Urban’s junior experience appeals to Force

The Fargo Force had some very specific characteristics in mind in the early rounds of the United States Hockey League Entry Draft. They wanted players with junior experience and they wanted to fill specific holes. Namely, adding some toughness to the blue line after losing the likes of Oleg Yevenko and Dan Weissenhofer to college.

Zachariah Urban, the first defenseman the Force selected in the draft, could fill those holes. He has experience playing junior hockey in Canada and he brings a certain brand of toughness to the lineup. The organization liked him so much, that they traded up four spots to take Urban as part of the Joe Rehkamp trade with Waterloo.

“We moved up and got a chance to select our first defenseman,” Assistant Coach/Director of Player Personnel Jesse Davis said. “We had a chance to see him play in Grand Forks in the Little Caesars Tournament and fell right in love with him right away.”

What they saw was a steady defenseman who has the ability to play a little bit on the power play. In seven games with Powell of the British Columbia Hockey League, he netted zero points and picked up six penalty minutes. He also obtained junior experience playing with Penticton of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League last season. He had eight points in 39 games with the Lakers.

“Up where he’s from, they’ve got some different rules with affiliate lists and things, so he was able to play prep school and actually two different junior teams,” Davis said. “It wasn’t like he was traded or anything like that.”

Sometimes teams in the USHL have to worry about international players not reporting to camp. Davis said that won’t be the case with Urban. In fact, he made the Top Guns All-Star Game in the early tryout camp two weekends ago in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Aside from the junior hockey experience, he adds some other key ingredients to the lineup.

“He brings a lot of toughness to the team,” Davis said. “He’s a skill guy, but he’s got some Canadian toughness to him too, which Coach Byron seems to like a lot.

“We see him as a power play [defenseman], for sure, definitely a top-four guy.”

Three defensemen from last year’s playoff squad will be leaving the Force for college. Ian Young will join Weissenhofer and Yevenko as defensemen moving to Division I. There are four blue liners set to return in Brian Cooper, Garrett Haar, Justin Wade, and Willie Corrin.

Urban will be right in the mix for the last three defensive slots on the roster. He won’t be the most offensively gifted of the bunch, but he knows how to play the position. And there is no doubt that he is looking forward to the opportunity.

“He had the opportunity to stay up there [in Canada], but he wants to play college hockey and kind of wants to play in the WCHA,” Davis said. [He] felt that we’re right in the heart of it, so he’s very excited to get drafted by Fargo.”

–

By: Tim How