Warriors defenceman Dallas Valentine rushes the puck up ice this season.

NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings were released on Tuesday and four Moose Jaw Warriors made the grade.  The Western Hockey League had 44 players in total ranked, including Prince Albert’s Leon Draisaitl as the second-ranked skater.

Brayden Point led the way for the Warriors, ranking 53rd among North American skaters, while he was joined by defenceman Dallas Valentine at 109th and import Alexey Sleptsov at 143rd, and Justin was 13th among North American goalies.

Point and Sleptsov are names we’ve seen come up in other rankings before, but Valentine and Paulic cracking the rankings is new for this year’s NHL Draft.

Valentine has been earning more and more minutes during his first full season with the Warriors.  The 6-foot-3 blue liner is excited about being ranked, but said he’s going to try to keep it out of sight and out of mind.

“I’m just going to keep playing my game and not think about it too much,” said the 17-year-old from Lousana, Alberta.

In 43 games this season, Valentine has scored once and added five assists.  He is minus-23 on the year, but has been strong since returning from the Christmas break.

“I’ve just been keeping a consistent pace and try to be a stay-at-home defenceman and improve on my offence a little, jumping up in the rush and trying to get more scoring opportunities,” said Valentine.

The trade of Travis Brown will create more ice time for a player like Valentine in the second half of the season with more power play and penalty kill opportunities that would normally be taken up by Brown.

“(Mike Vandenberghe) gives me lots of opportunities and I’m just going to take advantage of that and just keep trying to get better every day,” said Valentine.

The key now will be for Valentine to keep his play trending upward and keeping the rankings out of his mind during the remaining games this season.

“Hopefully I won’t be too nervous out there, but it’s obviously very exciting and I’m just going to keep working hard,” said Valentine.

However having your name mentioned as a possibility for the NHL Draft is hard not to think about, and Valentine said he can’t help but think about what getting drafted would be like.

“It would be a dream come true,” he said.  “I’d just be so honoured, but I guess I’ll just keep working hard and see what this year has to come.”

Click here to see the full rankings.

The Warriors have just a couple days left in the Friendly City this week before they head out on their ten-day, six-game US Division road trip.