’s U-15 prep team in 2024-25, good for eighth in scoring in the CSSHL U-15 division.

The Blazers also took a pair of California natives in Thursday’s U.S. Prospects Draft.

On Wednesday, they lost defenceman Kalan Anderlini to the Penticton Vees as part of the WHL Expansion Draft.

Also of note, the Everett Silvertips took forward Reid Nicol fifth overall using the Blazers’ pick that they acquired in the Olen Zellweger/Ryan Hofer trade in 2023. Nicol scored 35 goals and 58 points in 48 games for the U18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings U18 this past season.

– With files from Aaron Schulze/CFJC Today