The Moose Jaw Warriors saw first hand what big, physical defence-first defencemen can do over a seven-game series during the 2017 WHL Playoffs as they fell victim to the Swift Current Broncos.

During Tuesday’s CHL Import Draft, the Warriors added a player that they hope can even the playing field with the selection of six-foot-eight Russian defenceman Oleg Sosunov at 39th overall.

“You look at some of the success that teams had in the playoffs last year, take Seattle for example with some of their bigger D, (Turner) Ottenbreit and so forth, and obviously our series against Swift Current, they had three big defencemen that played real hard against us and we feel that (Sosunov) compliments what we have returning and gives us a bigger, solid guy that plays with an edge and has some nastiness in his game,” said Warriors General Manager Alan Millar following the pick.

Sosunov (6-foot-8, 220 pounds) was a sixth round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2016 NHL Draft. He played last season with Loko Yaroslavl in the Russian MHL, registering 79 penalty minutes in 39 games.

While his game is still raw, the Warriors like the intangibles that Sosunov brings to the table.

“He’s a big guy, solid defensive defenceman that skates surprisingly well for a guy of that size and plays a hard game,” said Millar. “There will be some teaching in terms of the adjustment, but at the end of the day, come the most important time of the year, he’s going to be a real hard guy to play against.”

At 6-foot-8, Sosunov isn’t the tallest player in Warriors’ franchise history, that distinction still belongs to Lane Manson at 6-foot-9, however the left-shot Russian defenceman fits a need for the Warriors.

With Josh Brook, Jett Woo and Dmitri Zaitsev all returning and Chase Hartje expected to join the fold, the Warriors have a number of puck moving defencemen, but were in need of a player that would make life difficult on the opposition and Millar feels that Sosunov fits the bill.

“When you’re that big and can move, your wingspan, how you use your stick, all those things are effect in every zone,” said Millar. “He was a guy obviously with some pedigree in terms of being drafted and he was a guy that we felt fit in our team for next year.”

Sosunov will join Zaitsev on the blue-line next season, giving the Warriors two Russian defencemen and Millar expects that having Zaitsev will help Sosunov adapt to Canada more quickly.

“He’s represented by CAA, so we dealt with JP Berry on it and we talked about the fact that we had Dmitri Zaitsev returning and they have similar situations, Dmitri is a drafted player to Washington, he’s got a year under his belt and that can help with the adjustment,” said Millar.

The Warriors opened up the spot on the roster for Sosunov after dealing Yan Khomenko to the Victoria Royals at the WHL Bantam Draft in May. Khomenko was originally acquired by Moose Jaw in the Nikita Popugaev deal with the Prince George Cougars.

Millar doesn’t expect any issues with Sosunov reporting to the Warriors for training camp in August.

“There is still some paper work to complete, I believe that there will be some further announcements relative to this player in the coming days, but we believe that everything is moving forward and our expectation is that he’ll be here sometime in August and ready for training camp,” said Millar.