The Moose Jaw Warriors will have an eye on the future as well as the present on Thursday when Western Hockey League teams convene in Calgary for the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft.

The Warriors enter the draft holding the 15th overall pick in the first round and will be the busiest in the fifth round, where they possess three picks.

“This is a significant week for our hockey club,” said General Manager Alan Millar earlier this week. “As a team that wants to work hard on building our team through our draft and develop model, it’s certainly huge day for the franchise.”

Millar and the Warriors’ scouting staff have spent the past month attending each province’s showcase tournament, wrapping up this past weekend with the Alberta Cup in Canmore.

The team will use what they saw at those tournaments and the many reports filed throughout the season to compile their draft list heading into Thursday morning’s first round.

“You have to trust your process, you have to trust the work that your scouting staff has done all year, the hundreds of reports and games that they’ve seen and the work that you’ve done on your draft list from November through this week,” said Millar.

The Warriors only have two picks in the first four rounds (15th and 59th).

Heading into the first round, Millar said there’s still a lot up in the air about what direction they go with the pick, depending on who’s available at that time.

“The depth on defence is something that strategically you may see some teams stepping up on some D a little bit earlier because it’s not that strong with defencemen and the importance of that position may dictate where some guys may go,” said Millar.

“It’s a draft that’s a little bit open in terms of it’s not concrete that here’s the top-20 guys, but that’s going to create somethings that are going to surprise some teams along the way.”

With the 2017-18 season being a year that the Warriors are aiming to compete for a championship, Millar added that they will also be entertaining offers for their top pick, but are also comfortable using it themselves as well.

“You always listen, part of the process of leading up to the draft is how can you improve your position on draft day and are there any opportunities to improve your team now or in the big picture,” said Millar.

“We don’t have second from the (Brayden) Burke deal, so we would consider moving down to add some picks later in the draft or in the future, but similar to what we did last year, we’ll have a line in the sand in terms of those players that are available at 15 that we wouldn’t consider moving down or if they aren’t available, we’d consider moving down.”

There’s a lot still up in the air heading into draft day on Thursday. The WHL Bantam Draft starts at 8:30 a.m. Saskatchewan time.