Kelowna, BC.

Mercer Church was humbled on draft night of the SMJHL Entry Draft. He was projected to be a first round draft pick, where some scouts said he even had the talent and pedigree to land inside the top three. Early indications was that this draft was loaded, and many high potential players would fall out of the first round. It was a defense heavy draft in the first round, until the late side of the first round. As forwards started to be selected, scouts and broadcasters alike were wondering; are people forgetting about Mercer Church?

Church was overlooked by every team in the SMJHL at least once, and even twice by a few teams. Finally with the 12th Overall selection the Kelowna Knights decided to select the defensively sound center Mercer Church.

"Some team scouts had Church pegged as a defensive forward, but that was a wrong assessment. He is very talented on the defensive-side of the puck - but that is only one dimension of his game. He's the kind of player who you win hockey games with. You can put him on the ice at any time, and he'll never be a liability. Don't sleep on his offesnive talent - he can find the back of the net" - Anonymous Scout.

While he has high level defensive abilities, Church isn't known as a hitter or really an aggressive player. Clearly being passed up by all of the SMJHL teams lit a fire under the young center. He's playing with an edge, and ended up leading the SMJHL Pre-season with 4 fights.

The SMJHL season started and after three games Church leads the league with 4 goals and is in second in overall points to his teammate John Langabeer. Church is gardening the third line, but is expected to rise in the ranks by the end of the year. He has proven to have a scoring touch alongside Mike Izzy on the secondary power play unit. Considering his line placement, Church has forced his way on the ice, receiving over 19 mins a game in the first three games of the season.

It has only been three games, so let's not let expectations get out of hand. However, Church has proven already that he is here to stay and is a first-round caliber player. In a draft where there were two and a half rounds of first round caliber talent, it is no guarantee that anyone selected before Church was done wrongfully so. However, Kelowna isn't going to be sorry they landed this top-end prospect with their second selection in the draft!

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