Nate Danielson’s meeting with the Brandon Wheat Kings’ coaching staff had just ended at the Keystone Centre in Brandon, Manitoba, home of one of the Western Hockey League’s most successful franchises.
Danielson, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound center with the Wheat Kings and a possible draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings with the ninth or 17th selections in the first round of this year’s NHL Draft in Nashville on June 28-29, compared his game to first-line NHL centers Nick Suzuki of the Montreal Canadiens and Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames.
Wheat Kings head coach and GM Marty Murray liked the comparisons to Suzuki and Lindholm, but he added another top-flight player familiar to Red Wings fans: Dylan Cozens. Cozens was drafted seventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 2019, one pick after Detroit selected Moritz Seider, the cornerstone of Steve Yzerman’s rebuild and Calder Trophy winner as top rookie in 2022.
“When Nate left the office, I talked to the assistant coaches (Mark Derlago and Del Pedrick) and they thought Dylan Cozens was another player to look up to and model his game after,” Murray said.
“Dylan just had a breakout year in Buffalo (31 goals after a 13-goal season in 2021-22) and Nate does a lot of similar things on the ice. Dylan is a little bigger (6-3) but they’re both reliable, 200-foot centers. Nate drives our team. As Nate Danielson goes, so do the Brandon Wheat Kings.”
Danielson’s draft stock rose to No. 7 from No. 13 in the final NHL Central Scouting ratings for North American skaters last month. The 18-year-old native of Red Deer, Alberta, led the Wheat Kings in scoring with 33 goals and 78 points in 68 games and his offensive game has mirrored Cozen’s steady progress from 22 to 34 to 38 goals with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes from 2017-20.
“I think I have a lot of the same sort of attributes as him (Cozens),” Danielson said. “I’m a big centerman who can play with speed through the middle of the ice and be responsible defensively. Offensively, I definitely feel I have that ability in me. I had times this year when my offense dried up, but I thought I got better as the year went along and I was able to get into my groove.”
Danielson is part of one of the deepest groups of WHL prospects for the NHL Draft. Since 1967, 333 players from the WHL have been selected in the first round. Twice there have been 10 first-rounders taken, including the Red Wings’ Murray Craven (Medicine Hat Tigers, 1982) and Rick Lapointe (Victoria Cougars, 1975).
This year, Connor Bedard, the consensus No. 1 pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, leads a star-studded cast of WHL centers along with Brayden Yager (Moose Jaw Warriors), Zach Benson (Winnipeg Ice) and Riley Heidt (Prince George Cougars).
Bedard and Danielson met head-to-head four times this year with Bedard’s Regina Pats coming out on top in every game, including Bedard’s tip-in goal with less than two minutes to play for his only point after Danielson tied the game on Feb. 24.
Yzerman met face-to-face with Bedard for 45 minutes at last year’s NHL Draft in Montreal when Bedard’s agency, Newport Sports Management, set up GM interviews with Yzerman, Boston’s Don Sweeney and Chicago’s Kyle Davidson.
“Everyone sees how good he is,” Danielson said. “The numbers don’t lie (71 goals and 143 points in 57 games). He’s a special player. It’s difficult playing against him because you just never know what he’s going to do. On that winning goal, he made a nice tip from a point shot.”
The Red Wings have drafted only three WHL players in the first round in the last 26 years: Sebastian Cossa (Edmonton Oil Kings, 2021), Michael Rasmussen (Tri-City Americans, 2017) and current Detroit chief scout Jesse Wallin (Red Deer Rebels, 1996). Since Yzerman became GM in 2019, Detroit has selected three WHL players: Cossa, Cross Hanas (Portland Winterhawks, 2020) and Alex Cotton (Lethbridge, 2020).
In contrast, the Vegas Golden Knights, who’ve been built by former Wheat Kings GM Kelly McCrimmon and are two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup, have acquired six WHL players (Mark Stone, Shea Theodore, Chandler Stephenson, Brayden McNabb, Keegan Kolesar) and signed free agent Zach Whitecloud of Brandon.
“The league (WHL) turns boys into men,” said Murray, who had 392 points in 264 games with the Wheat Kings from 1991-95 and 73 points in 261 NHL games with Calgary, Philadelphia and Los Angeles from 1995-2007.
“Geographically, travel isn’t easy and it takes its toll on the body. Our closest game is two hours away in Winnipeg and we’re four hours from Regina and nearly five hours to Moose Jaw. It’s like a pro schedule and it’s appealing to NHL teams because of the grind they have to go through. They battle every night and grow up quickly.”
Danielson, whose older brother Noah played three years in the WHL with Medicine Hat and will attend the University of Western in London, Ontario, said long road trips are “something everyone does to be a hockey player,” even if it means getting home at noon the next day from a different province.
This week, Danielson and 20 other WHL players have been working out and meeting with the 32 NHL teams at the league’s scouting combine in Buffalo. Danielson said he’s talked to the Red Wings and knows he’s been linked to Detroit as a potential high-scoring, two-way, right-handed centerman like Cozens.
“We’ve had interviews through the year and I’ve filled out the questionnaires they send out,” Danielson said. “It would be pretty cool to be drafted by Detroit, especially with Steve Yzerman being general manager. I would be thrilled.”
Among the other prospects at the combine is 6-foot-3 Brandon teammate Carson Bjarnason, who is ranked among the top goaltenders with South Lyon’s Trey Augustine of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.
“Carson had an unbelievable year for us,” Danielson said of Bjarnason, who had a 21-19-6 record, 3.08 goals against average and .900 save percentage this year. “He kept us in games that we probably didn’t deserve to be in. He’s a pro. He does the right things on and off the ice to get better.”
After missing the WHL playoffs last year, Murray expects Danielson and Bjarnason to be even better this year after they’ve been drafted and returned to Brandon. Murray said he often played Danielson too much last year in the 20- to 22-minute range and will cut down on some of the “hard minutes” like killing penalties.
“As I tell NHL scouts, Nate had close to 80 points without being surrounded by bona fide older players, second-round NHL picks, 100-point guys,” Murray said. “That’s not to knock our highly-touted prospects. His linemates were in a top-six role for the first time in their careers and it was very impressive what he was able to do.”
A co-captain of the Wheat Kings, Danielson greeted the new players from last month’s WHL Bantam Draft, which features prospects as young as 14 years old. He feels the Wheat Kings “will be a playoff team this year” playing alongside high-scoring wingers Brett Hyland and Dawson Pasternak.
“Having those two guys as my linemates, we’ll be able to get into the season a bit quicker than we were able to last year,” Danielson said. “As far as my role, being a leader on this team is one of the most important things to me, helping the younger guys and trying to lead the team in the right direction.”
mfalkner@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @falkner