They say you could hear the cheer all the way from Saskatoon.
But on the Laing family farm in Harris, Sask., the roar was deafening.
Hunter Laing grew up far from the prairies in Kelowna, B.C., but last Saturday the family was parked in the Land of Living Skies, waiting to hear if his name would be called in the NHL Draft.
Spoiler alert - it was.
“My whole dad’s side is there, we were on the farm, probably had 20 to 25 family members,” Laing said when asked to recall his draft-day moment. “We were sitting on the couch just waiting, my uncle just started screaming and, you know, there’s my name with the Flames!
“Thrilled to be here and can’t wait to get things started.”
Laing is hard to miss on the ice. At 6-foot-6, he towers above his peers, and obscures goaltenders’ vision much like storm clouds block out the southern Alberta sky around this time of year.
He scored 11 goals in his rookie WHL season with the Prince George Cougars, carving out a role amid a talent-laden forward group that enjoyed the most successful season in the club’s history in Northern B.C.
Three Cougars - including Laing - were drafted this year, including Lethbridge’s Terik Parascak, who shot up the draft boards and wound up being selected 17th overall by Washington.
All in all, it was the right environment for Laing to find his feet - and find his role as a WHL power forward.
“It was my first year, the guys were awesome, we had a really tight core,” he said of the 2023-24 Cougars. We saw a couple players get drafted, I was super happy for Perry, there, going 17th, and then (Ondrej) Becher, and then we have a lot of guys at development camps.
“We had a good team, I enjoyed it, had a lot of fun, and we’re looking to do the same thing next year.”