Giants Select Ty Ronning in First Round

The Vancouver Giants Hockey Club has selected Burnaby’s Ty Ronning with their first pick, 15th overall, in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft. Ronning played last season with the powerhouse Burnaby Winter Club, where he tallied 77 goals playing on a line with fellow 1st Round picks Mathew Barzal and Adam Musil. The 5’6”, 140 lbs right winger is the son of former Vancouver Canuck, Cliff Ronning.

“We are excited to add Ty, as we feel he has the potential to be a very entertaining, offensive player”, says Giants Executive VP and General Manager, Scott Bonner. “He comes from a winning program and obviously has a father that will help prepare him for the next challenges in his career.”


Ty Ronning
Right Wing
Born: October 20, 1997
Hometown: Burnaby, BC
Previous Club: Burnaby Winter Club
Height: 5”6”
Weight: 140lbs

Vancouver Giants take a 'really excited' Ty Ronning in first round of WHL's bantam draft

B.C. Lower Mainland players dominate upper end of annual lottery

By Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun

May 3, 2012 1:13 PM

Father and son: Ty Ronning, left, and dad Cliff, a former long-time NHLer. Ty Ronning is expected to be a mid-to-late first-round pick in Thursday's WHL bantam draft.

Photograph by: Larry Wright , BURNABY NOW

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Giants went for bloodlines and scoring today when they selected Ty Ronning with their first-round pick in the Western Hockey League's bantam draft.

Ronning, 14, is the son of former Vancouver Canucks centre Cliff Ronning. This past season Ty scored 77 goals for the B.C. bantam champion Burnaby Winter Club.

“I'm just really, really, really excited,” Ty Ronning said this morning before he headed to his 8:30 a.m. socials class at Notre Dame Secondary, which is on Renfrew Street not far from the Giants' Pacific Coliseum home. “I'm glad to be picked by the Giants. It's just spectacular.”

Pappa Cliff, who played junior for the New Westminster Bruins in the mid 1980s, was thrilled Ty will be staying close to home.

“It's a very good day,” said Cliff. “I've heard from a lot of people the Giants are a first-class organization. It's pretty exciting that he'll be playing close to home. I know that Ty knows this is just the start. He is looking forward to that journey, I guess.”

Giants director of player personnel Jason Ripplinger, the team's bantam draft guru, likes Ty Ronning's competitive nature and compared him favourably to other smallish right-wingers like Brendan Gallagher and Jordan Eberle. Ronning is listed at 5-6 and 140 pounds. He doesn't turn 15 until October.

“His feet are always moving, he has good skill and can shoot the puck from anywhere,” Ripplinger explained from the draft floor in Calgary “He is just a smaller guy who is going to compete for the puck. I think he'll be ready to play for us at age 16 [in 2013-14] if he keeps progressing the way he has from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”

As an added bonus, Ty Ronning has a late birthday — Oct. 20, 1997 so he won't be eligible for the National Hockey League entry draft until 2016. If he makes the Giants when he's 16, he'll have three full seasons in the WHL before NHL teams can get their clutches on him.

“If Evander Kane would have had a later birthday, we would have had him for three years instead of just two,” noted Ripplinger. “With late-birthday guys, you know you'll have them for at least three years.”

It was not only an excellent day for the Ronning family but also for Lower Mainland hockey. The first overall pick was Matt Barzal of BWC, who went to the Seattle Thunderbirds, while the second pick was North Shore Winter Club product Jansen Harkins, a selection of the Prince George Cougars.

Glenn Gawdin of Seafair in Richmond went fifth overall to the Swift Current Broncos, followed by Adam Musil (BWC), sixth to the Red Deer Rebels. Cloverdale's Tyler Soy was selected eighth by the Victoria Royals.

Throw in Ronning at No. 15, BWC teammate Ty Schultz at No. 16 and Cloverdale's Parker Wotherspoon at No. 21 and that makes eight Lower Mainland players taken in the first round. That matches the class of 2009, which also had eight and was led by the West Vancouver duo of Morgan Rielly and Griffin Reinhart.

The 1-2 overall picks from the Lower Mainland also matches the draft classes of 2004 (Ryan Kerr/Colton Gillies) and 2005 (Colten Teubert/Geordie Wudrick). Barzal is the fifth Lower Mainland product taken first overall in the past 10 years, following in the skate traces of Gilbert Brule, Kerr, Teubert and Jake Virtanen, who was last year's first selection.

According to Ripplinger, the rise of the Lower Mainland player can be attributed to the many specialized hockey academies, programs and clinics available to youngsters to help them develop.

“For whatever reason, I think there are more opportunities in B.C.,” Ripplinger said. “There are more things going on and B.C. kids are starting to pass the other provinces more.”

G-NOTES: The Giants had two second-round picks and selected LW Jakob Stukel of Cloverdale and C-RW Jesse Roach of Quesnel ... They did not pick in the third round and then chose 6-4 goalie Stefan Worning of White Rock in the fourth ... In the fifth , they took D Michael Eskra of Regina ... None of the players selected in the bantam draft will be eligible to play full-time in the WHL until the 2013-14 season.

[email protected]

On Twitter: Twitter.com/elliottpap

vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Ronnings rule at the Coliseum

New addition 14-year-old Ty is a 'chip off old block' of beloved Canucks' alum, Cliff

By Steve Ewen, The Province

May 4, 2012 3:05 AM

The Vancouver Giants' marketing minds will like his family ties, since his father used to star at the Pacific Coliseum for the Vancouver Canucks.

The coaching staff, by all accounts, will appreciate his work ethic. And, if Thursday was any indication, the team's fans will go for Ty Ronning's spirit.

When told that his bantam coach, Burnaby Winter Club's John Batchelor, wondered if Ronning being taller and heavier would take away some of his trademark verve and determination, the diminutive 14-year-old winger didn't miss a beat on the retort.

"John says a lot of great things about me. I don't know if some of them are true," said the 15th over-all selection in Thursday's WHL ban-tam draft, who is the son of former Canuck pivot Cliff Ronning.

"But I'll take them." The Giants haven't been shy about wanting players and events they could market. It's part of what's made them successful in an often fickle Vancouver sports scene.

And while Cliff Ronning remains one of the most beloved Canucks for his time with the team from 1990-96, taking his son where they did is far from a reach.

The Pipeline Show, a junior hockey radio program, had Ronning ranked 10th overall for instance, and Batchelor said that he had heard that Ronning was "quite possibly a top-10 pick."

The 5-foot-6, 135 pounder put up 77 goals, 153 points and a plus-109 in 72 games last season with Burnaby Winter Club, the Western Canadian champions.

Vancouver centre Anthony Ast, a fellow BWC product, vouched for him.

"He comes from a family where hockey is in the blood," said Ast, who welcomed Ronning to the club via text Thursday. "He's one of the hardest workers on and off the ice, every game, every practice."

He was born two years after his dad's final game as a Canuck, and one year after he played under Don Hay with the Phoenix Coyotes. Hay, of course, is the Giants coach.

"My dad says he's a great coach," said Ronning. "I'd love to be coached by him."

He's in Grade 9 at Notre Dame, which is just up the street from the Pacific Coliseum, so he knows the area well.

He's been to Giants games and he's heard stories about the rink from his father. And, yes, he'd love to wear No. 7, just like his dad did when he was stationed there.

"I'd definitely want that," he said, admitting, though, that he might have to wait for it if a veteran already has it.

Ronning, like the rest of this draft class, will only be eligible to play five games next season until their midget teams are eliminated from the play-offs. They can all become regulars at 16 years of age in the 2013-14 sea-son.

Ronning was one of eight Lower Mainland players picked in the opening round. His BWC team-mate Matt Barzal, a centre, went first overall to the Seattle Thunder-birds.

Another BWC pivot, Adam Musil, was picked sixth overall by the Red Deer Rebels. There had been scuttlebutt before the draft that the son of former NHL Frank Musil and brother of Giants defenceman David Musil would only report to Vancouver, the Calgary Hitmen or Edmonton Oil Kings, but word yesterday was that he would go to Red Deer.

Check www.whl.ca for full draft results.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Giants draft Cliff Ronning's son

Smallish winger has time to grow since he won't be in the lineup until 2013-14

By Elliott Pap, Vancouver Sun

May 4, 2012 3:09 AM

Cliff Ronning has moved from the realm of hockey star to hockey dad and he was over the moon Thursday when the Vancouver Giants selected his son Ty in the first round of the Western Hockey League's bantam draft.

Ty Ronning, 14, is a smallish right winger who can score. He netted 77 goals this past season for the Burnaby Winter Club bantams, who won both the B.C. and Western Canadian championships. He's listed at 5-6 and 140 pounds but has lots of time to grow. He's been compared favourably to out going Giants captain Brendan Gallagher and Edmonton Oiler stalwart Jordan Eberle.

"It's a very good day," said Cliff, now 46. "I was definitely hoping that Ty would get an opportunity to play close to home so that's pretty exciting. Now he'll get to play in the Pacific Coliseum, a place where I had some good memories."

Cliff Ronning had a storied career in junior with the New Westminster Bruins how about 197 points in 1984-85? - and then appeared in more than 1,200 NHL games, including playoffs. His best moments, of course, occurred during the 1994 Stanley Cup Final when he helped the Canucks, in their Coliseum home, make it to Game 7 before losing to the New York Rangers.

"I'm glad to be picked by the Giants," said Ty. "It's just spectacular. When it came to their pick and I was still available, I was nervous, I was everything. It was just crazy."

According to WHL rules, all drafted players must spend the following season in a midget program and can only appear in five WHL games on a call-up basis. So the Giants won't see Ty Ronning in their lineup until 2013-14 at the earliest, assuming he is ready. He turns 15 on Oct. 20. "I think he'll be ready if he keeps progressing the way he did from the beginning of the year to the end of the year," said Giants' bantam draft guru Jason Ripplinger, whose official title is director of player personnel. "He has lots of speed and I think he can become a first-line player for us. His compete level is something we liked. His feet are always moving, he has good skill and can shoot the puck from anywhere."

Cliff Ronning knows something about Giants' head coach Don Hay, too. He played for Hay when both were with the Phoenix Coyotes during the 1996-97 NHL season.

"I know how hard you have to work to play for Don Hay," Cliff noted. "I definitely learned how to backcheck. That's the first thing you're going to learn under Don ... you have to backcheck, which Ty does. The Giants are a great organization from the owner all the way down and their interest is to develop the player and also to develop the person. That's what I've been told."

It was not only an excellent day for the Giants and the Ronning family but also for Lower Mainland hockey. The first overall pick was Mathew Barzal of BWC, who went to the Seattle Thunderbirds, while the second pick was North Shore Winter Club product Jansen Harkins, a selection of the Prince George Cougars. (His dad is Todd Harkins, who had a brief 48-game NHL career.)

Glenn Gawdin of Seafair in Richmond went fifth overall to the Swift Current Broncos, followed by Adam Musil (BWC), sixth to the Red Deer Rebels. Cloverdale's Tyler Soy was selected eighth by the Victoria Royals.

Throw in Ronning at No. 15, BWC teammate Ty Schultz at No. 16 and Cloverdale's Parker Wotherspoon at No. 21 and that made it eight Lower Mainland players taken in the first round. That matches the class of 2009, which also had eight and was led by the West Vancouver duo of Morgan Rielly and Griffin Rein-hart. According to Ripplinger, the rise of the Lower Mainland player can be attributed to the many specialized hockey academies, programs and clinics available to youngsters to help them develop.

"For whatever reason, I think there are more opportunities in B.C.," Ripplinger said. "There are more things going on and B.C. kids are starting to pass the other provinces."

Barzal's selection as No. 1 was the fifth time in 10 years a player from the Lower Mainland has been drafted first overall. Burnaby's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2008), North Vancouver's Gilbert Brule (2002), White Rock's Colten Teubert (2005) and Ryan Kerr of Lions Bay (2004) were the others.

G-NOTES: The Vancouver Giants and Team Radio announced a new broadcast deal for the next two seasons. Games will be heard on 1040 or brother station 1410 depending on the Canucks' schedule ... The Giants' 10th-round pick, Owen Sillinger, is the son of former NHLer Mike ... Dave Babych's son Cal, a right winger from the North Shore Winter Club, went in the fourth round (84th over-all) to the Calgary Hitmen.

WHO THE GIANTS PICKED

ROUND 1: Ty Ronning, RW, Burnaby Winter Club (15th overall).

ROUND 2: Jakob Stukel, LW, Cloverdale, (37th overall); Jesse Roach, RW, Quesnel (42nd overall).

ROUND 3: No pick.

ROUND 4: Stefan Wornig, G, White Rock (85th overall).

ROUND 5: Michael Eskra, D, Regina (110th overall).

ROUND 6: Kole Bryks, D, Edmonton (117th overall); Jared Coghill, D, Lloydminster (132nd overall).

ROUND 7: Chase Jungels, F, Edina, Minn. (133rd overall); Colten Iron, RW, Canoe Narrows, Sask. (147th overall).

ROUND 8: Jordan Klehr, D, Lino Lakes, Minn. (169th overall).

ROUND 9: Mitch Stapley, D, North Shore Winter Club (191st overall).

ROUND 10: Owen Sillinger, C, Regina (199th overall).

[email protected]

Twitter.com/elliottpap

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun