Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Top bantam draft prospects

The WHL bantam draft goes just one week from tomorrow. The Red Deer Rebels will have the #1 overall pick, followed by Portland at #2 and Saskatoon at #3. As usual, trying to predict the outcome of the draft is a crapshoot, with no clear-cut #1 overall pick this year.

Here's stats on 10 players though who are all pretty good bets to go in the first round....players are listed alphabetically so nothing should be read into the ordering.....


Brent Benson




Center - 5'11", 171 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Weyburn Wings (SSMHL AA bantam) 26 37 37 74 39
Moose Jaw Warriors (SMHL AAA midget) 4 0 4 4 0
Moose Jaw Warriors (Macs Midget Tournament) 2 1 1 2 0






Laurent Brossoit




Goaltender - 5'11", 150 lbs GP W L T GAA
Cloverdale Colts (KIBIHT) 2 1 1 0 3.00






Brendan Hurley




Forward - 6'0", 170 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (AMBHL AAA bantam) 31 51 32 83 141
Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (AMBHL playoffs) 9 16 4 20 46
Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (REM midget 15 y.o.) 1 2 1 3 2
Fort Saskatchewan Rangers (Edmonton AAA tournament) 3 6 0 6 8






Mark McNeill




Forward - 6'0", 172 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Edmonton SSAC (AMBHL AAA bantam) 33 41 28 69 28
Edmonton SSAC (AMBHL playoffs) 4 3 4 7 8
Edmonton SSAC (St. Albert AAA tournament) 5 8 4 12 18






Ryan Nugent-Hopkins




Forward - 5'10", 145 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Burnaby Winter Club Bruins (Western championships) 5 10 4 14 4






Ty Rattie




Forward - 6'0", 159 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Airdrie Xtreme (AMBHL AAA bantam) 33 75 56 131 101
Airdrie Xtreme (AMBHL playoffs) 10 12 11 23 16
Airdrie Xtreme (Western championships) 5 7 5 12 4






Duncan Siemens




Defence - 6'2", 183 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Sherwood Park Flyers (AMBHL AAA bantam) 32 14 22 36 54
Sherwood Park Flyers (AMBHL playoffs) 12 5 7 12 32
Sherwood Park Squires (REM midget 15 y.o.) 3 0 0 0 6
Sherwood Park Flyers (Western championships) 4 2 3 5 18
Sherwood Park Flyers (St. Albert AAA tournament) 7 1 3 4 16
Sherwood Park Flyers (Edmonton AAA tournament) 5 3 4 7 27






Colin Smith




Forward - 5'8", 132 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Edmonton CAC (AMBHL AAA bantam) 33 36 70 106 28
Edmonton CAC (AMBHL playoffs) 2 2 1 3 0
Edmonton CAC (St. Albert AAA tournament) 6 13 7 20 16
Edmonton CAC (Edmonton AAA tournament) 5 5 8 13 4






Michael St. Croix




Forward - 5'10", 152 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Winnipeg Monarchs (WMHA AAA bantam) 25 51 45 96 20
Winnipeg Monarchs (Western championships) 5 5 4 9 4
Winnipeg Monarchs (St. Albert AAA tournament) 7 16 7 23 4
Winnipeg White (Directors Cup) 4 9 8 17 4






Mitch Topping




Defence - 6'1", 165 lbs GP G A PTS PIM
Red Deer Rebels White (AMBHL AAA bantam) 33 14 26 40 100
Red Deer Rebels White (AMBHL playoffs) 3 4 1 5 4

Everything I have seen and heard so far leans towards Nugent-Hopkins, Rattie, and St. Croix being the leading contenders for #1 overall. Benson is another possible candidate, and Siemens and/or Topping have a chance to get into that top grouping if somebody up there wants a defenceman badly enough. Brossoit seems to be a popular choice as the best goalie available but whether he goes in the first round or not is a really hard call....goalies don't go in the first round of the bantam draft very often although there were two last year.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good list but if the consensus is leaning toward Nugent-Hopkins, then someone is paying someone else a lot of green to boost the kid. Yeah he can play but there is no way he is the player Benson is -or the potential player Hurley or Mcneil are.
Someone has to go first I guess but this draft year has more players who could be #1 than any in recent memory. I'm guessing that Rattie will go to Red Deer (If they don't grab another Sutter), Benson to Portland, and McNeil to Edmonton.

Anonymous said...

how's this for a guess on the not so exact science of the bantam draft...

1 - red deer st. croix
2 - portland siemens
3 - saskatoon benson
4 - edmonton rattie
5 - prince albert nugent-hopkins
6 - saskatoon topping

of course this could be completely wrong, and the impact of these players are at least two, three years away.

Western Elite said...

You are all correct that all those players will go in the first round. Also those are the top 6 listed by many scouting resources including my own. THe only player who may crack the top 6 and knock a guy out is Brendan Hurley. I think Red Deer is going to take either Hopkins or St.croix and you are right in saying that Duncan Siemens is going to Portland as I've made that common knowledge. I can see Rattie slipping to PA and the Oilkings taking either St.Croix or Hopkins or possibly even Hurley. Time will tell.

check out my Blog space at

http://westernelitehockeyprospects.blogspot.com/

I will be supplying readers with Bantam/WHL and various interviews and post draft reports of the prospects.