These days, Brandon Whitney is well known for his ability to stop pucks as one of the top-ranked goalies available in this weekend’s NHL draft.

But many years ago — before he first strapped on the pads at the age of seven — he got his start in hockey as a forward. A one-dimensional forward, admittedly.

“I wasn’t the best skater so I always used to hang out at the other blue line and wait for the stretch pass,” recalled Whitney with a laugh.

It didn’t take long for the Halls Harbour native to realize he wanted to keep pucks out of the net rather than make a career cherry picking for breakaways.

“My parents asked me, ‘Do you really want to be a goalie?’ Because they knew how expensive it was,” Whitney recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah,’ and they were all for it. I owe them a lot.”

His parents can’t be complaining. The 18-year-old is Nova Scotia’s best hope to be drafted on Friday and Saturday in Pittsburgh after a tremendous QMJHL rookie season with the Victoriaville Tigres.

Although the giant-sized six-foot-five 191-pounder expected he’d barely play behind Vancouver Canucks draft pick David Honzik, he rattled off nine straight wins out of the gates and had a 13-1-1 record before the new year.

By the end of the season, he’d started 36 games, posted far superior numbers to Honzik, and is now Central Scouting’s second-ranked North American goaltender for draft.

“When I started off the season, I wasn’t even really supposed to play, only 10 games or so,” Whitney recalled. “But I started 9-0 and was the go-to guy for a month or so. It was a really big accomplishment with the starter a third-round (NHL) pick.”

Whitney, who played major midget with the Halifax Titans in 2010-11, finished the season with a 22-4-5 record, two shutouts, a 2.74 goals-against average and a .896 save percentage, as well as a nomination for the RDS Cup for QMJHL rookie of the year.

All that was enough for the Tigres to trade Honzik to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles earlier this month, leaving Whitney poised to take on a big workload next season.

Before that happens, though, he has a big weekend in Pittsburgh. He flew out with his family on Wednesday night and will be in the stands at Consol Energy Centre, waiting for his name to be called.

“I don’t even know if I could describe it — it’s what I’ve worked toward forever,” Whitney said of the idea of being picked by an NHL team. “It’d be pretty amazing.”

NOVA SCOTIA AT THE DRAFT

Whitney could be the only Nova Scotian selected at the NHL draft this weekend.

Other hopefuls include Halifax natives Liam O’Brien of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (ranked 169th) and Taylor Burke of the Gatineau Olympiques (ranked 192nd).

Only one Nova Scotian was taken in each of the past two NHL drafts, Glace Bay’s Logan Shaw (2011) and Cole Harbour’s Stephen MacAulay (2010). The record for one year is seven in 2006, a crop that included current NHLers Brad Marchand and Andrew MacDonald.