Heaviest player taken: Zach Yuen, Tri-City 1st round. 6'0", 200 lb. (the heaviest was actually Garrett Zemlak at 205 lb but he's 19 so he shouldn't count)
Lightest player taken: Tayler Thompson, Portland 9th round. 5'6", 116 lb. New event at Portland fitness testing this year: "How many times can you bench-press Tayler Thompson?". In a close second was Luc Vandale, Edmonton 9th rounder at 5'6" and 118 lb. Thompson might outweigh Vandale after a big meal....
Tallest player taken: Trey Keenan, Seattle 9th round. 6'5", 190 lb. Nobody else taken in the draft was bigger than 6'3" so Keenan wins this category easily.
Shortest player taken: 10-way tie with 10 different players coming in at 5'6". Thompson and Vandale (above) are two of them. The others (in order of selection) are Boston Leier (MH 3rd round), Kale Derksen (CHI 5th round), Nathan Burns (VAN 7th round), Michael Lazo (SC 8th round), Jeremy Ward (EVT 10th rd), Mitchell Fowler (SPO 11th rd), Riley Simpson (KTN 12th round) and Spencer Galbraith (BRN 12th round).
Average height and weight of all players picked: 5'10.5" and 156.5 lbs.
Average height of players picked by each team, in inches:
Seattle: 72.8
Prince Albert: 71.7
Tri-City: 71.5
Calgary: 71.4
Kamloops: 71.2
Moose Jaw: 71.1
Kelowna: 70.9
Lethbridge: 70.8
Regina: 70.7
Vancouver: 70.7
Prince George: 70.6
Chilliwack: 70.5
Everett: 70.4
Saskatoon: 70.3
Spokane: 70.3
Medicine Hat: 70.3
Swift Current: 70.0
Kootenay: 69.9
Portland: 69.9
Brandon: 69.8
Red Deer: 69.7
Edmonton: 69.0
Well, Seattle's picks are on average more than a full inch taller than the next-tallest team, and almost four inches taller than Edmonton's picks, who are far and away the smallest. Does that tell us anything about the styles these teams want to play?
Of course, this isn't terribly meaningful right now since every one of these kids picked will grow a couple more inches at least before he ever plays in the WHL. But, as they say, "you can't teach size" and Seattle knows most of their picks are big enough for the league now, whereas Edmonton has to hope theirs do some growing.
Now one of my favourites, selections by month of birth:
February: 36 (15.79%)
April: 35 (15.35%)
January: 33 (14.47%)
March: 33 (14.47%)
May: 19 (8.33%)
June: 17 (7.46%)
July: 15 (6.58%)
August: 15 (6.58%)
September: 13 (5.70%)
November: 5 (2.19%)
October: 4 (1.75%)
December: 3 (1.32%)
The trend continues: kids born in the first four months (33%) of the year make up 60% of the players picked in the bantam draft. Assuming babies are born at equal rates in every month of the year, this is a staggering discrepancy that really shows how much early-born kids benefit in hockey from being 6, 8, 12 months older and bigger than the other kids.
Moral of the story is, if you want to raise a hockey player, count back nine months from somewhere in January-April.....I won't bore you with the rest of the details.
Draft picks by province/state now:
Alberta: 77 (33.77%)
British Columbia: 48 (21.05%)
Saskatchewan: 46 (20.18%)
Manitoba: 36 (15.79%)
USA: 21 (9.21%)
Guess the experts weren't kidding when they said Alberta was strong this year.
Breakdown of the American kids by state:
California: 7 (33.33%)
Alaska: 3 (14.29%)
Texas: 3 (14.29%)
Washington: 3 (14.29%)
Arizona: 2 (9.52%)
Idaho: 1 (4.76%)
Colorado: 1 (4.76%)
Minnesota: 1 (4.76%)
3 comments:
Interesting stats. What were the total drafts each bantam team. It seems Winnipeg had the most but I'm not sure.
Nathan Burns is just under 5'9" - as measured today. The 5'6" is last year's info. As a side note, I doubt he is the only one who is now taller than advertised as a result of recent growth. The reverse is also true. Some have yet to reach the height attributed to them.
Alan there are a plague of Holloways in Wapella and this one is not Bud's brother. I taught Bud's mother and father and even Bud himself when he was quite small. There were only a boy and a girl in that family. They are guaranteed to be cousins however, as there are hordes of them around and they all play hockey, even the girls.
Post a Comment