Bruins-Silvertips trade

From the Chilliwack Bruins site: the Bruins traded 17 year old goalie Luke Siemens to the Everett Silvertips for a conditional draft pick.

On the surface, it looks like a curious move for the Silvertips since they seemed set in net this year with Heemskerk and Simpson. But maybe they want to bring Siemens in to push Simpson for the backup job....it certainly can't hurt, the conditional nature of the pick probably means they don't have to give up anything unless Siemens proves good enough to beat somebody out for a job.

Hitmen intrasquad

I took in the Hitmen intrasquad game this afternoon....notes follow.

First, the rosters.

Black: Brodie Burdeny (G-15), Kris Drott (G-16), Austin Madaisky (D-17), Kyle Aschim (D-19), Peter Kosterman (D-16), Kyle Schmidt (D-16), Jaynen Rissling (D-16), Ciaron Driscoll (D-17), Adam Desautels (D-17), Chase Schaber (F-18), Cody Sylvester (F-17), Mackenzie Royer (F-17), John Lawrence (F-17), Willy Sakal (F-17), Baxter Niziol (F-18), Brendan Santini (F-16), Chase Clayton (F-15), Justin Cochrane (F-18), Connor Hartley (F-16), Robert Trzonkowski (F-15), Shane Gingera (F-16)

White: Chase Komistek (G-17), Mike DiGirolamo (G-15), Eric Bonsor (D-18), Ben Wilson (D-18), Scott Brkich (D-19), Dustin Pearson (D-18), Devon Marshall (D-19), Alex Roach (D-16), Lee Christensen (D-18), Tyler Fiddler (F-19), Mikhail Fisenko (F-19), Cody Beach (F-17), Jesse Hilton (F-18), Justin Kirsch (F-17), Mark Owens (F-18), Jeremy Olinyk (F-17), Lucas Recknagle (F-17), Chris Musselman (F-17), Kirby Ruzesky (F-16), Jared Morris (F-16), Kevin Shek (F-16)

Players in italics are, to the best of my knowledge, Hitmen property. The rest are tryout players.

Very few veterans took part today - Madaisky & Bonsor were the only ones on defence, and Schaber, Sylvester, Royer, Fiddler, and Fisenko were the only vets up front. I guess you could count Aschim (Prince Albert), Marshall (Portland), and Brkich (Prince George, Medicine Hat) as vets too though, just not with Calgary.

The summary:

First Period:

1. Black, Mackenzie Royer (Chase Clayton, Justin Cochrane)

2. White, Cody Beach (Mikhail Fisenko, Tyler Fiddler)

3. White, Mark Owens (unassisted?)

Second Period:

4. White, Justin Kirsch (penalty shot)

5. Black, Robert Trzonkowski (Connor Hartley, Peter Kosterman)

6. White, Tyler Fiddler (Cody Beach)

Third Period:

7. White, Lee Christensen (Tyler Fiddler, Cody Beach)

8. Black, Mackenzie Royer (unassisted?) (PP)

9. White, Mikhail Fisenko (unassisted) (SH)

In net, Kris Drott started for Black and allowed four goals on 20 shots before being replaced by Brodie Burdeny at 9:52 of the 2nd period. Burdeny finished the game, allowing 2 more goals on 13 shots. For White, Chase Komistek started and allowed 2 goals on 14 shots before being replaced by Mike DiGirolamo at 9:52 of the 2nd. DiGirolamo finished the game, allowing just 1 goal on 22 shots.

There was one fight in the game, late in the first, between Ben Wilson of White and Kyle Aschim of Black. I give the slight edge to Aschim (who looked to have a big size advantage over the smaller Wilson) but Wilson landed some good clean shots too.

Another vet retires

On the heels of Medicine Hat's Bo Montgomery walking away from the game earlier this week, now another 19 year old defenceman has packed it in: Prince Albert's Blaine Tendler is quitting hockey to work on the family farm and pursue his post-secondary education.

Friday notes

So the Team Canada Olympic orientation camp scrimmage sold out the Saddledome in Calgary last night....over 19,000 people paid $40 to $80 a ticket to watch a non-contact scrimmage on a gorgeous summer evening in August. Only in Canada.....but it does raise the question of why the NHL is so insistent on wasting its time in some markets where they probably couldn't draw 19,000 people to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

One other NHL note, former NHL head coach Jacques Demers was named to the Canadian Senate yesterday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Now, I like Jacques Demers, he is a very nice man and was a pretty good coach back in his day....but a few years back he revealed that he was illiterate - unable to read or write much more than his name. How is he supposed to read through and understand legislation which may be hundreds of pages of complicated language which even reasonably well-educated people may have difficulty comprehending? Oh, right, it's the Canadian Senate....aka the "Jobless Thanks". Never mind.

The WHL exhibition season kicked off last night in Prince Albert, with the Saskatoon Blades posting a 5-1 victory over the host Raiders. Sean Aschim scored for the Raiders, while the Blades got two goals from Brent Benson and singles from Tyler Matheson, Duncan Siemans and Charles Inglis. Jacob Edwards and Eric Williams split the time in the Raider net, while Chris Sharkey and Tyler Oswald did the same in the Blades net.

And the Prince George Cougars will kick off their training camp today....other teams are playing exhibition games already and some others still haven't started camps. Wacky.

Some WHL news from around the league's camps now.....first, an interesting rumour in the Prince Albert paper today. Tigers forward Travis Dunstall, who is at home awaiting a trade, says he would play for the Raiders. And whaddya know, the Raiders have former first round bantam pick Cole Penner awaiting a trade as well....and Penner is a Medicine Hat minor hockey product. There would probably have to be some other pieces in the deal too, but there just might be something to be had here.

Still in Medicine Hat, some older rookies know this is probably their last chance at a WHL career. Of additional note in that article is the revelation that defenceman Bo Montgomery has decided once again to call it quits on his WHL career. It's really too bad, because Montgomery actually looked pretty good last year with the Tigers.

In Kelowna, several rookie defencemen are looking to earn a spot on the defending champs. And in Everett, Corey Tyrell hopes to get the opportunity he feels he never got in Prince George. Still with Prince George too, some local players hope to make an impression at Cats camp, including a potential overage policeman.

In Regina, Brayden Metz hopes to resurrect his WHL career where it almost began. And in Red Deer, the battle for backup goalie duties comes down to two players, one old, one young, with a half-season's WHL experience each. Red Deer is also down to 7 defencemen as well (there's 8 d-men left in camp but one is a 15 year old), so it looks like they're done with the cuts at that position too. So really, only forwards are left to battle for positions there.

Thursday stuff

School starts here today and so while seeing my oldest off to grade 1, there were the requisite misty-eyed parents everywhere. I never understood that....shouldn't you be doing cartwheels over the prospect of daytimes once again filled with peace and quiet, after summers of nonstop noise?

Ah well.....to some WHL news....

Swift Current has released veteran forward Liam Darragh this morning. Darragh was acquired last year from Chilliwack for Matt Ius, who coincidentally was released by the Bruins a few days back. A trade that didn't really work out for either team or either player I guess.

Another veteran is in limbo today after overage forward Travis Dunstall was told to stay home by the Medicine Hat Tigers. The team is apparently trying to trade him....Kootenay and Lethbridge have openings for overagers, with each only having one. I would suspect the Tigers would rather not move the talented Dunstall to a division rival like those two though.

In Spokane, camp is underway and with the number of veterans returning, expectations are high once again.

In Regina, one of the four candidates for the two goalie jobs definitely has the best nickname of the lot.

In Calgary, 2008 first round bantam pick Peter Kosterman is looking to build on a good season last year where his midget team finished 2nd in the country. Meanwhile, potential Hitmen overage forward Joel Broda is still unsure of whether he'll be playing pro this year or back in the WHL.

Wednesday notes

Three more camps open today (Calgary, Everett, and Tri-City) and three more tomorrow (Kootenay, Lethbridge, and Spokane) which means that by tomorrow the only team not to have gotten the 09-10 season underway will be Prince George, who don't open camp until Friday.

Some WHL news coming later but one quick note out of Seattle's camp, where 19 year old forward Jeremy Boyer was a no-show for main camp check-in last night. Boyer has requested a trade. That's a blow for the Birds, since Boyer would have been their 2nd-highest returning scorer (21 goals & 56 points last year) and was probably going to be counted on heavily in the offence this year. The Birds have already lost Greg Scott (32 goals), Jim O'Brien (27 goals), Thomas Hickey (16 goals), Chris Cloud (15 goals), Devon Leblanc (14 goals) and David Richard (10 goals) from last year's offence, and with the loss of Boyer Seattle now has far fewer returning goals than any other team in the league with just 85 08-09 goals on the roster. The next-lowest team, Lethbridge, has 115. Offence has to be a concern for the Birds.

Some news from around the league now......in Chilliwack, Mitch McColm finds himself the old guy on what could be a young Bruins blueline. In Red Deer, overage forward Nathan Green is adjusting just fine after the shock of being traded out of Brandon. In Saskatoon, there may be a new policeman in town, as tough 19 year old forward Tyler Matheson is packing almost 250 pounds on a 6'2" frame. And in Edmonton, Craig McCallum is giving it his best shot to be one of the three overagers the Oil Kings will keep.

Tuesday notes

News coming out of the first day of Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp is that the #1 line is shaping up to be Sidney Crosby centering Rick Nash and Jarome Iginla. Think about the damage a line like that could do for a minute, with Crosby's slick passing setting up two of the NHL's best shooters.

Personally, I think they need to invite Cory Stillman to camp and put him on that line. That way Crosby, Stills, and Nash would be back together again.

I know anyone under 30 didn't get that joke. Aaaaanyway.....some WHL news now.....we start in Moose Jaw, where the Warriors goalies are getting acquainted with new goalie coach David Marcoux, who is slumming in the WHL this season after spending the past several years in the NHL. And still in Moose Jaw, a 16 year old and a 19 year old are amongst the rookie hopefuls who have stood out so far. And another older rookie, an 18 year old defenceman, is trying to crack the roster in Red Deer.

In Regina, Curtis Hunt is in a fog about some of the players on the team. Or maybe the fog is just the conditions at the Pats' practice rink. If that picture truly reflects the conditions on the ice, I'm shocked they even played.....how can anyone even see the puck?

In Chilliwack, David Robinson wants to be a leader on the Bruins this season. And Mark Pysyk is ready to step up this season in Edmonton too.

In Saskatoon, the Blades are particularily pleased with one 15 year old, and just to the north of that, the Raiders are very happy with two 15 year olds in their camp.

Monday notes

Monday morning, and some teams are 3 or 4 days into training camp already, while others will be getting started in the next 2 or 3 days here.

I've been trying to keep the camp rosters updated here....some teams are really good about posting their rosters and cuts, etc - plus in a few cases (Saskatoon, Tri-Cities) I have gotten their rosters sent to me directly from the teams themselves. Much appreciated to those teams who are keeping their fans up to date with rosters and cuts.

But then there's teams who haven't got any rosters or anything like that on their websites and their camps have been running for days now. Come on already!

Couple quick notes now....one trade over the weekend, Brandon sending 18 year old goalie James Priestner and a conditional 2010 5th round bantam pick to Prince George for a 2010 3rd round bantam pick and the rights to 19 year old defenceman Aaron Ness. The 5th rounder is conditional on Ness reporting to Brandon (he is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota) so basically this is two trades: Priestner for a 3rd round pick, and Ness for a 5th round pick if Ness reports.

On the Prince George end, the deal reunites Priestner with coach Dean Clark, who originally drafted Priestner when he was G.M. of the Kamloops Blazers - and Clark also worked for Priestner's father (who owns a car dealership in Edmonton) during his time between being fired by Kamloops and hired by Prince George. The deal also in all likelihood spells the end of the WHL career of current Cougars goalie Joe Caligiuri. He would be an overager this year and I think the Cougars are unlikely to keep him when they now have Priestner - who can probably be their starter - as well as highly-regarded 17 year old Michael Salmon. Far more likely that Caligiuri will be moving on so that the Cougars can keep three other overagers - probably defenceman Dallas Jackson and forwards Alex Rodgers and Tyler Halliday.

One other note, the Chilliwack Bruins released three veterans yesterday - defenceman James Bettauer and forwards Matt Ius and Scott MacDonald all were given their walking papers as the Bruins look to make room for younger, better players.

Friday notes

Notes for today, as WHL camps get underway....

First, some terrific news: WHL coaching legend Punch McLean was found alive last night after four days in the bush in northern B.C.....I'm sure many folks feared the worst but it appears the bears were a whole lot nicer to Punch than opposing fans were back in the day....

Next, the rumours of pint-size scoring machine Jordan Schroeder joining the Silvertips are completely untrue, says no less an authority than his dad. There was some talk for a day or two that Schroeder may be about to sign with the Vancouver Canucks (who picked him in the first round of June's draft), and that the Canucks would assign Schroeder to the Silvertips, who own his junior rights, since signing with the Canucks would mean the end of his NCAA career. But it looks like there is no truth to these stories since his dad says he's going back to school for his sophomore season at Minnesota.

Too bad for Everett....Schroeder would probably challenge for the scoring title if he did play here in the 'dub. The NCAA guys are always low-percentage gambles to ever play for you though....

Kelowna hopes to find another diamond in the rough in the throngs of free agents at their rookie camp. In Red Deer, nothing short of the playoffs is acceptable this season. In Edmonton, 16 year old Michael St. Croix is ready for the season and expectations that await him. And in Brandon, they have apparently confirmed that both their imports will be with them this season. Big news for the Wheaties, who have had some trouble getting imports to report in the last few years.

Broncos lose import

Broncos p-b-p guy Jon Keen has a tidbit over on his blog today: import forward Jan Dalecky has apparently chosen not to return to the Broncos for a sophomore season, preferring to stay home and play in the Czech Republic instead.

A bit of a blow for the Broncos as Dalecky had 37 points as an 18 year old rookie and would probably have been counted on to produce more this year. The Broncos also have no imports on their team right now as Finnish goalie Joni Ortio also did not report to camp, although that no-show was expected.

It's here!

Yes, WHL hockey season is back today. Several teams open training camps today, with all the others set to follow suit in the coming days. By a week from now, camps should be underway in all 22 league cities.

As I have done the last two years, I'll be compiling and updating a list of all the players in camp for each team. You should be able to see the first version of that list a little later this morning, I'm putting together some names right now.

Training camp news from around the league coming in too.....like Chilliwack's Marc Habscheid musing about his team's glut of 19 year olds. With 10 19 year olds on the roster, the Bruins probably have three or four more than a building team would like.

The Blades' Duncan Siemens is a rookie with high expectations. And the Warriors have 25 vets with only 23 spots. When you add in the rookies, some vets are going to have to hit the road by the end of camp in the Jaw. And in Portland, the playoffs are no longer just something other teams do - they're the goal.

Oh, and keep former WHL coach Ernie "Punch" McLean in your thoughts this morning....he has been missing in the bush in north-central B.C. since Sunday. No food, no gun (in bear country), it's not a pretty picture right now for the 77 year old, who is undoubtedly one of the most colorful (and sometimes controversial) characters the WHL has ever seen.

Ice lose overager

As per the Kootenay Ice website, forward Tylan Stephens has made up his mind about his hockey future and has decided not to report to the Ice for his overage season. Instead he will begin university in hopes of becoming a pilot.

This is a blow for the Ice; Stephens would have been the highest-scoring returning player on the team with his 27 goals and 57 points last year.

The Ice now have only one overager on the team, forward Dustin Sylvester, so they are probably buyers now in what should be a half-decent overage trade market over the next six weeks.

Ivan Hlinka final

Canada whipped the Russians 9-2 in the final of the Ivan Hlinka U-18 tournament in the Czech Republic on Saturday.

Not one of those nine goals came off the stick of a WHLer, which means that for the entire tournament, Canada scored 27 goals in 4 games and the six WHL skaters on the team contributed 1 goal in total.

Obviously I didn't see any of the games, and coverage of the tournament was pretty sparse so the list of people who know how things went over there is probably limited to a pretty small group that includes the team itself. But I find it difficult to swallow that the West contributed 30% of the skaters on the team and yet managed to score less than 4% of the goals.

It certainly isn't because our kids are any less skilled than the OHL's or QMJHL's - guys like Connolly, Howdon, Pysyk, Ross, and Weal are going to score a ton of points before their junior careers are over and at least a couple of those guys are going to be first round NHL picks next spring.

Politics again (OHL head coach, go figure)? Western kids have a reputation for being more gritty and well-rounded players than the one-way wonders the other two leagues produce, so the WHL kids get slotted into checking roles?

Ivan Hlinka update

Quick note about the Ivan Hlinka memorial U-18 tournament going on over in the Czech Republic: for the 2nd year in a row, Canada and Russia have won their pools in the round-robin and so they will meet for the gold medal tomorrow for the 2nd year in a row.

Canada has seven WHLers: Brett Connolly (Prince George), Quinton Howdon (Moose Jaw), Alex Petrovic (Red Deer), Calvin Pickard (Seattle), Mark Pysyk (Edmonton), Brad Ross (Portland), and Jordan Weal (Regina).

Stats for the Canadian WHLers:

Connolly: 0g, 0a, 0pts, 0pim

Howdon: 0g, 0a, 0pts, 2pim

Petrovic: 0g, 0a, 0pts, 2pim

Pickard: 2-0, 2.50 GAA, .906 GAA

Pysyk: 0g, 2a, 2pts, 2pim

Ross: 0g, 1a, 1pt, 0pim

Weal: 1g, 2a, 3pts, 0pim

Connolly has not played since the first game of the round-robin after suffering an apparent hip flexor injury in that game. But, not a very strong showing on the offensive side of things for the WHL boys. Only one goal off the stick of a WHLer despite Canada having scored 18 goals. But, who knows how they're being used by the coaching staff....

Road warriors 09-10

With the release of the official WHL schedule on Monday, it's time for the annual look at WHL travel schedules. What I've done is taken each team's schedule and calculated how many kilometers they have to drive from each game to the next, then totaled the distances for each team over the entire season.

The chart below shows how many kilometers (and miles, for American readers) each team travels this upcoming season, as well as the +/- change in their kilometers from last season, and the team's rank in last year's list of most-travelled teams.

		km	miles	change	08-09 rank
1	Brandon	32052	19916	+2919	1
2	Edmonton	27626	17166	+2260	4
3	Prince George	26528	16484	+890	3
4	Kootenay	26314	16351	+666	2
5	Spokane	25830	16050	+2253	6
6	Prince Albert	25827	16048	+2694	8
7	Portland	25748	15999	+2803	9
8	Kelowna	25101	15597	+2675	10
9	Swift Current	24180	15025	+2469	13
10	Calgary	24056	14948	+2499	16
11	Tri-City	23533	14623	+1368	12
12	Saskatoon	23036	14314	+2076	17
13	Lethbridge	22825	14183	+431	11
14	Kamloops	22819	14179	-573	7
15	Red Deer	22721	14118	-956	5
16	Medicine Hat	22481	13969	+1708	20
17	Chilliwack	21757	13519	+116	15
18	Moose Jaw	21742	13510	+97	14
19	Vancouver	21496	13357	+615	19
20	Everett	20604	12803	-348	18
21	Seattle	19827	12320	-734	21
22	Regina	19220	11943	-47	22

Some (most?) changes can be explained by schedule variations, such as the East teams having to visit the U.S. teams this season whereas last year they didn't, etc.

For the 2nd year in a row, the Wheat Kings will rack up the most miles and bad movies on the iron lung, and it isn't even close - they'll travel 4400 more kilometers than the next-worst team and that is a huge amount when you consider that most teams are actually not that significantly worse off than the next guy.

Edmonton being #2 really surprised me, given that they have a couple of fairly close divisional opponents. In fact, they actually have it worse this year than the Cougars do. I think the difference is that the Cougars compensate for their travel by playing more games every time they go on the road - only once this season do they leave Prince George and play only one game on the road before returning home. Edmonton does that eight times; it adds up to more miles on the road in a hurry. If travel is an issue for the Oil Kings, they may need to look at making their travel schedule more efficient, similar to what the Cougars do.

And for the 2nd year in a row, the Regina Pats have the easiest schedule. I'm sure it helps them that they have a division rival practically down the street - those short 75 km hops to Moose Jaw beat the heck out of Prince George's 525 km trek to their nearest opponent, no? Seattle and Everett also share a very short commute with each other, as do Chilliwack and Vancouver, which all kind of makes the fact that those are the six lowest-travelled teams make a lot more sense.

Big savings for Red Deer too....I haven't analyzed their schedules to see what the big difference is but they have chopped almost 1000km off their travels this season and dropped from the 5th most travelled team in the league down to the 15th. You'd think not having to go to the U.S. cities this year might help the mileage, but all the other Central teams - who also don't visit the U.S. cities this year - all went up, some of them a lot. So, perhaps the Rebels just are making more efficient road trips this year.

Funny how the East division has both the most-travelled team and the least-travelled team....so which division has it easiest? Average travel distances (in km) for a team in each of the four divisions:

East: 24,343

Central: 24,337

U.S.: 23,540

B.C.: 23,109

So the East and Central are a virtual dead heat, only 6 km apart in average. The B.C. division has it easiest, with their teams travelling an average of 1200 km less than the Eastern conference teams. That's despite the B.C. division having one of the league's most far-flung teams in Prince George.

Battle of the Blades

Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but even if I have, they have finally finalized the cast of professional skaters and former NHLers who will take part, so it's worth another mention.

Basically, CBC is going to show a seven-week competition this fall, similar to ABC's hit Dancing With The Stars, in which former NHLers are paired up with female professional figure skaters in a figure skating competition. One pair gets eliminated each week, etc, etc. If I'm not mistaken, FOX in the States already tried something like this several years back, but with D-grade celebrities rather than former NHLers.

I think it's shlock - like most of what CBC airs that isn't hockey - but CBC must want it to succeed since they are bringing out the heavy hitters, having added Ron MacLean as the host. For us hockey fans, that is bad news since it means we're going to have to listen to Don Cherry needle MacLean about it every week next season.

I offer one prediction on the competition: Ron Duguay will have better hair than whichever female skater he ends up paired with.

Seattle loses an overager

Got this off of Seattle fan Tyler Hunnex's blog.....Seattle forward David Richard has decided to retire rather than return for his overage season.

With Richard not returning, Seattle's overage group is almost certainly going to be forwards Prab Rai and Lindsay Nielsen with defenceman Jeremy Schappert. Unless one of those three doesn't return either for some reason, of course....

More on successful franchises

Before I get started here, one quick note to point out that the WHL has released the official schedule for 2009-10. You can find it on the WHL site.

Back to the league's most successful franchises for some more analysis now.....just for the heck of it, I decided to take a look at regular season success as well. So, the WHL's most successful franchises based on average regular season points over the last five years:

Team	08-09	07-08	06-07	05-06	04-05	Avg
Vancouver	119	106	100	100	76	100.2
Calgary	122	99	85	101	83	98
Medicine Hat	79	93	107	103	96	95.6
Kootenay	78	92	104	94	104	94.4
Brandon	101	90	93	70	96	90
Tri-City	101	108	96	67	64	87.2
Kelowna	98	84	53	96	104	87
Seattle	75	91	88	76	91	84.2
Everett	63	81	111	85	77	83.4
Saskatoon	103	67	58	88	86	80.4
Spokane	95	107	80	58	58	79.6
Lethbridge	75	96	71	63	91	79.2
Swift Current	86	89	69	62	53	71.8
Regina	60	94	80	85	34	70.6
Kamloops	72	58	86	73	61	70
Moose Jaw	41	88	59	96	39	64.6
Red Deer	60	43	79	58	82	64.4
Prince Albert	67	57	60	61	71	63.2
Edmonton	67	55	n/a	n/a	n/a	61
Prince George	53	44	74	76	57	60.8
Chilliwack	45	65	57	n/a	n/a	55.7
Portland	43	25	37	72	80	51.4

If 100 points is considered the gold standard for a very successful season, the Vancouver Giants have averaged that number over the last five years. In fact, they've hit the century mark for four straight years now.

At the low end of the scale....well, apart from Edmonton and Chilliwack, who can be forgiven their low totals for being expansion teams, you have eight other teams that have not averaged .500, including the Cougars and Winter Hawks (I'll put the space in there because the space-less team hasn't played a game yet!) who have averaged worse than the expansion team(s).

And over the last ten years:

Team	03-04	02-03	01-02	00-01	99-00	Avg
Kootenay	74	83	83	100	102	91.4
Calgary	82	63	72	82	120	90.9
Kelowna	98	109	77	86	57	86.2
Vancouver	81	61	36	n/a	n/a	84.9
Brandon	68	98	92	72	59	83.9
Everett	80	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	82.8
Swift Current	79	86	97	95	101	81.7
Medicine Hat	92	67	66	56	54	81.3
Red Deer	85	105	100	114	73	79.9
Spokane	75	62	80	79	100	79.4
Seattle	65	94	53	69	80	78.2
Kamloops	78	84	85	79	78	75.4
Tri-City	76	48	72	57	57	74.6
Regina	59	69	92	85	75	73.3
Lethbridge	71	61	72	66	59	72.5
Moose Jaw	91	86	68	77	63	70.8
Saskatoon	27	85	62	48	79	70.3
Prince George	68	57	79	70	95	67.3
Prince Albert	87	62	57	43	65	63
Edmonton	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	61
Portland	77	51	83	82	39	58.9
Chilliwack	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	55.7

After comparing these charts to the ones of playoff success, I don't think there is a huge variation....teams that have consistently had some regular season success have generally also had some playoff success. No surprise there really, I guess....

UPDATE: A reader has thoughtfully compiled the complete records for the top teams over the last decade:

	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	Pts
Kootenay	413	219	42	11	15	894
Calgary	417	226	34	10	13	891
Kelowna	389	245	29	30	14	852
Medicine Hat	367	274	26	13	13	786
Vancouver	304	201	24	11	26	669
Kamloops	332	318	37	10	11	722
Brandon	359	260	17	15	17	767
Spokane	354	281	40	10	16	774
Red Deer	355	284	38	10	22	780
Kamloops	327	307	40	8	17	719

Most successful franchises?

Just something for fun here, in response to a question that was posed to me during the flurry of draft reviews.....who are the most successful WHL teams of the last 5 years? Last 10 years?

For the purposes of this, I have defined "success" by the number of playoff series won. I think most fans would agree that a 100 point regular season with a first round exit is not a successful season, so we're going to define success as playoff success here....

So, a chart with the number of playoff series wins in each of the last 5 seasons, plus total series wins, times the team missed the playoffs, times they made it to the finals, times they won the WHL title, and times they won the Memorial Cup:

(a "0" means the team made the playoffs but went out in the 1st round; a "--" means they missed the playoffs; an "n/a" means the team did not play that season)

	08-09	07-08	06-07	05-06	04-05	Total	Missed	Finals	WHL Champ	Mem Cup
Vancouver	2	1	3	4	0	10	0	2	1	1
Kelowna	4	0	--	1	4	9	1	2	2	0
Calgary	3	2	2	1	1	9	0	1	0	0
Medicine Hat	1	0	4	2	1	8	0	1	1	0
Brandon	2	0	1	0	3	6	0	1	0	0
Spokane	1	4	0	--	--	5	2	1	1	1
Everett	0	0	1	2	1	4	0	0	0	0
Lethbridge	1	3	--	0	0	4	1	1	0	0
Kootenay	0	1	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	0
Seattle	0	1	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0
Moose Jaw	--	0	--	3	0	3	2	1	0	0
Tri-City	1	2	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0
Prince George	0	--	2	0	--	2	2	0	0	0
Prince Albert	--	--	0	--	2	2	3	0	0	0
Regina	--	0	1	0	--	1	2	0	0	0
Swift Current	0	1	0	0	--	1	1	0	0	0
Portland	--	--	--	1	0	1	3	0	0	0
Saskatoon	0	--	--	1	0	1	2	0	0	0
Edmonton	0	--	n/a	n/a	n/a	0	1	0	0	0
Chilliwack	--	0	0	n/a	n/a	0	1	0	0	0
Red Deer	--	--	0	--	0	0	3	0	0	0
Kamloops	0	0	0	--	0	0	1	0	0	0

One thing I notice right away is that there's only six teams that have averaged one playoff win per year over the last five years - and there's only one team in the entire WHL that has actually won at least one playoff round each of the last five years, and that is Calgary. Although, they are also one of only two teams in that top six who have not won a WHL title in that time, so that has to be a strike against them when compared to the other top teams.

Then there's Kelowna, who have two WHL titles to their credit in the last 5 years, but also missed the playoffs once and went out in the first round once. When they're good, they're good, and when they're bad....

Vancouver tops the list with 10 wins in 5 years, and they also have been fairly consistent in the last four years at least, with two trips to the WHL finals, one WHL title, and one Memorial Cup win so they probably belong on the top there.

Then there's the bottom of the list....we'll give Chilliwack and Edmonton a break since they are fairly new teams yet, but Red Deer and Kamloops - two franchises with a history of success in the past - have not won a single playoff round in those five years. Some other franchises who have had success in the past too - Portland & Swift Current - are also languishing near the bottom with only one playoff win in the last five years.

The same chart again now, with the next five years added and the totals expanded to total all ten years:

	03-04	02-03	01-02	00-01	99-00	Total	Missed	Finals	WHL Champ	Mem Cup
Kelowna	2	4	2	0	0	17	1	3	3	1
Kootenay	0	1	4	1	4	13	0	2	2	1
Medicine Hat	4	1	--	--	--	13	3	2	2	0
Red Deer	2	3	3	4	0	12	3	3	1	1
Spokane	0	1	1	2	3	12	2	1	1	1
Calgary	0	0	0	1	2	12	0	1	0	0
Vancouver	1	0	--	n/a	n/a	11	1	2	1	1
Brandon	1	2	2	0	--	11	1	1	0	0
Seattle	--	2	1	1	1	8	1	0	0	0
Everett	3	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	7	0	1	0	0
Moose Jaw	1	1	1	0	0	6	2	1	0	0
Swift Current	0	0	1	2	1	5	1	0	0	0
Lethbridge	--	--	0	0	--	4	4	1	0	0
Portland	0	0	0	3	--	4	4	1	0	0
Prince George	--	0	0	0	2	4	3	0	0	0
Tri-City	1	--	0	--	0	4	2	0	0	0
Prince Albert	0	--	--	--	0	2	6	0	0	0
Saskatoon	--	0	0	--	1	2	4	0	0	0
Regina	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0
Chilliwack	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	0	1	0	0	0
Edmonton	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	0	1	0	0	0
Kamloops	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0

Certainly Kelowna is distancing themselves from the pack when you go back further and further. 17 playoff series wins in 10 years, a whole four more than the next-best teams. Add in three WHL championships and one Memorial Cup and I think we have a clear winner in the debate over the most successful WHL team of the last decade.

And I hate to jump on Kamloops, but we also have a clear loser with zero playoff wins in ten years - and the only team with zero wins to have played all ten seasons. Some other teams struggling there too for sure with only 1 or 2 playoff wins total in the last decade.

If nothing else, this should be good for some debate, either in the comments or anywhere else it ends up being reposted....

Rating the bantam drafts: 2001

Now 2001, the draft of the 1986's. I think this will be the last one I do for now. If there's really a lot of demand, maybe I'll go further back sometime in the future.

	Total Picks	Under 50	50 - 100	100 - 150	150 - 200	Over 200	Total GP	WHLers%	GP/pick
Brandon	11	0	1	0	3	3	1454	63.6%	132.2
Calgary	11	0	2	0	1	3	1197	54.5%	108.8
Kamloops	9	0	0	1	1	2	889	44.4%	98.8
Kelowna	11	0	0	0	1	3	908	36.4%	82.5
Kootenay	10	1	1	2	0	1	717	50%	71.7
Lethbridge	8	0	0	1	0	1	380	25%	47.5
Medicine Hat	9	1	0	1	0	3	839	55.6%	93.2
Moose Jaw	8	1	0	0	1	3	1059	62.5%	132.4
Portland	11	0	1	3	0	2	1051	54.5%	95.5
Prince Albert	11	0	1	0	0	2	538	27.3%	48.9
Prince George	10	1	0	0	0	3	834	40%	83.4
Red Deer	11	0	0	1	0	5	1452	54.5%	132
Regina	11	2	0	1	1	1	639	45.5%	58.1
Saskatoon	9	1	0	0	1	3	1010	55.6%	112.2
Seattle	10	0	0	0	0	5	1428	50%	142.8
Spokane	11	1	0	1	1	2	833	45.5%	75.7
Swift Current	11	0	2	2	0	3	1194	63.6%	108.5
Tri-City	11	0	0	0	0	4	1113	36.4%	101.2
Vancouver	10	1	0	0	1	3	942	50%	94.2

Very good draft for Brandon, with six WHL regulars picked. Also another good draft for Seattle, with five 200+ game players out of 10 picks. (With two very good back-to-back drafts in 2001 and 2002, don't you wonder why Seattle didn't have more on-ice success in 2003 - 2007?). Other teams who had good drafts this year are Moose Jaw, Red Deer, Calgary, and Tri-City.

Bad drafts....Lethbridge for sure had the worst draft this year, and Kootenay's wasn't very good either. Regina and Prince Albert were a couple other poor ones.

Best picks:

- Garrett Festerling (10th round, Portland). His twin brother Brett was a first rounder but Garrett carved out a nice 250 game career for himself despite being picked nine rounds and 183 picks later.

- Curtis Billsten (9th round, Red Deer)

- Dustin Slade (10th round, Kamloops). Goaltender whose talent was exceeded (and overshadowed) by his temper.

Worst picks:

- Spencer Dillon, 13th overall to Portland. A player so nice they drafted him twice - the Hawks had previously drafted local boy Dillon in the 8th round in 2000, and then for some reason used a first rounder on him in 2001. He never played in the WHL....he played two seasons in the NCAA for Northern Michigan and has not been seen in the hockey world since 2006-07.

- Jeff Preston, Deder Klassen, Bryce Macek, Scott McCulloch....all 2nd rounders who played barely or not at all in the WHL.

And the players/games played....

Brandon: Jeff Topilko (277), Tyler Harder (58), Derek Werenka (159), Corey Courchene (197), Teegan Moore (330), Dustin Byfuglien (189), Derek Leblanc (244)
Calgary: Aaron Boogaard (273), Jeff Schultz (262), Andy Rogers (158), Steve Covington (327), Tyler Feakes (81), Jamison Orr (96)
Kamloops: Reid Jorgensen (297), Devan Dubnyk (192), Kyle Deck (268), Dustin Slade (132)
Kelowna: Tyler Spurgeon (212), Blake Comeau (253), Mike Card (269), Brent Howarth (174)
Kootenay: Jeremy Schenderling (321), Josh Fauth (143), Mike Boxma (95), Taylor Dakers (138), Jerris Paul (20)
Lethbridge: C.J. Jackson (124), John Lammers (256)
Medicine Hat: Cam Barker (214), Deder Klassen (7), Kyle Pess (228), Brett Robertson (277),
Kyle Howarth (113)
Moose Jaw: Dustin Boyd (265), Michael Busto (331), Darcy Stewart (5), Devin Welsh (188), Jordan Henry (270)
Portland: Alex Aldred (331), Aaron Roberge (136), Shane Halifax (121), Matt Isbister (71), Scott Bowles (144), Garrett Festerling (248)
Prince Albert: Kyle Chipchura (216), Dane Byers (236), Brandon Peet (86)
Prince George: Eric Hunter (323), Curtis Cooper (276), Dylan Yeo (228), Luke Boyer (7)
Red Deer: Kyle Ross (288), Ted Vandermeer (202), Blair Jones (249), Jared Walker (295), Curtis Billsten (279), Joel Eisenkirch (139)
Regina: Max Gordichuk (265), Craig Lineker (178), David Graden (22), Todd Davison (49), Jesse Deckert (125)
Saskatoon: Joe Barnes (240), Evan Haw (284), Wacey Rabbit (289), Dalyn Flatt (177), Russel Monette (20)
Seattle: Cole Simpson (204), Aaron Bader (331), Zack Fitzgerald (248), Clayton Barthel (327), Aaron Gagnon (318)
Spokane: Steven Gillen (285), Ned Lukacevic (238), Andy Schenn (123), Jim Watt (169), Sean Affleck (18)
Swift Current: David Schulz (304), Myles Rumsey (262), Kyle Moir (233), Colin Stone (108), Blair Stengler (103), Jovan Matic (99), Cole Hunter (85)
Tri-City: Brett Festerling (314), Logan Stephenson (249), Jason Beeman (326), Cody Thoring (224)
Vancouver: Mark Fistric (214), Joe Logan (314), Clayton Turko (11), Landon Jones (224), Chad Scharff (179)

Rating the bantam drafts: 2002

A look at the 2002 draft now. These were the 1987's. Draft drops to 19 teams now as Everett had not joined the league at the time of this draft.

	Total Picks	Under 50	50 - 100	100 - 150	150 - 200	Over 200	Total GP	WHLers%	GP/pick
Brandon	11	0	1	0	2	5	1669	72.7%	151.7
Calgary	9	0	0	0	0	2	498	22.2%	55.3
Kamloops	14	1	0	1	0	5	1678	50%	119.9
Kelowna	11	1	1	1	0	1	532	36.4%	48.4
Kootenay	9	2	1	0	0	2	623	55.6%	69.2
Lethbridge	11	0	2	0	1	3	1001	54.5%	91
Medicine Hat	11	1	0	0	2	2	832	45.5%	75.6
Moose Jaw	9	1	0	0	1	3	940	55.6%	104.4
Portland	8	0	0	1	1	3	1068	62.5%	133.5
Prince Albert	12	2	1	2	1	2	1178	66.7%	98.2
Prince George	11	1	0	0	0	3	874	36.4%	79.5
Red Deer	9	1	0	0	0	6	1621	77.8%	180.1
Regina	11	4	0	0	1	0	319	45.5%	29
Saskatoon	10	0	0	2	1	3	1144	60%	114.4
Seattle	8	1	0	0	2	4	1667	87.5%	208.4
Spokane	11	0	0	0	0	4	983	36.4%	89.4
Swift Current	9	2	1	0	0	3	955	66.7%	106.1
Tri-City	9	0	0	1	2	0	487	33.3%	54.1
Vancouver	9	1	0	0	1	2	665	44.4%	73.9

Hard to argue that this was a fantastic draft for Seattle. They only made 8 picks but managed to get four 300+ game WHLers and six regular WHLers overall. Also a very good draft for Brandon, Red Deer, and Kamloops, all of whom got five or six 200+ game players. Worth noting is that the 1987's were considered one of the weaker crops of players in the WHL in a few years, so to do very well in this draft gave you a definite leg up on other teams. Teams like Calgary, Regina, Kelowna, and Tri-City had fairly poor drafts, landing only one or two players in most cases. The Hitmen got only one player in total and zero impact players out of this draft, for example. Then there's Swift Current, who had two first round picks and blew both of them, but salvaged an OK draft with some decent later picks. Imagine if they had struck gold with both those first rounders too....would it have been enough to put those almost-good-enough teams they had a few years ago over the top?

Best picks:

- the Russell twins. Medicine Hat got Kris at #138 (8th round) and Kootenay got Ryan at #184 (11th round). Kris was the WHL's defenceman of the year for two straight years and Ryan scored 30+ goals three straight years.

Worst picks:

- Dan Bertram, #2 overall to Vancouver. Never played in the WHL and went the college route. Last seen playing in the ECHL....but at least he got an education, eh?

- Billy Smith, #18 overall to Swift Current. Never played in the WHL either, went NCAA.

- Ryan Sawka (#14 overall to Swift) & Tanner Stockwell (#16 overall to Regina). Both played only 49 games in the WHL.

And the list of WHLers drafted, with the number of games they played in the WHL...

Brandon: Codey Burki (263), Ryan Reaves (201), Tyler Plante (164), Mark Louis (303), Kevin Undershute (188), Daryl Boyle (262), Tyler Strautman (83), Theran Yeo (205)
Calgary: Riley Merkley (240), Terrance Delaronde (258)
Kamloops: Kalvin Sagert (339), Moises Gutierrez (326), Ryan Bender (309), Scott Brownlee (24), Benn Olson (244), Brock Nixon (315), David Reekie (121)
Kelowna: Kevin Reinholt (100), Kristofer Westblom (124), Tanner Irwin (43), Troy Ofukany (265)
Kootenay: Laine Allen (54), Steve DaSilva (271), Chris Cook (21), Michael Young (14), Ryan Russell (263)
Lethbridge: Michael Kaye (204), Ken Petkau (228), Chase Henitiuk (94), Judd Blackwater (171), R.J. LaRochelle (246), Philip Magistrale (58)
Medicine Hat: David Schlemko (198), Gord Baldwin (190), Jason Vokey (2), Kris Russell (241), Darren Helm (201)
Moose Jaw: Kenndal McArdle (261), Jason Battershill (16), Tanner Gillies (196), Justin Scott (236), Karey Pieper (231)
Portland: Frazer McLaren (318), Kevin Tipper (102), Brandon Dubinsky (234), Dustin Butler (188), Brendan Mikkelson (226)
Prince Albert: Mike Gauthier (304), Mike Wilson (175), A.J. Thelen (125), Jordan Morgan (41), Preston Mosewich (59), Garth Collins (126), Blaine Neufeld (38), Jeff May (310)
Prince George: Nick Drazenovic (281), Greg Gardner (338), Michael Fogolin (42), Ryan Gillen (213)
Red Deer: Paul Kurceba (323), Dan Mercer (252), Tyler Dittmer (217), Jacob Dietrich (270), Trevor Peeters (36), John Flatters (249), Andre Herman (274)
Regina: Tanner Stockwell (49), Matt Sawa (43), Derek Reinhart (186), Mike O'Dwyer (40), Ben Manley (1)
Saskatoon: Devin Setoguchi (255), Boris Leckovic (133), Nicolaus Knudsen (232), Garet Hunt (193), Jesse Smyke (122), Keith Voytechek (209)
Seattle: Chris Durand (330), Bretton Stamler (332), Scott Jackson (329), Gavin McHale (45), David Linsley (163), Yashar Farmanara (310), Curtis Patterson (158)
Spokane: Adam Hobson (252), Jason Lynch (238), Myles Stoesz (235), Chris Bruton (258)
Swift Current: Ryan Sawka (49), Clayton Bauer (277), Marc Dafoe (52), Michael Hengen (226), Jerrid Sauer (331), Luke Hughson (20)
Tri-City: Carey Price (193), Kirk Meaver (165), Clinton Pettapiece (129)

Vancouver: Gilbert Brule (165), Shaun Vey (241), J.D. Watt (255), Jordan Kaczmer (4)

Canada names roster

Team Canada has named its roster for the eight country Ivan Hlinka summer U-18 tournament that gets underway in the Czech Republic next Tuesday.

Seven WHLers made the 22 player roster: goaltender Calvin Pickard (Seattle), defencemen MArk Pysyk (Edmonton) and Alex Petrovic (Red Deer), and forwards Brett Connolly (Prince George), Quinton Howdon (Moose Jaw), Brad Ross (Portland), and Jordan Weal (Regina). SJHL star Jaden Schwartz (a Tri-City Americans prospect) also made the team, so eight Western Canadian kids in total out of 22.

WHLers cut from the team were goaltenders Tyler Bunz (Medicine Hat) and Kent Simpson (Everett), defenceman Troy Rutkowski (Portland), and forwards Ryan Harrison (Prince Albert), Brooks Macek (Tri-City), Brendan Ranford (Kamloops), and Mark Stone (Brandon).

There are no WHLers on team USA this year, so the only current WHLers in this year's tournament will be these ones on Canada. There are five incoming WHLers on other countries' rosters though: Matej Bene (Kamloops/Slovakia), Jakub Herman (Moose Jaw/Czech Republic), David Musil (Vancouver/Czech Republic), Nino Niedereiter (Portland/Switzerland), Jaroslav Vlach (Prince George/Czech Republic)