For the first time since the 2021-22 Western Hockey League season, the Moose Jaw Warriors will have an import player with a last name that isn’t Rysavy or Baco.
The Warriors made a pair of selections in the 2023 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft on Wednesday morning, selecting a pair of forwards in the annual selection of top European-born players.
“We have some good relationships with agents and they’re able to help me out, they’re kind of my source to find European players since we obviously don’t go into Europe to scout,” said Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger. “So I rely on my connections out there and I think they found us a couple of good players.”
With the 48th overall selection in the first round, the Warriors added Slovakian forward Andrej Tomasec. The 2006-born product of Zlina, Slov. has played the past two seasons with KooKoo in the Finnish U16 and U18 leagues and is considered to have exceptional skating ability.
“He’s highly skilled and a great skater and has good hands,” Ripplinger said. “He’s an 06, and going into the draft we probably wanted to get little bit older with the Europeans, just with where our team is at, but he’ll fit in nicely with that group.”
A 5-foot-11, 181-pound right-winger, Tomasec played for both the KooKoo U16 and U18 teams in 2021-23, putting up 10 goals and 17 points in 21 games with the younger squad and seven goals and 13 points in 20 games with the older. In a full season with KooKoo U18 in 2022-23, Tomasec had 15 goals and 23 points across 33 games.
The Warriors used the 108th overall pick to add Czechia forward Patrik Kral. The 5-foot-11, 163-pound forward played with BK Mlada Boleslav in his home country at both the U17 and U20 levels the past two seasons.
“He has some offensive skill and maybe isn’t as good a skater as Tomasec, but he’s pretty crafty in a hockey sense,” Ripplinger said. “So we’ll see these kids develop and see where they are when they’re 18 and 19.”
Kral had 11 goals and 28 points in 28 games playing for the Boleslav U17s in 2021-22 . He followed that up by putting up nine goals and 28 points in 21 games for the U17s last season to go along with three goals and six points in 22 games with the U20s.
The Warriors have also retained the rights to overage forward Martin Rysavy pending how his NHL contract situation shakes out. Rysavy is hoping to land an entry-level deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but should that not happen, plans to be back in Moose Jaw for the upcoming campaign.
“It’s not for sure, which is why we drafted two Euros, so we’ll cross that path in the future once we know what’s happening,” Ripplinger said. “Marty is a good player and a good person and it’s not like we’re getting someone we don’t want. It would just be another decision we’d have to make with our 20-year-olds.”
For more on the Moose Jaw Warriors, be sure to visit their website at www.mjwarriors.ca and follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mjwarriors.
