The Flin Flon Bombers are bringing a pair of young forwards into the fold.
The team announced a pair of signings last week, including Drayson Collyer and Zack Purcell.
Collyer’s commitment to the Bombers for the upcoming season was announced by the team June 13. He played the last three seasons with the Brandon midget AAA Wheat Kings, closing last season with 15 points in 22 games. The Brandon native was named the team’s captain for the start of the season, but spent most of the year on the sidelines after suffering an off-ice injury.
The Wheat Kings won the 2018-2019 provincial midget AAA title without Collyer on the ice, but the 17-year-old forward raised the cup with his teammates regardless.
In his last full season of midget in 2017-18, Collyer had 16 goals and 30 points in 42 games, adding 103 penalty minutes. Collyer was picked by the OCN Blizzard in the 2016 Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) bantam draft, going 39th overall.
A 5-foot-9, 165-pound forward with a hard-nosed, physical game, Collyer is the fifth player to commit to the Bombers this summer. He played with fellow Bomber commit Mason Kaspick on the midget Wheat King roster last season.
Purcell’s announcement came on June 14, one day after his 19th birthday. Originally from Aurora, Colo., Purcell played last season for the Rocky Mountain Roughriders U18 team in the U18 division of the North American Prospects Hockey League (NAPHL) Purcell would be the fifth member of the team to join the Bombers. The others include Calvon Boots, Alec Cokley, Ethan Daniels and Caleb Moretz.
In 15 games last season, Purcell had 12 points and led his team in scoring, adding four goals in four playoff games. A year earlier, Purcell scored 15 times in 18 games, finishing with 22 points and outscoring then-teammate Cokley.
The Rocky Mountain program’s U18 team was coached by former Winnipeg Jet Doug Smail, while Greg Vanover coached the U16 squad. Brendan Phelps, who has also served as a U.S. scout for the Bombers, was an assistant coach for the U16 Roughriders before leaving for a job with the NAHL’s Minnesota Wilderness this offseason.
