Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - Submitted by Gary Ahuja, Langley Times
Burroughs top Langley pick since 2005. A broken wrist right at the start of the season could have spelled doom for Kyle Burroughs.
After all, he was entering his draft-eligible season (for those born in 1995)for the Western Hockey League bantam draft, which meant that scouts would have that much less time to evaluate his play prior to the April draft. Plus, who knows how he would respond to the injury? Those concerns are a thing of the past. Last week, the 14-year-old was named Langley Minor Hockey Association’s rep player of the year. And on Thursday, Burroughs was selected in the third round of WHL bantam draft. The Regina Pats chose him with the 47th overall pick in the raft. “We are ecstatic to welcome Kyle to the hockey club,” said Todd Ripplinger, the Pats’ director of scouting, on the team’s website. “He is an all-around great puck-handling defenceman who is very smart and physical. “With his skills and puck sense, we had him pegged as a first rounder.” Burroughs is the highest Langley draft pick since 2005, when Grant Toulmin went in the second round (32nd overall) to the Swift Current Broncos. His coach with the Langley bantam AAA Eagles is not surprised at all by Burroughs’ success. “He is probably the best defenceman I have ever had, and I have been doing this for awhile,”said coach Scott Perry, who coached Burroughs for the first time this past season. Perry has previously coached in the LMHA ranks, as well as junior A hockey with both the Langley Hornets and the Surrey Eagles.“He is very solid defensively,” Perry said. “There is nobody that we played against this year that I matched him up against that he couldn’t shut down.” For Burroughs, hockey has always been the game. He began skating at age two, and while he has played other sports, now it is just down to hockey. “Basically, this is all I do,” he said with a laugh. It was tough at the start of the season when the broken wrist sidelined him, but Burroughs did not let that get the best of him. “I just trained on my cardio and stuff and made sure when I came back Ijust could be the same or better than before,” he said. Winning the LMHA rep player of the year was rewarding. “It just shows how hard I worked,” he said. And when he stepped on the ice, he was in mid-season form. At a prestigious tournament in Burnaby, Burroughs was a first-team all-star, and then matched that feat again later in the season at an Alberta tourney. Part of what makes Burroughs so successful is his skating ability. But he also has great hockey sense.“He is a great open-ice hitter and he understands the game very well,”Perry said. Burroughs was the Eagles’ captain, and while not a yeller or screamer, he was a vocal leader. “I like to keep the guys vocal andmake sure everybody is focused and working as hard as they can,”Burroughs explained about his leadership style. With a young Langley team, Perry wanted his blue-liners to focus on their game in the defensive end, and while Burroughs excelled at that aspect, the coach anticipates he will evolve into more than a stay-at-home defenceman.“He definitely has some offensive potential,” Perry said, noting his numbers would likely have been better had he not broken his wrist.“When he came back, his shot wasn’t where it could be, but he will be able to do it at both ends of the ice.” Burroughs, who turns 15 in July, plans on playing major midget hockey next season. By Gary Ahuja - Langley Times
