Moffatt stays away

2nd overall bantam pick Luke Moffatt has told the Kelowna Rockets that he will not attend their training camp next week.

Rockets head scout Lorne Frey is saying all the right things (about giving Moffatt time to make up his mind, etc) but you have to know this is not a good sign. Moffatt can attend Rockets camp for two days without affecting his future NCAA eligibility, so why would he not make the effort to go there if he was at all interested in the WHL as a career option? In fact, he can attend their entire camp if he wants, and as long as he pays his own expenses there, he can still go NCAA if he later chooses. So, this doesn't strike me as a good situation for the Rockets. Why would a player who has any interest in the WHL and has never attended a WHL camp before choose not to attend a WHL training camp and see how he likes the surroundings, how he stacks up against WHLers on the ice, etc. So unless Moffatt has something else going on that week which prevents him from attending, you'd have to think that this decision shows something less than a ton of enthusiasm about playing in the WHL.

But, they knew the risks when they picked him. And in Moffatt's defense, as far as we know he has yet to tell a single WHL team that "yes, I will play there". We know for a fact that he wouldn't tell Portland that, and that's why they didn't pick him first overall. Kelowna decided he was too good to pass up at #2 and certainly right now this looks more like it's going to blow up in their faces than it did on that May day.