With their 7th round selection, 194th overall, the Dallas Stars completed their 2017 NHL Entry Draft by selecting goaltender Dylan Ferguson from the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.
A 1998 birthday, he missed the cutoff for the 2016 draft by five days. He spent most of his season in Kamloops as the backup to Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Connor Ingram, but when Ingram left to join Canada for the World Juniors Ferguson stepped up and filled in admirably, earning WHL Goaltender of the Month honors for December.
He finished the season with a .922 save percentage in 31 games, and with Ingram expected to turn pro, Ferguson should take over the Blazers net next year as their number one goalie.
He’s a tall netminder with long legs and quick reflexes. He does a great job of finding pucks and tracking the play through screens and heavy traffic in front of him. His glove hand can knock pucks out of the air, but he could use some work with regards to catching them more cleanly. All in all, he displays enough tools to be an intriguing project goalie.
Worth noting: the Stars have another prospect on the Blazers, defenseman Ondrej Vala, so it’s safe to assume that Dallas’ Western Canadian scouts are pretty familiar with Ferguson.
Stats from Elite Prospects: