By Canadian Press

Yukon’s Dylan Cozens drafted seventh overall by Buffalo Sabres at NHL draft

Jun 21, 2019 | 10:29 PM

VANCOUVER — Dylan Cozens was selected seventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres at the NHL draft on Friday, making him the first-ever Yukon product to be picked in the opening round.

The six-foot-three centre from Whitehorse spent the last two full seasons playing for the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League.

After putting up 53 points as a rookie in the WHL, Cozens recorded 34 goals and 50 assists in 68 games in 2018-19.

The 18-year-old, who learned the game on a backyard rink that often stayed frozen from November to March, left home at age 14 to pursue his hockey dream after running out of places to play in the territory.

The final straw came when he broke his leg in a game against men twice his age and double his size in a recreational league.

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“We’re like, ‘This isn’t real hockey. We’ve got to get out of here,'” Cozens said earlier this month of the conversations he had with his family following the injury. “I want to play in the NHL, and it’s not going to happen if I stay up here much longer.

“It was beer league.”

Cozens enrolled at a hockey prep school in the Vancouver suburb of Delta, B.C., before transferring to another institution the following year in nearby Abbotsford when he was 15.

Selected 19th overall by Lethbridge in the WHL’s 2016 bantam draft, Cozens entered Friday’s draft as the fifth-ranked North American skater, according to NHL Central Scouting.

Only two players born in Yukon have ever stepped onto NHL ice. Peter Sturgeon and Bryon Baltimore suited up for eight total games, although the latter, now an agent, played 331 times in the World Hockey Association.

Jarret Deuling, who was born in Vernon, B.C., and raised in the territory, was taken in the third round of the 1992 draft by the New York Islanders, playing a total of 15 NHL games.

Bobby House of Whitehorse was selected in the third round by the Chicago Blackhawks the previous year, but never played in the NHL. Faro’s Gerard Dicaire, who also never played in the NHL, was selected in the second round in 2000 by the Buffalo Sabres before re-entering the draft in 2002, when he was taken in the fifth round by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

No player from Yukon has ever scored in the NHL.

“It’s nice to go up there,” Cozen said before the draft of his trips back home north of the 60th parallel. “Sometimes I just miss it. When times are going tough I just want to go back home and get on the lakes and get on my boat and fish for a while.

“That’s how I get away from everything.”

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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press