TORONTO – Declan Peterson of the University of Calgary Dinos men's basketball team was selected third overall by the Saskatchewan Rattlers in the 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) Draft on Thursday evening.

Peterson recently completed his first season with the Dinos, helping lead the team to a Canada West title and a runner-up finish at the U SPORTS Final 8. He was one of 30 Canadian student-athletes selected over three rounds, representing 25 Canadian post-secondary institutions.

Each CEBL club made three selections total (one in each round) of either returning or graduating Canadian post-secondary players. The priority of selection in round one was the reverse order of how each team finished the 2024 regular season, and the following rounds reverted to a 'snake format' in reverse order of the previous round.

This marks the second consecutive year the Dinos have had at least one player selected in the CEBL Draft. In 2024, both Noah Wharton (Calgary) and Nate Petrone (Edmonton) heard their names called.

Peterson made an immediate impact in his debut season in the Scarlet & Gold. The 6-foot-11 centre started 21 of 22 games across the regular season and playoffs, averaging 8.0 points and 7.2 rebounds in just under 19 minutes per game. The athletic big man also recorded 44 blocks on the year, including seven in his first conference game, tying the program's single-game record.

A native of Bentley, Alta., Peterson also totalled 10 assists and nine steals while shooting an impressive 62.5 percent from the field, ranking second in U SPORTS this past season.

He joins a Rattlers squad coming off a 6-14 season. Saskatchewan will open its 2025 campaign on May 15 when they host the Vancouver Bandits in Saskatoon.

For more information on the player selected in the 2025 CEBL Draft, please visit cebl.ca/cebl-draft-2025-results.

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