Rating the bantam drafts: 2006

Going to try something here that I have been meaning to do for a while: rate how each team did in the last few bantam drafts.

What I have done is taken the bantam draft lists and figured out how many games each player picked in the draft eventually played in the WHL. Then broken that down by team into some categories, so we can see how each team did.

I'm starting with the 2006 draft, which was the draft of '91s - the players who were 17 last season. Generally speaking, I think most players who have not made the WHL by 17 probably won't make it at all. There's a few exceptions every year of course, but in general I think that's true.

I'll do a new draft every couple days here and I'll probably go back at least to 2002, which would be the last five drafts. Let me know if you find this stuff interesting, and/or any additional things you'd like me to examine. If I can, I will.

So here we go....the 2006 bantam draft....

	Total Picks	0 - 25	25 - 75	75 - 125	Over 125	Total GP
Brandon	13	0	3	1	2	480
Calgary	10	0	1	2	0	241
Chilliwack	9	1	0	2	0	214
Everett	12	0	3	1	0	281
Kamloops	11	3	2	0	1	282
Kelowna	10	1	2	2	2	595
Kootenay	12	1	4	1	1	496
Lethbridge	10	0	2	2	1	503
Medicine Hat	11	1	2	2	0	355
Moose Jaw	9	0	5	2	0	494
Portland	11	2	2	0	1	289
Prince Albert	10	2	1	0	2	349
Prince George	13	0	0	2	2	475
Red Deer	10	0	1	1	1	236
Regina	11	2	4	1	1	436
Saskatoon	11	2	2	0	1	241
Seattle	11	1	1	2	0	246
Spokane	10	0	2	2	0	295
Swift Current	12	1	3	3	0	541
Tri-City	11	1	2	1	1	315
Vancouver	13	1	1	2	1	452

Basically this chart shows the number of picks each team made, with a breakdown of how many of those players they picked have played 0 to 25, 25 to 75, 75 to 125, or more than 125 games in the WHL since the draft.

Keep in mind that these players have only had two full WHL seasons since being drafted, so that's a possible maximum of 144 games, plus anything they might have played as 15 year olds. Basically anything over 100-125 games would be pretty good at this point, I'd think.

Now some numbers....like the number of WHL games played by the average draft pick of each team:

Kelowna: 59.5

Moose Jaw: 54.9

Lethbridge: 50.3

Swift Current: 45.1

Kootenay: 41.3

Regina: 39.6

Brandon: 36.9

Prince George: 36.5

Prince Albert: 34.9

Vancouver: 34.8

Medicine Hat: 32.3

Spokane: 29.5

Tri-City: 28.6

Portland: 26.3

Kamloops: 25.4

Calgary: 24.1

Chilliwack: 23.8

Red Deer: 23.6

Everett: 23.4

Seattle: 22.4

Saskatoon: 21.9

How about the percentage of players a team drafted who have played at least a game in the league so far:

Moose Jaw: 77.8%

Regina: 72.7%

Kelowna: 70%

Kootenay: 58.3%

Swift Current: 58.3%

Kamloops: 54.5%

Lethbridge: 50%

Prince Albert: 50%

Brandon: 46.2%

Medicine Hat: 45.5%

Portland: 45.5%

Saskatoon: 45.5%

Tri-City: 45.5%

Spokane: 40%

Vancouver: 38.5%

Seattle: 36.4%

Chilliwack: 33.3%

Everett: 33.3%

Prince George: 30.8%

Calgary: 30%

Red Deer: 30%

I'd say that's pretty good drafting by Moose Jaw, Kelowna, and Regina that year. Teams at the bottom, like Red Deer, Calgary, and Prince George, they may be a little weak in the '91 age group due to a poor draft.

How about a step up from that....how many kids that each team drafted are still on a WHL protected list somewhere?

Moose Jaw: 8 (88.9%)

Regina: 8 (72.7%)

Kelowna: 7 (70%)

Kootenay: 8 (66.7%)

Swift Current: 8 (66.7%)

Medicine Hat: 7 (63.6%)

Spokane: 6 (60%)

Calgary: 6 (60%)

Brandon: 7 (53.8%)

Lethbridge: 5 (50%)

Red Deer: 5 (50%)

Vancouver: 6 (46.2%)

Kamloops: 5 (45.5%)

Portland: 5 (45.5%)

Everett: 5 (41.7%)

Prince Albert: 4 (40%)

Tri-City: 4 (36.4%)

Seattle: 4 (36.4%)

Chilliwack: 3 (33.3%)

Prince George: 4 (30.8%)

Saskatoon: 3 (27.3%)

Moose Jaw's draft looks even better now - they picked nine kids and eight of them are either in the WHL or still considered good enough prospects that somebody has them on their list. This stat kind of makes the draft of a team like Calgary look a little better too; they've only put three of their ten picks into the WHL so far but three more of them are still listed somewhere, meaning there's still a chance they could make the league at some point.

This also makes Saskatoon's 2006 draft look really bad. They picked 11 kids, and three years later 8 of them are no longer in anyone's WHL plans. Ditto for Prince George - 13 picks, and only four of them are still listed. And you see Chilliwack down there too, near the bottom like they are on all these charts for 2006. This was the Bruins' first-ever draft and it's clear that it wasn't a good one. Which I'm sure is no small part of the explanation for why the team regressed last year instead of continuously improving like you'd expect from an expansion team. They just didn't get the talent they needed in the '91 age group out of that draft. That will continue to hurt them for the next couple years too, when the '91 kids are playing their 18 & 19 year old seasons.

Now a little fun stuff....

Worst picks from the 2006 draft:

Cole Penner (PA, 4th overall - 17 GP so far)

Drew Shore (CHI, 22nd overall - first pick of the 2nd round, highest-drafted player not to play in the WHL yet)

Zac Ashdown (SEA, 32nd overall - 0 games played. With Shore, the only two picks of the top two rounds not to play in the league)

Best late pick:

James Henry (VAN, 9th rd, 186th overall. 119 GP so far)

UPDATE: A reader asked for a list of which players we're talking about here. Here's the list of all 2006 draft picks of each team who have played in the WHL so far, with their games-played numbers. I'll include this list in all future years.

I know some of the players are not with the team that drafted them anymore....we're not tracking that though, we're only tracking which team identified them as possible WHL prospects in the first place, and drafted them.

Brandon: Brayden Schenn (136), Scott Glennie (116), Brodie Melnychuk (129), Jesse Hall (29),

Deven Dubyk (35), Stephane Robidoux (35)

Calgary: Chase Schaber (102), Matt MacKenzie (88), Erik Bonsor (51)

Chilliwack: Ryan Howse (120), Scott Ramsay (91), Ryan Hankin (3)

Everett: Kellan Tochkin (75), Jeff Regier (109), Paul Sohor (49), Ryan White (48)

Kamloops: Jimmy Bubnick (138), James Priestner (48), Josh Caron (21), Jake Trask (66), Richard Vanderhoek (6), Matt Riley (3)

Kelowna: Tyson Barrie (139), Collin Bowman (141), Jesse Paradis (104), Dylan Tait (1), Aaron Borejko (50), Kyle Verdino (96), Curt Gogol (64)

Kootenay: Nathan Lieuwen (41), Brayden McNabb (135), Simon Skrudland (5), Joe Antilla (125), Hayden Rintoul (67), Michael Cassivi (56), Jesse Ismond (67)

Lethbridge: Carter Ashton (112), Austin Fyten (73), Cam Braes (136), Brennan Yadlowski (122), Brock Sutherland (60)

Medicine Hat: Cody Carlson (102), Linden Vey (121), Killian Hutt (57), Sam Dezman (3), Logan Proulx (72)

Moose Jaw: Justin Maylan (121), Kevin Smith (99), Michael Burns (64), Clinton Atkinson (48), Paul Bonar (44), Riley Reinbolt (64), Corey Scott (54)

Portland: Riley Boychuk (67), Brett Ponich (138), Cole Grbavac (65), Jesse Hilton (2), David Watt (17)

Prince Albert: Cole Penner (17), Ryan Button (128), Brandon Herrod (133), Jorden Iron (3), Jordan Kochan (68)

Prince George: Stefan Elliott (139), Ryan Kowalski (120), Art Bidlevskii (130), Matt Cumming (86)

Red Deer: Landon Ferraro (126), Justin Weller (81), Dominic Perrault (29)

Regina: Brett Miller (37), Garrett Mitchell (137), Alex Pym (103), Koltyn Miller (39), Travis Sparrow (6), Kenton Miller (47), Kyle Mulder (47), Damien Ketlo (20)

Saskatoon: Mitch Berg (44), Curtis Hamilton (128), Adam Morrison (13), Tanner Sohn (4), Kyle Klym (52)

Seattle: Steve Chaffin (100), Steve Oursov (32), Josh Lazowski (13), Charles Wells (101)

Spokane: Jared Cowen (122), Burke Gallimore (76), David Conrad (55), Cory Baldwin (42)

Swift Current: Cody Eakin (112), James Martin (58), Brad Hoban (113), Joel Rogers (103), David Greyeyes (11), Taylor Vause (74), Dillon Wagner (70)

Tri-City: Jason Gardiner (51), Adam Hughesman (135), Adam Wihak (2), Brock Zimak (27), Lane Werbowski (100)

Vancouver: Evander Kane (134), Neil Manning (107), Jamie Tucker (22), Linden Saip (70), James Henry (119)