Content Provided By: Dave Anthony – Voice of the Pistons
The Steinbach Pistons have made an auto-protect selection ahead of the MJHL draft which takes place Sunday, June 2nd.
Eastman Selects defender Malachi Thiessen.
“He had a good year with Eastman,” assistant coach Calvin Bugyik said when describing the 16-year-old blueliner. “He’s a skilled player. He gets around the ice well, good mobility. High event player. It’s one of those things when dealing with auto’s, you want to have guys you’d draft regardless of where they’re from and Malachi fits that description. It’s nice to have a local guy but it’s a case of he’s a guy we’d draft regardless of where he’s from. It was a no brainer for our staff.”
Thiessen is a 5’10”, right-handed defender who put up 3 goals and 13 points in 38 games for the Eastman Selects U18 AAA team this year. In 2022/23 with the Selects U15 AAA squad, he notched 3 goals and 15 points in 28 games.
It’s the first time the Pistons have made an auto-protect selection since 2020 when they took Luke Mistelbacher and Job Peters. In 2019, the Pistons auto-protected Ty Paisley, who helped guide the Pistons to a championship in 2023.
Steinbach heads into the draft on Sunday with 6 selections over 8 rounds.
Pistons draft picks for the 2024 MJHL Draft
Round 1- 13
Round 2 – 26
Round 3 – none
Round 4 – 52
Round 5 – 55
Round 6 – 68
Round 7 – Lose pick due to auto-protect selection
Round 8 – One selection (comes from not selecting a second auto-protect)