The highly touted National Hockey League prospect graduated from Saskatoon’s Centennial Collegiate with friends before flying to Las Vegas just hours later — ahead of the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, where he is expected to be a first-round pick Friday night.
What a whirlwind week it’s been for Berkly Catton.
The highly touted National Hockey League prospect graduated from Saskatoon’s Centennial Collegiate with friends before flying to Las Vegas just hours later — ahead of the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, where he is expected to be a first-round pick Friday night.
“It’s all starting to come true here, it seems like, and, yeah, the graduation just added another thing — it’s been good,” said Catton, who played for the Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association’s Red Wings zone and Saskatoon AAA Contacts before joining the Spokane Chiefs in the Western Hockey League.
“Honestly, I can’t wait. There are lots of other emotions involved too — the nerves and kind of not knowing what’s going to happen — but I also am super excited. Lots of family and friends are coming down too. To celebrate with them, and also people back here (in Saskatoon) and even in Spokane who have kept helping me to get to this point, it’s going to be great to celebrate with everyone.”
Catton says it’s a big contingent heading down to Vegas for the big day with his immediate family, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends.
How many?
“I would think about 50-plus,” he estimates.
Catton left for Vegas on Tuesday night with his dad, Chris. They’ll be joined by his mom Desrae and sisters Atlee and Kinlee.
He expects a busy few days. He’ll hang out on Wednesday and maybe have a couple of meetings and do some media stuff. On Thursday, he’ll attend the NHL awards night. The NHL Draft is next, with the first round going Friday night and other rounds on Saturday.
“Just from the combine and stuff, I think I got a decent understanding (of interested teams),” said Catton. “Maybe Calgary would be one. I think I’m kind of that No. 5 to 12 range — I’ll find myself somewhere in there, probably.
“Obviously, within myself is the want to go as high as possible but, at the end of the day, it’s the team that picks you wants you and sees a bright future in you, so that’s kind of my mental cycle going into it. Obviously, this isn’t the end to anything; your playing career doesn’t end here. It’s just a beginning, I think, to having your pro career. It’s kind of the way I look at it: any team that picks me, no matter where it is, I’m extremely grateful.”
“In Saskatoon, it’s weird because we’ve got kind of the three — Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary — and you kind of cheer for all them because they’re close to you, but I’ve always kind of leaned towards Calgary, probably,” said Catton, who is represented by Creative Artists Agency’s hockey agents Pat Brisson and Mike Chiasson.
NHL Central Scouting had Catton pegged at No. 8 among North American skaters in the agency’s final rankings.
Catton, who was a nominee for the 2024 WHL player of the year award that went to Jagger Firkus, is coming off a monster season that saw him record a career-best 54 goals and 62 assists for 116 points in 68 games.
Internationally, Catton captained Canada to a gold-medal finish at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
He led the tournament in scoring with eight goals and two assists in 10 games, coming one goal shy of the tournament record.
Miskey, Zakreski, Wutzke also NHL Draft hopefuls
Catton isn’t the only Saskatoon player to be potentially taken in this year’s draft.
Fellow SMHA product Josh Zakreski is ranked No. 157 among North American skaters.
Former Contact Chase Wutzke, a member of the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels, is rated No. 9 among North American goalies and Saskatoon Blades goalie Evan Gardner is ranked No. 7.
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