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Maple Ridge Burrards to make picks in WLA junior draft this month

Lacrosse squad already traded first overall pick for hometown boy
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The Ridge Meadows Burrards will make their picks in the WLA draft later this month. (Special to The News)

The Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) has scheduled its 2023 Graduating Junior Draft for Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., and the entire event will be available to viewers live online.

The WLA will be hosting the selection of the top 21-year-old players live from the Langley Events Centre. The draft will be webcast live at WLALacrosse.com and hosted by longtime lacrosse play-by-play broadcaster, Jake Elliott. A representative from each team will also appear by video link along with WLA Commissioner Paul Dal Monte.

The Maple Ridge Burrards traded their first overall pick to the Victoria Shamrocks, but have acquired a later first-round pick from the Coquitlam Adanacs.

The Burrards gave up the pick for hometown talent Nick Scott of Pitt Meadows last March.

READ ALSO: WLA Burrards trade for home-grown defender

The loss of an early draft pick is somewhat mitigated by the Burrards’ ability to earmark a pair of players as protected, outside the draft, and from one of the province’s great minor lacrosse cities.

For the first time, each team will submit two territorial protections. This will be followed by five draft rounds, in reverse order of the 2022 final regular season standings. Should a team elect not to exercise their two territorial protections, they will be awarded compensatory picks following the first and second rounds respectively.

The projected order of first round picks is:

1) Victoria Shamrocks (from the Maple Ridge)

2) Burnaby Lakers

3) Nanaimo Timbermen (from New Westminster)

4) Victoria Shamrocks

5) Nanaimo Timbermen

6) Maple Ridge Burrards (from Coquitlam)

7) Langley Thunder

For the full, up-to-date draft order, visit WLALacrosse.com.

Draft results will be presented live on that website, and on official WLA social media channels. Fans are invited to check their team’s social media or use the hashtag #WLADraft to participate in the conversation.

“The WLA and its member teams are looking forward to the 2023 season and hosting the Mann Cup in September,” said Dal Monte, noting, “the Junior Draft signals the unofficial start of the coming season, and we are very excited about this year’s crop of graduating juniors and what they will contribute to each of our member clubs.”

The 2023 WLA schedule will be announced in mid-February with teams playing a full 18-game regular season. That will be followed by playoffs in the run up to the Mann Cup, which will be hosted by this year’s WLA champion in September.

READ ALSO: THE MOJ: Another loss, another bucket full of reasons to be upset with the Canucks


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