Broncos draft Russian Artyom Minulin

The Swift Current Broncos made a deep group of young defencemen even deeper at the CHL Import Draft today.

They selected 16-year-old Russian Artyom Minulin with the 29th pick of the first round.

"He's a kid with a lot of potential," said Broncos Coach/GM Mark Lamb. "He's a 1998 that can't be drafted (in the NHL) for a couple of years that plays a real hard game. He has a good first pass, is very aggressive and hard to play against."

Minulin played for Russia's Under-17 team last season and impressed Lamb in video he saw from the U17 Challenge.

"In that tournament he's playing against his own age and he looked really good," Lamb noted. "He looked like a man amongst boys and he looks like he's really strong. He played with the puck and he made some good hits also."

The 6'2, 189bs defenceman shoots left and hails from Tyumen, Russia. He will be at training camp to compete for a roster spot this August.

"He's a young player so hopefully the potential is there for him to improve a lot," Lamb said. "We take these guys and it's a lot of unknown. You have to use a lot of people's advice. We're hoping he can come in here and play a big role right away, improve and get drafted."

With the likely departure of veterans Brett Lernout and Dillon Heatherington to the professional ranks and the release of veteran Ayrton Nikkel there is room on the roster for some younger defencemen. The Broncos feel they have a very strong group of young players for their blue line and Minulin will go right into that mix.

"We've got a long of young D in the organization and you can only play so may," Lamb said. "It gives you good depth for trades if you need to fill some holes maybe up front."

The Broncos only made one pick in the import draft as they will have Swedish forward Andreas Schumacher back with the team next season.

"We expect him to have a really good year," Lamb noted. "One year over here he learnt a lot. He got to know the city, got to know the league, he's been working hard over there. He's 6'5 and he's learning to use his body. I really liked the way he was playing at the end of the year. He's going to be a top player for us."

The Broncos had cleared an import slot by previously releasing Slovakian forward Kristian Ferletak. He was not drafted by any other CHL organization today after spending time with both the Broncos and Victoria Royals last season.