Innisfail Minor Hockey product, Kaleb Denham, was one of eight Central Alberta youth picked in the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft last week.
Denham was drafted 126th overall by the Tri-City Americans out of Kennewick, WA. He was picked in the sixth round of the draft and was the fourth pick for Tri-City.
The 15-year-old Innisfail Junior Senior High School student has spent the last year playing for the Bantam AAA Red Deer Rebels White team but played most of his minor hockey in Innisfail.
His team finished in the top four in Alberta for Bantam AAA teams this season and four of his teammates were also picked up in the draft.
Denham said that he was most likely scouted by Tri-City during the Bantam AAA playoffs as well as the more recent Alberta Cup, a provincial tournament for the top Bantam players in the province.
“I am pretty excited about it. It is a good opportunity to play junior for a good team,” said Denham, who spoke with representatives from the team a few times before the draft.
“They were pretty interested and had called me a few times and sent me a questionnaire to fill out before the draft,” said Denham.
Now that the draft is over, Denham said the next step is to continue to improve his game leading into training camp.
After attending training camp with the other prospects Denham will come back to play his first year of midget hockey in Red Deer next year and then depending on his development could be playing for Tri-City as early as the following season, said Jeff Denham, Kaleb’s dad.
“We are very proud of him,” said Jeff, adding that although he has a long way to go and a lot of work a head of him he is excited Kaleb has been given this opportunity.
Over the summer Denham will continue to train and is currently waiting to hear if he was selected as one of the top 80 players in the province to try-out for the Alberta U16 team. If selected he will have to play to try and make it through to the top 40 players and hopefully move on to be on the U17 Alberta team in two years. This process would set him on track to try-out for the World Juniors in a few years, but for now Denham can look forward to his move up to the WHL.
