First round bantam draft picks are often cornerstones for WHL teams.

The Swift Current Broncos have locked up one of those cornerstones by inking Ben King to a WHL standard player agreement.

"I had an opportunity to go out and have dinner with the Kings a couple weeks ago," said Broncos Director of Hockey Operations Jamie Porter. "We are excited that Ben has agreed to commit to the program. He was excited when we talked about it before and was prepared to sign a contract right away. We couldn't be happier for him, his family and the Bronco organization."

The Broncos picked King 13th overall in this year's draft. The Vernon, BC product put up 16 goals and 30 assists in 22 league games for the Pursuit of Excellence Bantam Prep team. He also added 6 points in 7 games for the Western Canada Selects at their U15 tournament.

"I think there's a number of things when you look at Ben's game that our fanbase can be excited about," Porter said. "He's going to be a big body, he can play a 200 foot game, he's certainly skilled and he's going to play a number of roles for us. I think his character and leadership are off the charts. I think he's going to be a true leader in our organization as he gets older."

King's character is strong enough that his new organization could see him wearing a letter one day.

"We are always trying to project who the leadership group is going to be in a number of years," Porter said. "I think that's certainly where part of Ben's strength is going to be is his character, his leadership, his maturity... we've heard it from a number of people who have played with him over the last couple of years and just know him as a kid in general what a good person and a solid citizen he is. Those are the type of people that you want representing your organization and in fact leading it at one point."



The Pursuit of Excellence team this season was very strong and had six players selected in the first round. That made it important to zero in on individuals to see how talented they were versus how much they were lifted up by strong teammates.

"Once you've seen the group a couple of times and you do understand that as a whole they are an exceptional group then you've got to start breaking them apart individually," Porter said. "Seeing who benefits from playing with who and who makes players better around him. Sometimes you see that in certain situations in a game, sometimes you see it in a tournament when some guys get worn down and sick and players have to step up or play a different role. In King's case there was a situation he had to step up and play some defence for a while when they had some defencemen injured. He didn't hesitate, didn't hide form that and exceptional in that in fact.

"And at the end of the year most guys going to play at their provincial camps and then they will play with different guys... and that can be a real challenge for them too and that shows you a little bit about what type of player they are on their own."

Now that King is signed he will have the opportunity to go deep into Broncos camp and suit up for exhibition games. That could be the type of experience he needs in preparing for life in the WHL.

"I think he needs to come to camp and experience it for himself,"  Porter said. "I think he needs to play some games and see where the level is. Specifically be around some of our older guys and get an idea of what a player looks like at 15 and then what he looks like at 16, 17, 18... the player we project him at 19 he's going to be surrounded by some of those."

After a strong season that saw the Broncos take the Eastern Conference champion Regina Pats to seven games in the second round they got a good response from the players they picked in this year's draft.

"It was an excited group to talk to all eight of them," Porter said. "Guys who were excited about being Broncos and proud. I've been out on the road a bit visiting some of them just answering some questions about being a Bronco and what Swift Current is like as a city."

Now it's a waiting game to see how many of those young players will eventually join the Broncos and make an impact in their future.

Training camp starts in late August.