All four WHL 2nd round series play their Game Threes tonight, and while the Western series are (not all that surprisingly) knotted at 1-1 apiece, it's gut-check time for the two Eastern conference favourites tonight.
#1 Saskatoon and #2 Red Deer both lost the first two games on home ice on the weekend, to #4 Kootenay and #3 Medicine Hat respectively, and now both favourites face what is pretty much a must-win situation tonight on the road. Lose tonight and they go down 3-0, a situation from which nobody ever recovers.
What an upset it would be to see the #1 and #2 overall teams in the league both fail to advance out of the second round.
Two other notes today:
First, NHL Central Scouting has released their final rankings for the 2011 NHL draft. You can find those final rankings here. Most noteworthy from the WHL perspective is that Red Deer's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has vaulted from #3 in the midterm rankings to #1 in the final rankings of North American skaters. The QMJHL's Sean Couturier, who was considered a contender for #1 for most of the season, has dropped to #6 among N.A. skaters in the final rankings. Nugent-Hopkins' main competition for #1 overall is probably the #1 player on the European list, Swedish defenceman Adam Larsson.
Which NHL team has the coveted #1 overall pick will be determined tonight, as the NHL holds its draft lottery for the non-playoff teams.
Secondly, another big signing in as many weeks for the Tri-City Americans. Last week they inked 2010 first round bantam pick Eric Comrie to a contract; yesterday they signed up 2010 8th round pick Brian Williams. Williams, you may recall, was considered one of the top 1995-born players eligible for the 2010 bantam draft but dropped to the 8th round due to concerns teams had about his NCAA aspirations. Apparently Williams has settled on the WHL and as a result, the Americans have picked up a first-round talent with an 8th round pick.
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