Rating the bantam drafts: 2003

Now the 2003 draft. These are the 1988's, the last of whom finished their WHL careers last season as overagers. I have removed the column (available in the earlier draft posts) about % of players on a WHL protected list, as none of these players are on PPLs anymore.

	Total Picks	Under 50	50 - 100	100 - 150	150 - 200	Over 200	Total GP	WHLers%	GP/pick
Brandon	11	1	0	1	2	1	783	45.5%	71.2
Calgary	12	0	1	3	1	3	1501	66.7%	125.1
Everett	13	1	1	1	2	5	1907	76.9%	146.7
Kamloops	11	0	0	1	2	1	799	36.4%	72.6
Kelowna	11	2	0	0	1	3	976	54.5%	88.7
Kootenay	11	0	1	2	0	4	1313	63.6%	119.4
Lethbridge	9	2	0	1	1	1	571	55.6%	63.4
Medicine Hat	11	0	1	0	1	6	1703	72.7%	154.8
Moose Jaw	14	1	2	0	1	3	1128	50%	80.6
Portland	12	1	2	0	1	2	834	50%	69.5
Prince Albert	13	1	0	1	1	3	1041	46.2%	80.1
Prince George	12	0	0	1	0	3	972	33.3%	81
Red Deer	13	0	1	1	0	3	1048	38.5%	80.6
Regina	10	2	0	0	0	4	1286	60%	128.6
Saskatoon	11	0	0	0	0	4	1066	36.4%	96.9
Seattle	11	1	0	1	0	2	748	36.4%	68
Spokane	12	0	0	0	0	5	1293	41.7%	107.8
Swift Current	11	1	1	1	0	2	675	45.5%	61.4
Tri-City	10	0	0	1	1	0	300	20%	30
Vancouver	11	0	0	0	2	3	1267	45.5%	115.2

This was Everett's first draft. If you want to know why the Silvertips organization was so successful their first 4 to 5 years of existence, then you don't need to look a lot further than this phenomenal draft. They made 13 picks, 9 of whom eventually played in the league at some point, and five of whom played over 200 games.

Medicine Hat did pretty well too - six players who played over 200 games. Spokane also had five 200+ gamers picked in this draft. It's not a coincidence that Everett, Medicine Hat, and Spokane were some consistently good teams the last few years when their picks from this draft were 17, 18, 19 years old. Regina, Calgary, and Kootenay are three other teams who had very strong drafts this year.

On the flip side, it was a very bad draft for Tri-City, with only two players picked who played in the league. One was a below average player and the other never even played for the Americans. And yet they were still a strong team recently as well, proving that good management can overcome some poor drafts.

Other teams with weak drafts here were Portland, Lethbridge, Swift Current, and Seattle.

Best picks:

- Brennan Bosch, Medicine Hat (10th round, 281 games)

- Riley Holzapfel, Moose Jaw (8th round, 248 games)

- Ian Duval, Regina (7th round, 331 games)

Worst picks:

- Jonathan Toews, Tri-City (first overall, zero games). OK, so we know this was actually a great pick based on the guy's talent. And Toews misled the Americans about his intentions, so it's not their fault. But it's still gotta go here.

- first round busts: Ryan DePape (Prince Albert), Sasha Golin (Portland), Mike Reich (Spokane), Todd Panchyson (Kootenay), Mike Cann (Brandon), Matthew Cline (Red Deer), Craig Cuthbert (Kelowna). All first round picks who had either short WHL careers or careers far inferior to players who were picked much later.

- David Beach, Tri-Cities. As if the Toews situation wasn't bad enough, the Ams' 2nd pick (2nd pick of the 2nd round too) from Alaska never played in the WHL or the NCAA either.

And the WHLers drafted by each team, with games played totals....

Brandon: Mike Cann (107), Ryan McDonald (306), Morgan Maclean (36), Chad Erb (183), Brandon Lockerby (151)
Calgary: Keegan Dansereau (311), Karl Alzner (260), Ryan White (275), Dan Spence (143), Isaac Reid (83), Keith Seabrook (123), Evan Pighin (115), Justin Falk (191)
Everett: Zach Hamill (250), Peter Mueller (103), Taylor Ellington (287), Brady Calla (321), Leland Irving (190), Lenny Young (7), Graham Potuer (275), Zach Sim (168), Brennan Zasitko (60), Jonathan Harty (246)
Kamloops: Victor Bartley (336), Brenden Dowd (193), Michael Maniago (118), Matt Schmermund (152)
Kelowna: Craig Cuthbert (164), Kirt Hill (235), Colin Joe (314), Rob Roteliuk (41), Tysen Dowzak (220), Riel Thomson (2)
Kootenay: Ben Maxwell (210), Todd Panchyson (97), Andrew Bailey (286), Brett Sutter (254), Ian Barteaux (211), Paul MacDonald (123), Kris Lazaruk (132)
Lethbridge: Ben Wright (259), Jesse Dudas (175), Lenny Thunderchild (103), Thomas Stehr (33), Keldon Sanderson (1)
Medicine Hat: Trevor Glass (247), Scott Skrudland (76), Spencer McAvoy (244), Jordan Bendfeld (225), Matt Lowry (209), Dale Weise (173), Brennan Bosch (281), Scott Wasden (248)
Moose Jaw: Brennen Wray (346), Carter Smith (237), Kyle Klym (52), Sam Huston (6), Pierre-Paul Lamoureux (181), Riley Holzapfel (248), Jock Sutter (58)
Portland: Sasha Golin (269), Justin Mazurek (11), Michael Sauer (156), Kelly Friesen (63), Cameron Cepek (263), Brayden Nargang (72)
Prince Albert: Ryan DePape (264), Brent Ottmann (144), Josh Elder (202), Levi Lind (151), Scott Doucet (279), Karsten Felske (1)
Prince George: Tyler Swystun (142), Ty Wishart (262), Evan Fuller (251), Mike Berube (317)

Red Deer: Matthew Cline (92), Jordan Knackstedt (268), James Reimer (125), Eric Frere (281), Devon Leblanc (282)
Regina: Logan Pyett (273), Justin Bernhardt (307), Craig Schira (340), Ian Duval (331), Matt MacDermott (32), Ryan Nieszner (3)
Saskatoon: Justin McCrae (308), Brett Ward (272), Michael MacAngus (269), Blair MacAulay (217)
Seattle: Bud Holloway (282), Andrew Pinsent (7), Mitch Fadden (340), Jeff Lee (119)
Spokane: Mike Reich (248), Matt McCue (247), Seth Compton (294), Sean Zimmerman (270), J-P Szaszkiewicz (234)
Swift Current: Kyle Bortis (236), Greg Alexander (7), Zack Smith (221), Travis Yonkman (143), Karl Benke (68)

Tri-City: Chris Inglis (156), Mark Santorelli (144)

Vancouver: Jason Reese (317), Luke Egener (278), Scott Gabriel (174), Kenton Dulle (192),
Tim Kraus (306)

Schedules

Some tentative Western conference schedules are trickling out now after the scheduling meeting earlier this week. Of particular interest to me was the Vancouver Giants schedule, which they have posted on their website.

As everyone knows, Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics next February and since the Giants' home, Pacific Coliseum, is needed to host the figure skating competition (insert witty remark here, like "It'll look just like Giants training camp!", or "Will Giants scouts be there?"), the Giants need to vacate their rink from early January through early March.

Anyway, looking at the Giants tentative schedule, they've solved the problem by scheduling in two brutal ten-game road trips sandwiched around six "home" games being played in Langley in early February. They last play in Pacific Coliseum on January 3rd, and do not play there again until March 12th. The first road trip takes them through the Central division, with a stop in Prince George on the way home, and then a jaunt through half the U.S. division. The second trip takes them through the East division and then a tour of B.C. on the way home.

Being on the road that long is going to be a tough grind for the Giants, so it's going to be pretty important to them that they take advantage of their very favourable early schedule. Prior to vacating Pacific Coliseum in January, the Giants will have played 28 games there versus only 13 on the road. Only four of those road games take them outside of the province of B.C., and those four are all visits to the U.S. division. So, not much travel required in the first three and a half months of the season.

One other note, Chilliwack plays two home games during the Olympics, on February 13th and 16th, plus one of Vancouver's Langley games is on February 14th. So if you're in town for the Games and on those days you've only managed to score tickets to the mens luge preliminaries (blink and you'll miss them!) and the ladies biathlon (and your seats are right behind the targets), you could always trek out to Chilliwack or Langley to see some WHL action.

Three weeks.....just three more weeks.....

Yes, it's the hottest part of the summer right now but on the positive side, the start of WHL training camps for most teams is just three weeks from today/tomorrow.

The first exhibition game is four weeks tomorrow - August 27th when Saskatoon visits Prince Albert.

So, the season is fast approaching again. Now, if we could just get an official schedule released....being three weeks from the start of training camp and still not having a schedule is just a little bit ridiculous.....

Rating the bantam drafts: 2004

Next up is 2004, the draft of the 1989's. These are the players who will be overagers this coming season, so many of the players from this draft have completed their WHL careers, if they had one.

As with the '90s, there aren't likely going to be many (if any) players from this draft breaking into the WHL as a rookie this season.

	Total Picks	Under 50	50 - 100	100 - 150	150 - 200	Over 200	Total GP	WHLers%	GP/pick	Listed %
Brandon	11	0	2	1	3	1	1054	63.6%	95.8	45.5%
Calgary	10	1	2	0	0	2	625	50%	62.5	30%
Everett	11	3	0	0	3	2	1080	72.7%	98.2	45.5%
Kamloops	12	2	1	1	2	2	1076	66.7%	89.7	33.3%
Kelowna	11	1	0	0	2	2	892	45.5%	81.1	45.5%
Kootenay	10	0	1	1	0	3	876	50%	87.6	40%
Lethbridge	11	0	0	2	3	2	1307	63.6%	118.8	54.5%
Medicine Hat	11	0	0	4	2	0	866	54.5%	78.7	45.5%
Moose Jaw	10	0	1	0	2	1	694	40%	69.4	30%
Portland	10	0	1	2	2	1	898	60%	89.8	50%
Prince Albert	12	3	1	0	3	0	663	58.3%	55.3	16.7%
Prince George	14	1	2	1	0	3	922	50%	65.9	35.7%
Red Deer	10	1	1	0	1	1	479	40%	47.9	30%
Regina	11	0	0	0	4	2	1267	54.5%	115.2	36.4%
Saskatoon	11	1	0	0	2	2	823	45.5%	74.8	27.3%
Seattle	13	0	1	2	0	3	1014	46.2%	78	30.8%
Spokane	13	0	0	0	2	2	834	30.8%	64.2	38.5%
Swift Current	10	0	0	1	2	1	723	40%	72.3	30%
Tri-City	10	0	0	0	1	4	1047	50%	104.7	50%
Vancouver	12	0	1	0	2	2	918	41.7%	76.5	41.7%

Everett, Lethbridge, Regina, and Tri-City all had really good drafts here, all nabbing five or more 150+ game players.

Not such a good draft for Red Deer or Prince Albert. Not for Calgary either, they landed two big stars but otherwise got zip.

Best picks:

- Jon Blum, Vancouver (7th round, 248 games played). "Best" was an easy choice here.

- Colin Long, Kelowna (11th round, 229 games played)

- Jared Spurgeon, Spokane (10th round, 212 games played)

Worst picks:

- Justin Palazzo, Prince Albert (1st round, 160 games played). The only real bust out of what was a pretty good crop of first rounders that year. Still played 160 games though.

- most of the 2nd round. Of the 20 picks in the 2nd round, 11 of them did not play in the WHL as 19 year olds last year. Six of those never played in the WHL at all.

And the list of players from this draft who have played in the WHL, with games played:

Brandon: Keith Aulie (234), Matt Hallick (90), Michael Proudley (107), Nathan Green (177), Jay Fehr (188), Cale Jefferies (166), Joe Caligiuri (92)
Calgary: Brett Sonne (232), Alex Plante (224), Kirk Belyk (60), Garrett Zemlak (71), Jordan Braid (38)
Everett: Eric Doyle (247), Zack Dailey (260), Chris Ward (14), Mitch Wall (3), Matt Meropoulis (178), Mike Alexander (163), Jesse Burt (172), Shayne Barrie (43)
Kamloops: Travis Dunstall (227), Chris Favero (1), C.J. Stretch (273), Garrett Thiessen (193), Jim O'Brien (133), Kurt Kramer (2), Kevin Kraus (57), Alex Rodgers (190)
Kelowna: Luke Schenn (189), Brett Breitkreuz (200), Cody Almond (230), Matthew Brusciano (44), Colin Long (229)
Kootenay: John Negrin (235), Dustin Sylvester (240), Cam Stevens (85), Trent Fussi (107), Tylan Stephens (209)
Lethbridge: Dwight King (273), Brad Riege (184), Justin Leclerc (179), Jesse Craige (157), Zach Boychuk (237), Mitch McColm (138), Craig McCallum (139)
Medicine Hat: Jordie Deagle (192), Matt Sokol (102), Mark Isherwood (199), Ryan Holfeld (113), Bretton Cameron (111), Shayne Brown (149)
Moose Jaw: Travis Ehrhardt (256), Scott Maetche (75), Jeremy Schappert (200), Cullen Morin (163)
Portland: Colton Sceviour (251), Kurtis Mucha (194), Aaron Lewadniuk (63), Lucas Alexiuk (127), Colby Kulhanek (161), Matt Betker (102)
Prince Albert: Justin Palazzo (160), Daniel Lepp (3), Cody Vann (72), Andy Smith (191), Cody Gross (192), Brian Sydiaha (2), Shane Malone (43)
Prince George: Ryan Kerr (210), Lance Redden (52), Chris van Duynhoven (127), Dana Tyrell (240), Adam Basford (59), Prab Rai (233), Devon Murtagh (1)
Red Deer: Brandon Sutter (205), Patrick Kozyra (167), Luke Betts (90), Paul Levarsky (17)
Regina: Brett Leffler (238), Nick Ross (288), Linden Rowat (177), Matt Delahey (189), Jason MacDonald (180), Derek Hulak (195)
Saskatoon: Colton Gillies (195), Dustin Cameron (213), Ryan Funk (215), Colton MacPherson (25), Braden Holtby (175)
Seattle: Thomas Hickey (262), David Richard (256), Lindsay Nielsen (218), Colin Scherger (106), Brad Bakken (53), Josh Schappert (119)
Spokane: Drayson Bowman (265), Chris Langkow (193), Cody Esposito (164), Jared Spurgeon (212)

Swift Current: Paul Postma (270), Grant Toulmin (116), Derek Claffey (183), Matt Tassone (154)
Tri-City: Joel Broda (264), Colton Grant (210), Jarrett Toll (205), Chet Pickard (160), Lucas Bloodoff (208)
Vancouver: Tyson Sexsmith (173), Mitch Czibere (251), Ryan Molle (183), Jonathon Blum (248), Nolan Toigo (63)

Klassen to Broadway

Bit of a blow to the Saskatoon Blades' defence today, as free agent defenceman Sam Klassen has signed a contract with the New York Rangers. Press release on the Rangers' site.

Klassen would have likely been one of the Blades' three overagers next year but now it seems more likely that he'll be in the Rangers system somewhere. The Blades will still have three excellent overagers (they can pick from Derek Hulak, Milan Kytnar, Chris Langkow, and Walker Wintoneak still) but no overage defencemen now.

Klassen is the 2nd undrafted free agent with WHL eligibility remaining to sign an NHL contract in as many weeks. Everett forward Kellan Tochkin signed with the Canucks last week, although unlike Klassen, Tochkin is ineligible to be sent to the minors and so will be back in Everett next year.

Rating the bantam drafts: 2005

A few weeks back I started what was to be a series of posts looking at the relative success each team has had in the bantam drafts. I started with the 2006 draft but have not gotten around to any more.....until now anyway....

So, the 2005 draft now. These are the 1990's, the players who will be 19 this upcoming season. I've changed the games-played categories a bit since these players have had three full seasons to play in the WHL.

There aren't very many 19 year old rookies at this level, so it's pretty fair to say that any players from this draft who haven't made the WHL already probably aren't going to.

	Total Picks	Under 50	50 - 100	100 - 150	150 - 200	Over 200	Total GP	WHLers	GP/pick	Listed %
Brandon	11	2	2	1	1	0	535	54.5%	48.6	54.5%
Calgary	11	0	3	3	1	0	846	63.6%	76.9	54.5%
Everett	12	2	3	2	1	0	733	66.7%	61.1	66.7%
Kamloops	10	0	5	1	2	0	875	80%	87.5	70%
Kelowna	8	0	0	1	3	0	728	50%	91	62.5%
Kootenay	9	1	2	1	1	0	486	55.6%	54	33.3%
Lethbridge	10	2	0	2	1	0	416	50%	41.6	30%
Medicine Hat	11	3	1	2	1	0	491	63.6%	44.6	27.3%
Moose Jaw	9	0	2	1	2	0	681	55.6%	75.7	55.6%
Portland	14	2	3	1	1	0	572	50%	40.9	28.6%
Prince Albert	12	1	2	2	1	0	589	50%	49.1	41.7%
Prince George	12	2	1	0	1	0	221	33.3%	18.4	33.3%
Red Deer	12	1	2	5	0	0	869	66.7%	72.4	58.3%
Regina	9	0	3	2	1	1	876	77.8%	97.3	66.7%
Saskatoon	11	4	0	1	2	0	538	63.6%	48.9	27.3%
Seattle	10	1	1	1	2	0	609	50%	60.9	30%
Spokane	13	0	1	1	1	1	581	30.8%	44.7	53.8%
Swift Current	11	2	3	1	0	1	654	63.6%	59.5	27.3%
Tri-City	11	1	0	1	2	0	504	36.4%	45.8	27.3%
Vancouver	9	1	0	2	3	0	804	66.7%	89.3	55.6%

The first eight columns are probably obvious.....explanation of the others:

WHLers: the % of a team's picks who have played at least one game in the WHL

GP/pick: the average number of WHL games played per pick

Listed %: the % of a team's picks who are still listed on a WHL protected list somewhere

Pretty good draft for Regina, Kelowna, Vancouver, Kamloops, Red Deer, Calgary....they all got a good number of contributing WHLers out of this draft. Very, very poor draft for Prince George, who only got one WHLer out of the whole draft - and that was Dale Hunt at #3 overall, and it's clear today that there were a lot better players picked after him too.

Prince George is in a class of their own here, but Lethbridge, Seattle and Portland are other teams that didn't have good 2005 drafts. Lethbridge got few players of substance, while Seattle missed on their first rounder, while Portland did get seven guys who played in the league at some point but only 4 of them are still on protected lists at age 19....and maybe only one of those is an impact player.

Best picks:

- Kelowna, Evan Bloodoff (6th rd, 199 games played)

- Regina, Jordan Eberle (7th rd, 197 games played)

- Vancouver, Craig Cunningham (7th rd, 187 games played)

Worst picks:

- Seattle, Cody Hanson (1st rd, 47 career games played)

- Prince George, Matt Belich (high 2nd rd, 2 career games played)

- Swift Current, Nicholas Navratil (3rd rd, I believe he quit hockey even before the draft)

The draft picks who have played in the league, with their games played totals:

Brandon: Sanfred King (98), Jordan Hale (112), Andrew Hayes (66), Colby Robak (175), Alex Grill-Donovan (48), Andrew Hewett (36)

Calgary: Brendan Rowinski (145), Ian Schultz (126), Michael Stone (195), Martin Jones (97), Devon Kalinski (120), Ryan Fox (95), Taylor Gal (68)
Everett: Kyle Beach (183), Matthew Ius (126), Matt Strong (92), Tyler Skauge (52), Brendon Wall (36), Tyler Hlookoff (126), James Reid (18), Chris De La Lande (100)
Kamloops: Tyler Shattock (176), Jordan Rowley (185), Paul Van De Velde (52), Dalyn Flette (56), Kurt Torbohm (99), Todd Kennedy (69), Mark Hall (99), Shayne Wiebe (139)
Kelowna: Tyler Myers (191), Riley McIntosh (142), Brandon McMillan (196), Evan Bloodoff (199)
Kootenay: Jordan Wilkins (59), Steele Boomer (97), Kevin King (198), Brent Henke (131), Daniel Salamandyk (1)
Lethbridge: Travis Bobbee (173), Bo Montgomery (104), Sterling Bear (2), Colin Frederickson (3), Craig Orfino (134)
Medicine Hat: Jordan Hickmott (157), Shayne Neigum (131), Kurtis Decker (2), Josh Koper (55), Adrian Van de Mosselaer (102), Lee Morrow (20), Colton Graf (24)
Moose Jaw: Neal Prokop (179), Chad Suer (179), Jason Grecica (84), Brian Sommers (99), Travis Hamonic (140)
Portland: Thomas Frazee (173), Ty Ariss (63), Colin Reddin (95), Devon Marshall (44), Tayler Jordan (109), Randy McNaught (81), Brenden Stephen (7)

Prince Albert: Jordan Trach (106), Blaine Tendler (172), James Dobrowolski (139), Kyle Aschim (41), Steven Stanford (73), Mike Small (58)
Prince George: Dale Hunt (158), Matthew Belich (2), Trevor Bauer (58), Joel Danyluk (3)
Red Deer: Cass Mappin (143), Zak Stebner (142), Joel Kot (85), Colin Archer (111), Mike Scarborough (129), Matt Fraser (134), Spencer Edwards (38), Morgan Clark (87)
Regina: Colten Teubert (203), Brayden Metz (72), Jeff Bosch (68), Kyle St. Denis (90), Curtis Kulchar (104), Jordan Eberle (197), Brent Raedeke (142)

Saskatoon: Teigan Zahn (171), Travis Toomey (129), Gaelan Patterson (175), Jared Friesen (3), Kevin Philp (36), Cameron Canart (3), Mike Clements (21)
Seattle: Cody Hanson (47), Jeremy Boyer (199), Jacob DeSerres (65), Sena Acolatse (186), Isak Quakenbush (112)
Spokane: Mitch Wahl (201), Mike Reddington (194), Darcy Kuemper (55), Tyler Johnson (131)
Swift Current: Geordie Wudrick (216), Ian Curtis (40), Phil Gervais (106), Jordan Mistelbacher (96), Eddie Friesen (4), Kris Foucault (62), Clayton Cumiskey (130)
Tri-City: Eric Mestery (172), Tyler Schmidt (179), Kyle Birch (17), David Robinson (136)
Vancouver: James Wright (181), Lance Bouma (173), Nathan Deck (144), Mike Piluso (107), Craig Cunningham (187), Kraymer Barnstable (12)

Connauton to the Giants

Vancouver Giants beat writer Steve Ewen reports that the Vancouver Canucks' 3rd round pick in the 2009 NHL draft, defenceman Kevin Connauton, is leaving Western Michigan university and will join the Giants, who own his WHL rights. The move had been rumoured for some time but Connauton apparently made his decision today.

Connauton is 19 and apparently views playing in the WHL under the noses of the NHL team that drafted him as better for his development than returning to Western Michigan.

The Giants' defence, which needs to be completely rebuilt after losing most of its players from last season, is suddenly looking much better with the addition of David Musil and now Connauton.....

Hitmen hire Williamson

As expected, the Calgary Hitmen hired former Portland coach Mike Williamson as their new head coach yesterday. He got what was described as a multi-year deal, which I would guess is probably something like two years plus an option.

Williamson is only 36 years old but already has six and a half years experience as a head coach in the WHL. I think a lot of people may associate his name with the crappy years in Portland but in reality, the team was above .500 for four of the six full seasons he was coach - including a trip to the WHL finals in 2000-01. He also won the Memorial Cup with the Hawks in 1997 as assistant coach to Brent Peterson. All in all, I think it's a pretty decent hire.

The only team still looking for a coach now is Tri-Cities. Last word there is that G.M. Bob Tory had five candidates he planned to interview, and then would make a decision after that.

Tuesday notes

Two more bits of news this morning.....

First, let the will-he-or-won't-he speculation begin in earnest now: Vancouver's Evander Kane has signed a contract with the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers after being picked 4th overall in the draft last month. With that bit of business out of the way, the path is clear now for Kane to stick in the NHL next season should he be sufficiently impressive in training camp in the fall.

Second news item, Gregg Drinnan is reporting that the Hitmen have made their choice for a new head coach, and it is former Winterhawks head coach Mike Williamson. Williamson coached the Winterhawks for seven and a half years from 2000 to 2007, posting five seasons of .500 or better in that span. He was fired after the dismal 06-07 season but the talent pipeline in Portland had run dry by then.

No Ortio in Swift

Looks like Swift Current's plans to have newly-drafted import Joni Ortio take over in their crease this year might have to wait until 2010-11. Ortio is in Calgary for a Flames prospects camp (they picked him in the 6th round of the NHL draft last month) tells the Calgary Sun that he is staying in Finland for this coming season.

So, Swift's starting goaltender this season is still shaping up to be Morgan Clark.

Friday notes

Two bits of news today, borrowed from two other blogs....

First, Gregg Drinnan is reporting that the Tri-City Americans are in need of a coach. Don Nachbaur resigned the job last night in order to take the head coaching job of the AHL's Binghamton Senators. He will be introduced in that position today.

I looked around and there is more on the story in the Tri-City paper here.

With Nachbaur resigning, the Americans join the Hitmen as the WHL clubs who need a coach. Former NHLer (and longtime AHL/IHL head coach) John Van Boxmeer's name has been linked to the Hitmen job but nothing official has come out of that yet so perhaps they are still looking and interviewing.

The other story is that we finally have some more info on the David Musil situation, courtesy of Jeff Bromley of the Kootenay News-Advertiser. He put the story on his blog too, so we can all read it.

The story doesn't answer ALL the questions we may have about the situation, but it answers many of them at least.

Meta Musil post

I have to vent some more on the David Musil lottery/trade situation....it has now been probably at least a week since the lottery & subsequent trade went down, and we have only a tepid acknowledgement from the WHL that anything out of the ordinary happened. Their three-paragraph press release on the situation reads, in part:

"The WHL had a waiver draft in which Musil’s rights were retained by Kootenay and later traded to Vancouver."

I guess the WHL believes that one sentence, all 19 words of it, is all WHL fans need to know about how the WHL conducts such business.

To be perfectly clear, I am not suggesting that anything untoward took place. Not at all, nor is anyone else I have seen commenting on the topic. I'm quite certain that the entire affair was a fair and unbiased process agreed to by many, if not all, of the people in charge.

The point is though, when they do this stuff in such secrecy, it at least creates the illusion that something hinky is going on, even when it isn't. Why was the holding of the lottery not announced to the public before it was held? Why were the results not released prior to the trade of Musil's rights? Why was the trade not acknowledged by the league until three and a half days after Jeff Hollick broke the story? If Hollick had not blogged about something he heard, would the league have told anyone yet? Why does this league actively pursue bad P.R.? The whole thing just smells bad for everyone, if only because of the way it has been handled.

48 hours after finally acknowledging something out of the ordinary happened, the league still has not seen fit to try to address any questions any of their valued fans might have. Questions like...

• What are the rules that determine which players are eligible for such a lottery and which ones can simply be listed by any club?

• Have any other players had their rights lotteried off in this fashion? For all we fans know, it happens every week and nobody tells us because the players are not big names.

• What did Vancouver give up to get Musil's rights? Jeff Hollick said a 2010 5th and a 2011 1st. Can the league or one of the clubs confirm this?

• Was Musil willing to play anywhere other than the Giants? Were all parties instructed to make sure a trade to Vancouver happened before the lottery even took place? Because it would be nice to know whether the Giants had to bid against anyone to get his rights from the Ice.

I could go on and on with the questions, but the point is that this could have been a great P.R. day for the league but instead they're making fans finding out anything a task worthy of Mission: Impossible.

Is a release explaining what happened just too much for fans to ask for? So that maybe we'll know what to expect next time and this doesn't need to be repeated?

Lamb to Swift

TSN is reporting that the Swift Current Broncos have hired former WHLer & NHLer Mark Lamb as their new coach & general manager.

It's a two year deal, according to TSN. Lamb comes back to the WHL after spending the past seven seasons as an assistant coach in the NHL with Edmonton and Dallas.

I believe only Calgary needs a coach or GM now.

Another overage move

The Red Deer Rebels released overage forward Cody Gross yesterday, and he was promptly scooped up by the Calgary Hitmen.

For the Rebels, cutting Gross loose drops them to four overagers on their rosters - forwards Jordie Deagle, Cody Esposito, and Nathan Green, and defenceman Cullen Morin. Green and Morin are locks for spots so it's either Deagle or Esposito for the third one. It's not looking very good for Esposito to be in the final three.

For the Hitmen, picking up Gross gives them three overagers who are sure to be in camp this year: forwards Gross and Jason MacDonald, and defenceman Ryan Kerr. There's also 50-goal forward Joel Broda, who has still not signed a contract with the Washington Capitals and will be back in the WHL next year if he doesn't. The acquisition of Gross probably makes it less and less likely that we're going to see Bostjan Golicic as a two-spot overage import, even though Golicic is far better than either Gross or MacDonald and the Hitmen are likely to have an open import spot since it doesn't seem likely that they'll land Erik Haula. If Broda or Golicic is back, then Gross is going to be in competition with MacDonald for the third spot.

Without Broda or Golicic, I'll say right now that Calgary will have the worst group of overagers in the WHL in 09-10: Gross, MacDonald, Kerr. There's going to be a lot of teams that none of those guys could crack the overage group on.

Musil confirmation

Finally, somebody associated with the WHL has confirmed the David Musil story. There is a press release on the Giants website right now.

Vague on the details (which the WHL had eventually better confirm and expound on!!!) but at least nobody's keeping this secret anymore.

Monday notes

Few notes/thoughts this morning....

The Portland Winterhawks are looking a lot better this morning than they did a week ago after getting three significant signatures on WHL education deals. The new additions are 19 year old forward Spencer Bennett, 18 year old defenceman Taylor Aronson, and 16 year old forward Seth Swenson. All three players have chosen the WHL over the NCAA - Bennett leaves behind a scholarship to Alaska-Anchorage to join the Hawks, while Aronson, a Hawks listee out of California, was a first round pick in the recent USHL draft by the Tri-City (Nebraska) Storm. Swenson was a Portland 10th round bantam pick in 2008 but he is from Colorado and would have been a much higher pick if his WHL intentions were clear at the 2008 draft table.

Bennett was a 5th round pick of the Calgary Flames in last month's NHL draft, and he said after the draft that he would take the path the Flames felt was best for his development. Looks like they told him to go the WHL route instead of north to Alaska. Both Bennett and Aronson should make an immediate impact on the Hawks this season. Swenson's only 16 so his impact will likely not be as great this year (and he has to make the team first, never a sure thing for most 16 year olds) but that's a good move for a couple years down the road for them.

WHL training camps are only about six weeks away from opening up, and the Swift Current Broncos still don't have a coach or a GM after Dean Chynoweth quit almost a month ago. The Calgary Hitmen need a coach as well, but at least they still have a GM so the preparations for camp and the new season are probably unaffected there. Swift really needs to get a GM in place though so that he can hire a coach (unless it's one man doing both jobs of course) and they can start getting plans made for the new season. Latest rumour is that the new coach there will be former Swift Current native and former WHLer/NHLer Mark Lamb. No word on whether Lamb is also going to be the GM, but you'd have to think so since it seems funny to be hiring a coach without having a GM in place otherwise.

Speaking of camps, I was reading this article about the L.A. Kings summer prospect camp and I noticed at the bottom that Kings GM Dean Lombardi made a reference to the Pats' Colten Teubert getting a long look for the team this year because he is ready and has finished his time in junior. When I read that, my first thought was that Lombardi is mistaken, because Teubert is a 1990 and thus has one more year of junior eligibility left. He's still in that play-in-the-NHL-or-go-back-to-junior group.

But then I thought about it some more, and I remembered that Teubert played a whole bunch of games for the Pats when he was 15. Fourteen regular season and six playoff games, to be exact. And there is an exception to that NHL-or-juniors rule: if a player has played four seasons of junior, he can be sent to the AHL even if he has junior eligibility remaining. This almost never happens because it requires the player to have played major junior at 15, which does not happen. Not full-time, anyway. John Tavares in the OHL would be a notable case there - he played a whole year in the OHL at 15 (via special exemption) and thus he has completed four years in the OHL and so the New York Islanders can send him to the AHL this year if they like. They won't, but they can. So, do Lombardi's comments mean that the Kings are going to try to claim that Teubert's 20 games with the Pats as a 15 year old in 2005-06 constitute a season? If they are successful with that argument, then they can put Teubert in the AHL. Or did Lombardi just err when he said Teubert's time in junior was over? If you're a Pats fan, you might have to sweat it out for a couple months to find out.

And one last note, a comment on the David Musil situation. Jeff Hollick broke the story of the secret draft and subsequent trade of Musil's rights to Vancouver last Friday at 6am on his blog, which surely means that the draft and trade took place on at least Thursday last week, if not God knows how much earlier. So why has there still not been one peep about this on the WHL site, the Kootenay Ice site, the Vancouver Giants site, or anywhere else? Why is the WHL conducting important business like the dispersal & trade of the rights to a potential top NHL draft pick in such apparent secrecy? This kind of B.S. costs the league credibility with fans, so get the news out there already. Shout it from the rooftops.

So....how much other league business which affects the on-ice product we fans pay for goes on in such secrecy that the fans never even find out about it? How much of what the league tells fans is true anyway?

David Musil to WHL?

Found an interesting post on Ice broadcaster Jeff Hollick's blog this morning. According to Hollick, former NHLer Frank Musil has moved his family from the Czech Republic to Burnaby, B.C., which means his 16 year old son David is now eligible to play in the WHL as a North American player, not as an import.

Who's David Musil? If you haven't heard of him before, he is only considered to be perhaps the best Czech defenceman prospect ever. Yes, ever. Sort of their version of Viktor Hedman, perhaps. He's 6'5" and played last year in the Czech 2nd-level mens league as a 15 year old, as well as for the Czechs at the World U-18's, again as a 15 year old in what is predominantly a 17 year old's tournament. He has good bloodlines - in addition to his father, his uncle is recently-retired NHLer Bobby Holik and his grandfather is Jaroslav Holik, a star defenceman for Czechoslovakia in the 70's. He is one of the current favourites for #1 overall in the 2011 NHL draft.

Anyway, according to Hollick, the WHL held a special lottery to determine which WHL team got Musil's rights and the Kootenay Ice won. Musil wants to play closer to his family in Burnaby, so the Ice promptly traded Musil's rights to the Vancouver Giants for a 2010 5th round bantam pick and a 2011 first round bantam pick. Yeah, a first round bantam pick for a 16 year old who hasn't played a game in the WHL yet and will likely only play two seasons here before going to the NHL.

Good for the WHL to land a player like Musil....those are the kinds of guys who make everyone else in the league better for having played against them.

Calgary-Portland trade

Another overager traded tonight as the Winterhawks sent defenceman Ryan Kerr to the Hitmen for a conditional 2010 draft pick. Likely the "conditional" part of the deal requires Kerr to be on the Hitmen's roster past the overage deadline in October. The round of the pick was not specified in any of the press releases I saw but I would guess it's about a 5th or a 6th round pick.

As a Hitmen fan, this deal surprises me not one bit. In looking at Calgary's blueline, they were going to be a little inexperienced next year after losing Seabrook, Plante, and Postma off last year's team that only used four defencemen for the most part of most key games, and I think most Hitmen fans expected a deal for a veteran defenceman. Kerr's not an all-star but he is a four year vet who can provide some experienced minutes for them.

Calgary also had open overage spots, with only utility forward Jason MacDonald a sure thing to be back. Joel Broda and Bostjan Golicic are maybes. So, there were openings there. And the move takes another step in Portland clearing up their overage logjam too - with Kerr and Travis Ehrhardt out of the picture now, it's looking better for Brock Cornish to be back on the Hawks blueline next year if he's healthy, or Stefan Schneider if Cornish can't come back from his injuries. Right now it's Mucha, Francis, and either Cornish or Schneider as the overage choices in Portland....

More Tuesday notes

Two more bits of news this afternoon....

Another undrafted free agent signing from the WHL, as Portland defenceman Travis Ehrhardt signed a three year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Ehrhardt was never drafted and was a free agent, but attended Detroit's prospect camp last fall and obviously they liked him enough to sign him now.

This changes Portland's overage plans too since it seems unlikely Ehrhardt will be back to play as a 20 year old now - he is probably destined for the AHL. Ehrhardt would have been a lock for an O/A spot but now the Hawks are probably more likely to end up keeping somebody else like Brock Cornish or Ryan Kerr instead. IMO anyway.

The other bit of news comes from Jeff Hollick's blog, where the Ice broadcaster reports that the Ice have lost a veteran forward. 19 year old Ryan Fox has informed the Ice that he is quitting the WHL and concentrating on his post-secondary education instead. The Ice acquired Fox from the Hitmen in January in a swap for Kris Foucault, a deal which looks like it won't be going down in the books as one of Kootenay's best trades.

Fox could be just one of two players the Ice lose to the halls of higher learning this summer, as potential overage forward Tylan Stephens has (at last word) not made up his mind either about whether to return to the WHL or get started on his plans to become a pilot.

Tuesday notes

Two things this morning....

First, a trade in the WHL sees the Cougars send 18 year old forward Justin Maylan and a 2010 6th round bantam pick to the Raiders for 19 year old forward James Dombrolowski and a 2010 4th round bantam pick. Seems like a reasonably fair trade both ways, Maylan is a year younger and might be the better player, but the Raiders gave up the higher pick to make up that gap.

This is Maylan's 2nd trade since being a first round pick in the 2006 bantam draft - he was dealt to Prince George by Moose Jaw in the Ty Wishart deal originally. In his comments about the deal, Cougars G.M. Dallas Thompson alluded to some personal difficulties the team had with Maylan too, so perhaps that was a factor in today's trade as well. I think both players will get a chance to play bigger offensive roles with their new teams so it should be a good move for both.

The other note for today is something else I noticed while scanning the import draft list. At #10, the QMJHL's Drummonville Voltigeurs drafted Czech forward Ondrej Palat. What makes this noteworthy is that Palat was drafted last year by Seattle and was part of last year's trade deadline with Chilliwack for the rights to Oscar Moller. Basically the deal was Moller's rights for the rights to Palat (who had not reported to Seattle) and a 4th round bantam pick. If Palat ever reported to Chilliwack, then the Bruins would give back the 4th rounder.

Well, Chilliwack dropped Palat from their protected list a while back, which is why he was available for Drummondville to pick up. And with a high pick too, which means the Voltigeurs obviously think they can get Palat to report.

So what's the point of all this? Well, Palat is supposed to be a pretty talented guy, and God knows the Bruins need more of that kind of thing. So why did they drop him when it looks like he might want to play in North America? Did they want to cement their possession of that oh-so-valuable 4th round pick? I doubt it. Or could it be because Palat was never going to report to a WHL team since they have a reputation for playing by the rules when it comes to transfer fee payments, something that certain teams in other leagues are a little muddier on?

Import situations

A look at the import situations around the league now that the import draft is over....

Brandon: drafted defenceman Alex Urbom (19) and forward Toni Rajala (18), two potential impact players for their Memorial Cup run. Now they just need to get both of them to show up, something that has been a problem for Brandon with imports in the past.

Calgary: traded for forward Mikhail Fisenko (19) from Vancouver and drafted Finnish forward Erik Haula (18), but Haula is probably a longshot to play in the WHL since he has committed to the University of Minnesota for 2010-11 (a rare European player on that team) and is supposed to play in the USHL this year. So, a sales job is required if Haula is to play in the WHL. If they don't land him, don't rule out Bostjan Golicic returning as an overage import.

Chilliwack: drafted forward Roman Horak (18) and will have forward Alex Wiklund (19) return. They should be set.

Edmonton: made no picks and will return forwards Tomas Vincour (19) and Robin Soudek (18).

Everett: picked two defencemen, Radko Gudas (19) and Rasmus Rissanen (18). At 19, Gudas is a one-year WHLer so they need him to make an immediate impact. The Tips are the greenest team in the WHL on the blueline heading into 09-10 so they could use both of these guys making an immediate impact, actually.

Kamloops: new forward Matej Bene (17) will join returnee Dalibor Bortnak (18) as the Blazers' two imports. If they both have good years, they could both play there again in 2010-11 as well.

Kelowna: returnee forward Stepan Novotny (19) is the only sure thing for now. The Rockets drafted forward Teemu Pulkkinen (17) as well but they do not expect to see him until 2010-11. He could be a high NHL pick in 2010 so if he does show up in Kelowna a year from now, this will look like a pretty smart pick.

Kootenay: forward Dominik Pacovsky (19) will be back and they have added defenceman Petr Senkerik (18) to go with him. Similar to Everett, the Ice have a very inexperienced blueline (only one player with more than one year's experience) so they could really benefit from having Senkerik be a stud instead of a dud.

Lethbridge: the Canes said goodbye to a Finnish goalie (the graduating Juha Metsola) and replaced him with a new one, Ville Kolppanen (17). The Canes have only about 20 games of WHL experience total amongst their other goalies so they are probably hoping lightning strikes them twice and that Kolppanen can compete for the starters job. The other import will be returnee defenceman Luca Sbisa (19) but chances are good he'll be in the NHL instead of in Lethbridge again. His NHL rights were traded from Philadelphia to Anaheim and the Ducks' blueline is going to have some openings so he'll probably stay there.

Medicine Hat: forward Zdenek Okal (19) will be back and they drafted 18 year old defenceman Rasmus Damgaard (is "Damgaard" a good name for a defenceman or what?) to join him. Rumour has the NY Rangers potentially returning Tomas Kundratek as an overager but I just don't see it....he has signed with the Rangers, why wouldn't they put him in the AHL. If he wasn't signed I could see him back in the Hat but with the contract done, it just doesn't happen very often.

Moose Jaw: drafted two forwards, Antonin Honejsek (18) and Jakub Herman (17) and have released veteran Martin Filo, so they'll be going with the two new guys.

Portland: traded up from #5 to #2 overall in the import draft to pick Swiss forward Nino Niederreiter (17) so they must have been worried about one of the OHL/QMJHL teams at #3 or #4 picking the guy. They gave up 4th and 6th round bantam picks - a significant price - to move up three spots so Niederreiter better live up to the instant expectations there will be for him now. They also picked another forward, Jakub Berglund (18) so that should be their two for the year.

Prince Albert: drafted forward Fredrik Cedergren (19), and at that age he'll be a one-year player so they must expect him to contribute right away. I'm unsure which of defenceman Tomas Voracek (19) or forward Igor Revenko (19) they dropped in order to pick Cedergren....Voracek went home early last year to be with his mother, who has cancer, but perhaps he is ready to return next year; if he is, I would think they would probably welcome him back - he's big and looked good as a 17 year old in 07-08. On the other hand, Revenko had a decent season offensively last year so he would probably be welcome back too. Guess we'll have to wait and see which one they cut loose.

Prince George: drafted forward Jaroslav Vlach (17) to go with returnee forward Marek Viedensky (19). Also retain the rights to forward Jerome Flaake (19), who never reported last year after being picked. If Flaake gets his release and reports, the Cougars will have to make a cut/trade. But they don't have to worry about that until Flaake walks into their dressing room...

Red Deer: released both of last year's imports, Tommi Kivisto and Tomas Polak, and picked two new ones: defenceman Jindra Barak (18) and forward John Persson (17). Now they pray those two are better than the last two.

Regina: drafted forward Michal Poletin (18) to go with returnee Tomas Hricina (19). Should be set at that.

Saskatoon: drafted the early 09-10 candidate for best name in the WHL in forward Hampus Gustafsson (18), to go with returning defenceman Jyri Niemi (19). Possible monkey wrench in the works is that overage forward Milan Kytnar could be returned by the NHL's Edmonton Oilers. If that happens, somebody's gotta go.

Seattle: drafted forward Mikhail Senturin (17) to go with returning defenceman Stefan Warg (19).

Spokane: drafted forward Dominik Uher (18) to go with returning defenceman Stefan Ulmer (19), which means they've pretty much cornered the market on WHLers whose surnames begin with the letter "U".

Swift Current: surprise, they picked a goalie, Finland's Joni Ortio (18). With Morgan Clark returning in net and four other young goalies who thought they were going to compete for playing time next year, there's suddenly a six-man logjam in the Broncos crease. If Ortio comes over, you have to think Morgan Clark will be looking for another team that needs a 19 year old backup goalie. Back to imports, the Broncos will have forward Jan Dalecky (19) back as well.

Tri-City: not so much of a surprise, the Ams picked a goalie too. Russian Alexander Pechurski is 19 years old so he would be expected to compete to be the starter if he comes over. Like I said though, not so much of a surprise since they lose Chet Pickard and neither of last year's two backups posted jaw-dropping numbers to make you think they could be #1 this year. The Ams also picked another import, forward Sergei Drozd (19). Two 19 year old one-year rookie imports....makes you think the Ams want to make some noise again next year, doesn't it.

Vancouver: traded Fisenko to Calgary and picked forward Sebastien Svensen (18) to go with returnee forward Andrej Kudrna.