By Wes Gilbertson /

Colten Teubert has always been a hit with the scouts.

The Regina Pats’ birddogs were optimistic Teubert would blossom into a reliable rearguard, grabbing the White Rock, B.C., product first overall in the Western Hockey League’s 2005 Bantam Draft.

He obviously impressed the Los Angeles Kings, who used a first-round pick (13th overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft to add Teubert to their stable of promising prospects on the back-end.

And he caught the attention of the bosses at Hockey Canada, who tabbed the tough-as-nails blueliner for last year’s world junior lineup and are counting on him to play an important role again this winter.

Now in his fourth full season with the Pats, Teubert has established a reputation as the type of guy every team wants because it means never having to play against him.

“He’s a great, hard-nosed defenceman,” former Pats teammate Linden Rowat told a Los Angeles-based hockey blogger last spring when both were suiting up with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign.

“You could compare him to Chris Pronger. He’s a great teammate, a great leader. He’s going to be a great player.”

There was a possibility Teubert could join Pronger in the professional ranks this season, but the Kings elected to send the 19-year-old back to the Queen City for one more junior campaign.

The Pats are thrilled to have him.

In his first 10 regular-season tilts, Teubert scored three times and added five assists. Along with New Jersey Devils prospect Matt Delahey, he’s been logging major minutes on the Pats blueline.

Before jetting to La-La Land for the Kings’ rookie camp, Teubert told the Regina Leader-Post he would be satisfied spending another winter riding the bus in “The opportunity is going to come (at some point) if I play as well as I can,” he said. “It’s not going to hurt me to come back to Regina, play one more year here. I could come back, be a good leader for all the young guys, kind of get us out of the gutter and bring us back to a winning organization before I leave. That would be a good opportunity.”

All indications are that Teubert will get an opportunity to do something few puck prospects ever have a chance to shoot for world junior gold in his adopted home province.

This year’s tournament will be split between Regina and Saskatoon, with Canada playing its games at the Credit Union Centre, home to the WHL’s Blades.

Judging by his remarks to another blogger last year, Kings general manager Dean Lombardi expects to see Teubert wearing the Maple Leaf, again. Lombardi remembers Teubert making quite an impression against the host team at the 2008 World Under-18 Hockey Championship in Kazan, Russia.

“I know why Canada took him. It was the same reason from when he was in Kazan,” Lombardi said. “First shift, he went right after (Columbus Blue Jackets winger Nikita) Filatov with a purpose and Filatov was done the rest of the game. He did not want to come down his side anymore, and that’s Canada.”