There was plenty of excitement for the Airdrie Xtreme yesterday (May 3rd) at the 2018 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft.

A total of seven players from the Xtreme were selected in the draft, two of them in the first round.

Airdrie's Craig Armstrong (Photo Courtesy: WHL)

Craig Armstrong was taken with the 9th overall pick in the draft by the Prince George Cougars.

Interim GM of the Cougars Bob Simmonds explains why they chose Armstrong.

“Craig is a player that has elements to his game that we’re looking to add. We want to improve our skill up front and he does that for us.”

The Airdrie talent wasn’t done there as the Edmonton Oil Kings used their second first-round pick to take Keegan Slaney at 20th overall.

Director of Scouting for the Oil Kings Jamie Novakoski believes Slaney was a good pick for the team.

“He’s a hybrid game, he’s good offensively, very competitive, gets the puck up the ice by skating it or making a great first pass.”

The second round started well for the Xtreme as the Calgary Hitmen selected Tristan Zandee with the 36th overall pick.

Cochrane’s Ty Mueller joined Armstrong as part of the Prince George Cougars with the 60th pick.

Finally, three Xtreme players were selected in the fifth round of the draft: Brett Moravec to the Prince Albert Raiders, Rhett Parsons to the Medicine Hat Tigers and Goalie Nathan Airey to the Kootenay Ice.