Wight one of nine BCHLers to make NHL Central Scouting’s final draft rankings list

For the third year in a row, the Merritt Centennials have had one of their players make the NHL Central Scouting’s Final Draft Rankings. This year, the honour goes to 18-year-old forward Jeff Wight, who is ranked 189th amongst draft-eligible North American skaters.

The NHL entry draft takes place on June 27 and 28 at the Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia.

In 2013, Cents’ defenceman Dane Birks was ranked 121st by Central Scouting in April of that year. He went on to be drafted in the sixth round, 164th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In 2012, it was another Merritt defenceman, Reece Willcox, who made Central Scouting’s final rankings. He was selected in the fifth round, 141st overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL entry draft two months later.

Wight is one of nine BCHL players who made Central Scouting’s final draft rankings for 2014. The others are Jason Cotton (West Kelowna, 162nd), former Centennial Dylan Chanter (Vernon, 164th), Evan Anderson (Salmon Arm, 179th), Jack Ramsey (Penticton, 181st), Brett Beauvais (Penticton, 190th), Luke Ripley (Powell River, limited viewing) along with goaltenders Alec Dillon (Victoria, 13th) and Jeff Smith (Powell River, 19th).

Three other BCHL players who had made Central Scouting’s midterm rankings in December did not appear on the final list that was released April 8. They are Salmon Arm’s Alex Gillies, as well as Vernon’s Mason Blacklock and Demico Hannoun.

In two seasons of playing at centre and on the wing with the Centennials, the six-foot two-inch, 181-pound Wight scored 37 goals and added 39 assists for 76 points in 105 regular season and playoff games.

In November, Wight and Birks were both members of the Canada West team that won a bronze medal at the World Junior A Challenge in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. In four WJAC games, Wight registered two goals and two assists.

Wight, who hails from Coquitlam, has signed a letter of commitment to play NCAA Division 1 hockey for the University of Connecticut Huskies, starting in September of either 2014 or 2015.

Express just keep rolling along

The Coquitlam Express are every bit the Cinderella story of this season’s British Columbia Hockey League playoffs.

Third-place finishers in the BCHL’s Coast division, the Express are now just two wins away from winning the Fred Page Cup, symbolic of supremacy in the premier Junior A league in Canada.Fred Page Cup_web

Leading two games to none, Coquitlam was slated to play the Vernon Vipers in game three of their best-of-seven final series last night. The result of the game was not available by press time.

Coquitlam’s road to the championship series has been an improbable one. It began with a convincing 4-2 first-round series win over the second-ranked Prince George Spruce Kings.

In a David versus Goliath second-round series, the Express stunned the Langley Rivermen — taking out the number-one ranked, regular-season champions four games to two. Coquitlam set the table for an upset by winning its first two games at the Langley Events Centre.

The upsets continued in the oddly-conceived third stage of this season’s playoffs — a round robin format involving the three remaining teams after round two.

The underdog by a huge margin against the Vipers and the Island-division champion Victoria Grizzlies, Coquitlam once again surprised the pundits by beating the Grizzled Ones twice in home and away games.

Vernon, too, shocked more than a few people by making it to the Fred Page final, but all season long, the Vipers had been labeled as a highly-talented group of underachievers. Theirs is more a journey of realization and vindication, while the Express are the ones defying the odds and manufacturing the stuff of legends.

Skating for the Coquitlam Express are a pair of 19-year-old former Merritt Centennials who have paid their dues in the Junior A game — forward Brendan Lamont and defenceman John Saunders. In 17 playoff games prior to Monday night, Lamont had one goal and five assists. Saunders, a rugged stay-at-home blueliner, has yet to record a point in the post-season.