DRAFT: Bernard-Docker following proven path through AJHL, NCAA

EDMONTON, AB - There's a template forming in the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) for draft-eligible prospects like Okotoks Oilers defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker, and it's hard to knock its effectiveness.
What do capable NHL defencemen and St. Albert, AB products Colton Parayko and Matt Benning have in common? Both plied their trade in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) and the NCAA before becoming eventual third and sixth-round selections by the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins respectively at the 2012 NHL Draft.
Former Brooks Bandits defenceman Cale Makar, whose 29 goals and 91 points in 67 games during a 2016-17 AJHL Championship-winning season propelled him to a surprise fourth-overall selection in 2017 by the Colorado Avalanche, became the highest-selected player ever from Junior A in Alberta before his rookie NCAA campaign this past season at UMass-Amherst.

A University of North Dakota Commit for next season, Bernard-Docker is hoping to be the next to follow this trend after electing to go the AJHL route despite being drafted in the fifth round of the WHL Bantam Draft by the Swift Current Broncos.
"It's helped my development a bit more," the Okotoks Oilers defenceman told EdmontonOilers.com at the NHL Combine in Buffalo. "Nothing against the Western Hockey League or that route, but I think college gives you a bit more time to develop and a bit more time in the gym.
"Obviously a guy like Makar last year is a guy you strive to be like and someone whose footsteps you want to follow in."
It was a banner year for Bernard-Docker in the AJHL this season - just without the banner.
His 55 points and 27 goals in 64 games earned the Canmore, AB native the accolades of Most Outstanding Defenceman in the AJHL and the Top Defenceman Award in the CJHL, helping propel Okotoks to the league final before losing in five games to the Spruce Grove Saints.
An effective offensive defenceman boasting a deadly slapshot, high-end mobility and a strong situational awareness, the 17-year-old is ranked by NHL Central Scouting at 33rd overall (12th for defencemen) among North American Skaters and the highest out of all CJHL draft-eligible prospects alongside Toronto Jr. Canadiens and Pentiction Vees rearguards Jack McBain and Jonny Tychonick.
Bernard-Docker reunited with childhood friend Tychonick on the same defensive pairing at the CJHL Prospects Game and for Canada at the 2017 World Junior A Challenge in Truro, NS, winning a gold medal. The two will line up together again in 2018 at North Dakota after both committed to the program following successful Junior A stints in Okotoks and Penticton.
"We've been buddies since a really young age and played spring hockey growing up at nine, ten, eleven years old," Bernard-Docker said. "It's been a blast to play with him and he's a super easy guy to play with."