Nine new prospects joined the Moose Jaw Warriors' organization on Thursday during the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft in Red Deer.

The Warriors used their top pick to take forward Eric Alarie out of Winnipeg with the 22nd overall selection and then they would select four more forwards, three defencemen and one goalie over the course of nine rounds.

"We followed our draft list and it kind of fell into place for us where we were able to get some players that we wanted in the later rounds," said Ripplinger.

After their first round pick, the Warriors didn't select again until the fourth round. They followed that with one pick in the fifth round, three in the sixth round and then one each in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds.

Ripplinger said they had to make sure they were getting quality in those later selections with so few early picks in this year's draft.

"Our scouting staff did a good job in researching these players and checking out the characters, so it was a lot of easy picks for us," he said.

Left winger Josh Hoekstra (six-foot, 163 lbs.) was the fourth round selection, 79th overall, for the Warriors. He had nine goals and 28 points in 37 games with OHA Edmonton this season, playing games with both their bantam prep and Elite 15 teams.

The Warriors then used three straight picks on defencemen, starting with Beaumont, AB's Corson Ceulemans in the fifth round, 100th overall. The six-foot, 182 lbs right-handed defenceman had eight goals and 38 points in 35 games with OHA Edmonton. He is committed to University of Wisconsin.

Lucas Brenton out of Winnipeg was the Warriors' next pick at 111th overall. The six-foot-two, 160 lbs left-shot defenceman had nine goals and 24 points in 32 games with the Winnipeg Bantam AAA Sharks in 2017-18.

The Warriors went with Regina product Sam Boldt (five-foot-11, 147 lbs.) at 123rd overall in the sixth round. The right-handed defenceman posted six goals and 29 points during the 2017-18 season with the Regina Bantam AA Monarchs.

After the run of defencemen, the Warriors turned their attention to a local product with their last pick in the sixth round and selected centre Kirk Mullen from the Prairie Hockey Academy. Click here for more on the Mullen selection.

The Warriors stayed in Saskatchewan for their seventh round pick, selecting Saskatoon Outlaws goalie Brett Mirwald with the 154th pick. Mirwald was 14-3 with a 2.46 goals against average this past season.

In the eighth round, the Warriors went with five-foot-eight centre Keenan Allan out of Meadow Lake, SK. He posted 12 goals and 29 points in 30 games with the Rink Hockey Academy in 2017-18.

The final pick of the draft for the Warriors was used on right winger Trey Fechko out of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. In 25 games with the Holy Family Catholic HS Fire, the five-foot-10 Fechko had eight goals and 14 points.

"We just try to draft the best player and it just worked out well," said Ripplinger. "You always want to get a goalie in every draft, the five forwards, we believe in them and with the three defencemen, they're all good puck moving defencemen."

The Warriors' focus now turned to the team's development camp, which is coming up on June 7-10. All nine draft picks are expected to be in attendance for the camp.

In other Warriors draft day news, Moose Jaw signed defenceman Alek Sukunda to a WHL standard player agreement. Sukunda -- six-foot-one, 192 lbs. -- was a sixth round pick in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft and he posted five goals, 10 assists and 53 penalty minutes in 36 games with the Vancouver NW Giants.

Moose Jaw also pulled off a trade, adding 18-year-old forward Nick Bowman and a sixth round pick, which was used on Brenton, for 20-year-old forward Vince Loschiavo. Click here for more on the trade.

The Edmonton Oil Kings used the first overall pick on forward Dylan Guenther from Edmonton.

This year's draft saw the Canadian Sport School Hockey League continue to dominate the selections with a record 15 players in the first round coming from the league. In total, 35 percent of all players selected played in the CSSHL.

Saskatchewan had the third-most players selected in this year’s draft with 42 players from the province going to WHL teams. Alberta led all provinces with 68 players selected. Click here for the full list of players taken in this year’s draft.