Draft pick charts

By popular request....and this is on a best-effort basis only....

In order to help figure out what kind of draft-pick assets each team may have to trade as the trade deadline nears, this is what I believe to be the # of picks in each round of the 2010 and 2011 drafts that each WHL team has.

I only counted picks in the first 10 rounds because really, nobody cares that much about anything past that. Most teams start passing on their picks around then anyway.

Keep in mind that this is probably NOT the gospel truth. It is based only on compilation of announced traded picks over the last three years. Since the details about traded picks - especially conditional picks - are frequently lacking in press releases about trades, sometimes it's impossible for us fans to figure out exactly what has been traded.

There are some notes at the bottom of each draft, detailing some trades I know I do not have the full details on.

Last note, if you're curious about which trades saw your favourite team add/lose picks, you can email me or leave a comment and I'll fill you in on what I have in my notes.

First, the 2010 draft:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Brandon	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	1
Calgary	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Chilliwack	1	1	2	1	0	1	1	1	1	1
Edmonton	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1
Everett	1	1	0	0	1	0	2	1	2	1
Kamloops	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1
Kelowna	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	0	1
Kootenay	1	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Lethbridge	1	3	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
Medicine Hat	1	2	0	2	0	2	1	1	1	1
Moose Jaw	1	1	0	2	3	2	1	1	1	1
Portland	1	1	1	3	2	1	0	0	1	1
Prince Albert	1	1	1	0	2	1	1	2	1	1
Prince George	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	2
Red Deer	1	1	1	0	2	1	0	1	1	1
Regina	1	0	2	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Saskatoon	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1
Seattle	1	1	2	0	1	0	2	1	1	1
Spokane	1	0	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	0
Swift Current	1	0	0	2	1	0	1	1	1	1
Tri-City	1	0	1	1	0	0	2	1	2	1
Vancouver	1	1	1	1	0	2	1	1	1	1

Notes:

- Prince Albert owes Edmonton a conditional 2010 pick for Craig McCallum. Round unknown.

- Everett owes Chilliwack a conditional 2010 pick for Luke Siemens. Round unknown.

I notice nobody has traded their 2010 first rounder yet....wonder if that trend will hold through the deadline on Sunday. The 2010 bantam draft is thought to be of very good quality so the high picks in this draft may have more value than usual.

And the 2011 draft now:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Brandon	1	1	1	1	2	0	1	2	1	1
Calgary	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1
Chilliwack	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	0	1	1
Edmonton	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Everett	1	1	0	1	0	1	2	1	1	1
Kamloops	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1	1
Kelowna	1	1	1	1	2	1	0	1	1	1
Kootenay	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Lethbridge	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	2	1	1
Medicine Hat	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1
Moose Jaw	1	1	1	1	0	2	1	1	1	1
Portland	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1
Prince Albert	1	0	1	2	0	0	1	1	1	1
Prince George	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	2	1	1
Red Deer	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Regina	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1
Saskatoon	1	1	2	0	1	2	1	1	1	1
Seattle	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Spokane	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	1
Swift Current	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1
Tri-City	1	1	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	1
Vancouver	0	2	2	1	2	1	2	1	1	1

Notes:

- Saskatoon owes Prince George a conditional 2011 pick for Tyler Kiziuk. Round unknown.

- Regina owes Portland a conditional 2011 pick for Killian Hutt. Round yet unknown.

Everett - Lethbridge blockbuster

The first trade of today is in - Everett sends 18 year old defenceman Drew McDermott to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a 7th round bantam pick.

Let's hope this works out better than the last time the Tips traded a defenceman to Lethbridge.

McDermott is actually with Yorkton of the SJHL after being cut by Everett in October, although he spent all of last season with the Silvertips.

Remaining roster breakdowns

Statistical breakdown of the remaining rosters for each team....this is based on the rosters as I have them in my roster tracking post as of today.

	Total	Avg Ht	Avg Wt	AvgAge	Rook.	Imp	08-09 Goals	Career Goals	Career GP	16's	17's	18's	19's	20's	Career PLF GP
Brandon Wheat Kings	24	72.5	189.0	18.50	5	2	253	441	2157	0	5	5	11	3	216
Calgary Hitmen	24	73.2	190.2	18.38	5	1	251	452	2407	2	4	4	11	3	320
Chilliwack Bruins	22	72.2	181.6	17.95	10	2	110	172	1409	2	8	4	5	3	85
Edmonton Oil Kings	24	71.6	176.4	17.75	9	2	83	115	1361	4	7	7	3	3	107
Everett Silvertips	23	71.7	186.4	18.09	7	2	151	250	1833	2	6	6	6	3	138
Kamloops Blazers	22	72.2	185.1	17.64	8	2	80	122	1425	4	7	7	1	3	95
Kelowna Rockets	24	71.9	183.9	17.92	12	0	133	290	1810	3	7	6	5	3	255
Kootenay Ice	22	72.8	187.8	17.91	6	1	127	234	1806	2	7	6	5	2	145
Lethbridge Hurricanes	24	72.3	185.3	17.83	10	2	64	116	1533	2	9	7	3	3	188
Medicine Hat Tigers	23	72.0	184.2	18.17	7	2	122	196	1523	3	4	5	8	3	139
Moose Jaw Warriors	24	72.6	187.5	18.08	6	2	121	233	2114	1	8	6	6	3	95
Portland Winter Hawks	22	74.0	193.7	17.91	9	2	109	171	1404	3	7	4	5	3	62
Prince Albert Raiders	23	72.1	185.0	18.26	5	2	180	255	1843	2	3	8	7	3	35
Prince George Cougars	25	72.7	187.0	18.00	13	2	98	146	1324	1	10	5	6	3	63
Red Deer Rebels	24	73.0	185.3	18.00	9	2	128	191	1572	3	6	6	6	3	81
Regina Pats	26	72.4	187.5	18.04	8	2	219	369	2091	2	6	10	5	3	155
Saskatoon Blades	22	73.3	193.4	18.26	4	2	230	394	2508	3	3	5	9	3	165
Seattle Thunderbirds	23	72.4	187.1	17.57	8	1	89	163	1651	4	9	6	1	3	164
Spokane Chiefs	24	72.2	187.2	18.09	6	2	161	352	2162	3	4	7	6	3	340
Swift Current Broncos	23	72.2	181.2	18.00	7	1	170	285	1933	3	5	7	5	3	188
Tri-City Americans	25	71.4	184.8	18.20	7	2	149	289	2442	2	6	5	9	3	307
Vancouver Giants	23	72.4	188.5	17.91	10	2	142	251	1599	4	6	4	6	3	192

Last update: January 10

Team rosters 2009-10

Brandon Wheat Kings:
Goaltenders (2): Jacob DeSerres (19), Andrew Hayes (19)
Defencemen (7): Darren Bestland (19), Travis Hamonic (19), Brodie Melnychuk (18), Ryley Miller (17), Colby Robak (19), Mark Schneider (19), Alexander Urbom (19)
Forwards (15): Matt Calvert (20), Paul Ciarelli (18), Jay Fehr (20), Michael Ferland (17), Scott Glennie (18), Jordan Hale (19), Aaron Lewadniuk (20), Brent Raedeke (19), Toni Rajala (18), Brayden Schenn (18), Jesse Sinatynski (17), Mark Stone (17), Paul Van de Velde (19), Brendan Walker (17), Shayne Wiebe (19)

Last Updated: January 10

Calgary Hitmen:

Goaltenders (2): Martin Jones (19), Michael Snider (18)

Defencemen (8): Kyle Aschim (19), Peter Kosterman (16), Matt Mackenzie (18), Giffen Nyren (20), Jaynen Rissling (16), Zak Stebner (19), Michael Stone (19), Ben Wilson (18)

Forwards (14): Cody Beach (17), Joel Broda (20), Jimmy Bubnick (18), Rigby Burgart (19), Del Cowan (20), Tyler Fiddler (19), Mikhail Fisenko (19), Kris Foucault (19), Justin Kirsch (17), Brandon Kozun (19), Mackenzie Royer (17), Ian Schultz (19), Tyler Shattock (19), Cody Sylvester (17)

Last Update: January 10

Chilliwack Bruins:

Goaltenders (2): Braden Gamble (18), Lucas Gore (19)

Defencemen (8): Jesse Craige (20), Matt Delahey (20), Jeff Einhorn (19), Zach Habscheid (17), Brandon Manning (19), Jesse Pauls (17), Tyler Stahl (17), Mitch Topping (16)

Forwards (12): Travis Belohrad (18), Chris Collins (17), Jamie Crooks (17), Colton Grant (20), Roman Horak (18), Ryan Howse (18), Dylan McKinlay (17), Shayne Neigum (19), Kevin Sundher (17), Tim Traber (16), Blair Wentworth (17), Alexander Wiklund (19)

Last Update: January 10

Edmonton Oil Kings:

Goaltenders (2): Torrie Jung (20), Cam Lanigan (17)

Defencemen (7): Tyler Hlookoff (19), Braeden Laroque (17), Keegan Lowe (16), Drew Nichol (20), Mark Pysyk (17), Adrian Van de Mosselaer (19), Lane Werbowski (18)

Forwards (14): Cameron Abney (18), Devin Balness (17), Michael Burns (18), Travis Ewanyk (16), T.J. Foster (17), Cam Maclise (17), Garry Nunn (20), Mike Piluso (19), Logan Proulx (18), Rhett Rachinski (18), Robin Soudek (18), Michael St. Croix (16), Sebastien Svendsen (18), Klarc Wilson (16), Dylan Wruck (17)

Last Update: January 10

Everett Silvertips:

Goaltenders (2): Thomas Heemskerk (19), Kent Simpson (17)

Defencemen (8): Chris de la Lande (19), Radko Gudas (19), Curtis Kulchar (19), Gabriel Minville (17), Ryan Murray (16), Rasmus Rissanen (18), Paul Sohor (18), Alex Theriau (17)

Forwards (13): Clayton Cumiskey (19), Zack Dailey (20), Campbell Elynuik (17), Byron Froese (18), Shane Harper (20), Dan Iwanski (19), Chris Langkow (20), Scott MacDonald (18), Tyler Maxwell (18), Markus McCrea (17), D.Jay McGrath (17), Kellan Tochkin (18), Josh Winquist (16)

Last Update: December 28

Kamloops Blazers:

Goaltenders (2): Jon Groenheyde (18), Kurtis Mucha (20)

Defencemen (7): Josh Caron (18), Ryan Funk (20), Tyler Hansen (16), Austin Madaisky (17), Bronson Maschmeyer (18), Linden Saip (18), Brandon Underwood (17)

Forwards (13): Matej Bene (17), Dalibor Bortnak (18), Jordan Depape (17), Rhyse Dieno (16), Mark Hall (19), Ryan Hanes (17), JC Lipon (16), Brendan Ranford (17), Chase Schaber (18), Colin Smith (16), C.J. Stretch (20), Jake Trask (18), Dylan Willick (17)

Last Update: January 10

Kelowna Rockets:

Goaltenders (2): Adam Brown (18), Mark Guggenberger (20)

Defencemen (7): Tyson Barrie (18), Collin Bowman (18), Mitch Chapman (17), Antoine Corbin (17), Dallas Jackson (20), Colton Jobke (17), MacKenzie Johnson (16)

Forwards (15): Max Adolph (17), Sean Aschim (17), Jessey Astles (16), Evan Bloodoff (19), Lucas Bloodoff (20), Brett Bulmer (17), Mitchell Callahan (18), Cody Chikie (18), Codey Ito (18), Spencer Main (17), Tyler Matheson (19), Shane McColgan (16), Brandon McMillan (19), Kyle St. Denis (19), Geordie Wudrick (19)

Last Update: January 10

Kootenay Ice:

Goaltenders (2): Nathan Lieuwen (18), Todd Mathews (19)

Defencemen (7): Jagger Dirk (16), Joey Leach (17), James Martin (18), Brayden McNabb (18), Ryan Molle (20), Luke Paulsen (17), Hayden Rintoul (18)

Forwards (14): Joe Antilla (18), Steele Boomer (19), Drew Czerwonka (17), Matt Fraser (19), Brendan Hurley (16), Jesse Ismond (18), Kevin King (19), Christian Magnus (17), Brock Montgomery (17), Dominic Pascovsky (19), Elgin Pearce (17), Max Reinhart (17), Dustin Sylvester (20)

Last Update: January 10

Lethbridge Hurricanes:

Goaltenders (3): Brandon Anderson (17), Ville Kolppanen (17), Linden Rowat (20)

Defencemen (7): Reid Jackson (16), Daniel Johnston (17), Cason Machacek (18), Landon Oslanski (17), Mike Reddington (19), Derek Ryckman (17), Brennan Yadlowski (18)

Forwards (13): Carter Bancks (20), Jacob Berglund (18), Cam Braes (18), Dustin Donaghy (20), Austin Fyten (18), Graham Hood (17), Mitch Maxwell (19), Ryon Moser (17), Mark Reners (17), Max Ross (19), Brody Sutter (18), Neil Tarnasky (17), Phil Tot (16)

Last Update: January 10

Medicine Hat Tigers:

Goaltenders (2): Tyler Bunz (17), Deven Dubyk (18)

Defencemen (8): Dylan Busenius (16), Thomas Carr (19), Jace Coyle (19), Mark Isherwood (20), Matthew Konan (18), Tomas Kundratek (20), Scott McKay (17), Tanner Sohn (18)

Forwards (13): Dylan Bredo (16), Bretton Cameron (20), Emerson Etem (17), Joey Frazer (19), Taylor Gal (19), Cole Grbavac (18), Wacey Hamilton (19), Kale Kessy (17), Tristan King (19), Matt MacKay (19), Zdenek Okal (19), Reid Petryk (16), Linden Vey (18)

Last Update: January 3

Moose Jaw Warriors:

Goaltenders (2): Jeff Bosch (19), Brandon Glover (17)

Defencemen (8): Clinton Atkinson (18), Connor Cox (17), Dallas Ehrhardt (17), Kendall McFaul (17), Dylan McIlrath (17), Kevin Smith (18), Ryan Stanton (20), Chad Suer (19)

Forwards (14): Jason Bast (20), Spencer Edwards (19), Thomas Frazee (19), Danny Gayle (17), Jakub Herman (17), Antonin Honesjek (18), Dylan Hood (19), Quinton Howden (17), Joey Kornelson (16), Nathan MacMaster (17), Jesse Paradis (18), Riley Reinbolt (18), Brendan Rowinski (19), Cody Smuk (20)

Last Update: January 10

Portland Winterhawks:

Goaltenders (2): Mac Carruth (17), Ian Curtis (19)

Defensemen (7): Taylor Aronson (18), Eric Doyle (20), Joe Morrow (17), Brett Ponich (18), Troy Rutkowski (17), Luca Sbisa (19), Tyler Wotherspoon (16)

Forwards (14): Spencer Bennett (19), Riley Boychuk (18), Chris Francis (20), Oliver Gabriel (18), Ryan Johansen (17), Tayler Jordan (19), Gasper Kopitar (17), Nino Neiderreiter (17), Taylor Peters (17), Ty Rattie (16), Brad Ross (17), Stefan Schneider (20), Seth Swenson (16), Luke Walker (19)

Last Update: January 10

Prince Albert Raiders:

Goaltenders (2): Jamie Tucker (18), Garrett Zemlak (20)

Defencemen (8): Ryan Button (18), Nathan Deck (19), Emerson Hrynyk (17), Jordan Rowley (19), Harrison Ruopp (16), Brendon Wall (19), Stefan Warg (19), Tyler Yaworski (17)

Forwards (12): Dustin Cameron (20), Ryan Harrison (17), Andrew Herle (18), Brandon Herrod (18), Jordan Hickmott (19), Jordan Kochan (18), Justin Maylan (18), Craig McCallum (20), Mark McNeill (16), Jonathan Parker (18), Colin Reddin (19), Igor Revenko (19), Garrett Taylor (18)

Last Update: January 10

Prince George Cougars:

Goaltenders (3): Kyle Jahraus (19), Hudson Stremmel (18), Alex Wright (19)

Defencemen (9): Art Bidlevskii (18), Jesse Forsberg (16), Daniel Gibb (17), David Greyeyes (18), Bruin McDonald (17), Daniel Medland-Marchand (17), Petr Senkerik (18), Garrett Thiessen (20), Kurt Torbohm (19)

Forwards (13): Spencer Asuchak (18), Nick Buonassisi (17), Brett Connolly (17), James Dobrowolski (19), Greg Fraser (17), Tyler Halliday (20), Brock Hirsche (17), Kyzen Loo (17), Taylor Makin (17), Taylor Orser (19), Alex Rodgers (20), Parker Stanfield (19), Jaroslav Vlach (17)

Last Update: January 10

Red Deer Rebels:

Goaltenders (2): Kraymer Barnstable (19), Darcy Kuemper (19)

Defencemen (8): Colin Archer (19), Nick Bell (19), Aaron Borejko (18), Brad Haber (19), Cullen Morin (20), Alex Petrovic (17), Justin Weller (18), Simon Witt (17)

Forwards (14): Willie Coetzee (19), Josh Cowen (18), Jordie Deagle (20), Turner Elson (17), Brett Ferguson (19), Landon Ferraro (18), Nathan Green (20), Adam Kambeitz (17), Andrej Kudrna (18), Colten Mayor (16), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (16), John Persson (17), Lane Scheidl (17), Daulton Siwak (16)

Last Update: January 2

Regina Pats:

Goaltenders (3): Dawson Guhle (17), Damien Ketlo (18), Brett Martyniuk (18)

Defencemen (8): Myles Bell (16), Tyler Borstmayer (16), Cody Carlson (18), Brandon Davidson (18), Mitch McColm (20), Travis Sparrow (18), Mitch Spooner (17), Colten Teubert (19)

Forwards (16): Carter Ashton (18), Jordan Eberle (19), Dominick Favreau (17), Hampus Gustafsson (18), Tomas Hricina (18), Killian Hutt (18), Brett Leffler (20), Cass Mappin (19), Garrett Mitchell (18), Kyle Mulder (18), Craig Orfino (19), Tyler Parker (17), Andrew Rieder (17), Matt Strueby (20), Jordan Weal (17)

Last Update: January 10

Saskatoon Blades:

Goaltenders (2): Adam Morrison (18), Steven Stanford (19)

Defensemen (8): Stefan Elliott (18), Curt Gogol (18), Tyler Kiziuk (17), Sam Klassen (20), Jyri Niemi (19), Duncan Siemens (16), Dalton Thrower (16), Teigan Zahn (19)

Forwards (13): Sena Acolatse (19), Brent Benson (16), Jeremy Boyer (19), Darian Dziurzynski (18), Curtis Hamilton (18), Derek Hulak (20), Charles Inglis (17), Randy McNaught (19), Josh Nicholls (17), Gaelan Patterson (19), Travis Toomey (19), Marek Viedensky (19), Walker Wintoneak (20)

Last Update: January 10

Seattle Thunderbirds:

Goaltenders (2): Calvin Pickard (17), Michael Salmon (17)

Defensemen (7): Ryan Aasman (17), Eric Bonsor (18), Brenden Dillon (19), Erik Fleming (17), Tanner Muth (16), Scott Ramsay (18), Jeremy Schappert (20)

Forwards (14): Tyler Alos (16), Robbie Ciolfi (18), Mitch Elliot (16), Burke Gallimore (18), Colin Jacobs (16), Luke Lockhart (17), Chance Lund (17), Lindsay Nielsen (20), Prab Rai (20), Brendan Rouse (17), Mikhail Senturin (17), Brenden Silvester (18), Brennan Tutt (17), Charles Wells (18)

Last Update: January 10

Spokane Chiefs:

Goaltenders (2): James Reid (19), Michael Tadjdeh (18)

Defencemen (7): Cory Baldwin (18), Brett Bartman (20), Jared Cowen (18), Brenden Kichton (17), Tanner Mort (16), Jared Spurgeon (20), Stefan Ulmer (19)

Forwards (14): Anthony Bardaro (17), Kyle Beach (19), Brady Brassart (16), T.C. Cratsenberg (17), Blake Gal (17), Mitch Holmberg (16), Tyler Johnson (19), Levko Koper (19), Steve Kuhn (18), Ryan Letts (20), Matt Marantz (18), Kenton Miller (18), Dominik Uher (17), Mitch Wahl (19)

Last Update: January 10

Swift Current Broncos:

Goaltenders (2): Morgan Clark (19), Mark Friesen (19)

Defencemen (8): Travis Bobbee (19), Derek Claffey (20), Graeme Craig (16), Jordan Evans (17), Brody Luhning (17), Joel Rogers (18), Reece Scarlett (16), Kyle Verdino (18)

Forwards (13): Andy Blanke (17), Justin Dowling (19), Cody Eakin (18), Michael Hay (17), Brad Hoban (18), Adam Lowry (16), Stepan Novotny (19), Jordan Peddle (18), Michael Stickland (20), Andrew Sullivan (17), Matt Tassone (20), Taylor Vause (18), Dillon Wagner (18)

Last Update: January 10

Tri-City Americans:

Goaltenders (2): Drew Owsley (18), Alex Pechurski (19)
Defencemen (8): Drydn Dow (17), Eric Mestery (19), Riley McIntosh (19), Brett Plouffe (20), Tyler Schmidt (19), Brock Sutherland (18), Jarrett Toll (20), Zach Yuen (16)

Forwards (14): Mike Brown (19), Sergei Drozd (19), Justin Feser (17), Patrick Holland (17), Adam Hughesman (18), Todd Kennedy (19), Johnny Lazo (20), Brooks Macek (17), Jordan Messier (17), Nils Moser (16), Neal Prokop (19), Kruise Reddick (19), Brendan Shinnimin (18), Mason Wilgosh (18)

Last Update: January 10

Vancouver Giants:

Goaltenders (2): Mark Segal (18), Derek Tendler (17)

Defencemen (7): Kevin Connauton (19), Luke Fenske (16), Zach Hodder (16), Neil Manning (18), David Musil (16), Dillon Scholten (19), Nolan Toigo (20)

Forwards (14): J.T. Barnett (17), Lance Bouma (19), Brett Breitkreuz (20), Nathan Burns (16), Craig Cunningham (19), Brendan Gallagher (17), Brent Henke (19), James Henry (18), Milan Kytnar (20), Greg Lamoureux (17), Brett Lyon (18), Connor Redmond (17), Brandon Scholten (17), Tomas Vincour (19)

Last Update: January 10

Raiders made two trades

Two trades in the WHL this morning.....both involving Prince Albert.

First, the Raiders send a 2010 2nd round bantam pick to Vancouver for goaltender Jamie Tucker. Tucker lost his starting job in Vancouver to Mark Segal, and the Giants are adding Derek Tendler to the roster so somebody had to go.

This probably spells the end of Dalyn Flette in P.A....he hardly played anyway and they'll probably go with Zemlak/Tucker for the rest of the year.

The other deal sees the Raiders send former first round bantam pick Ryan Aasman to Seattle for forward Jonathan Parker and a 2010 5th round bantam pick. This one is kind of curious to me, Aasman hasn't really panned out as expected so far while Parker is 4th in scoring for Seattle, so I'm not sure why Seattle wanted to make this trade. Gambling on Aasman realizing his potential I guess.

Canada vs different competition

Something else for Canadian fans to think about, after the WJCs....

Canada only played one good team in the whole tournament (whatever happened to the days when you'd play four or five good teams?), as well as a bunch of games against teams of considerably weaker calibre. As a result, a number of Canadian players are sporting rather gaudy stat lines that they got from running up the score on weak opponents.

But who played well when it counted against the strong teams - basically only the games against the USA? Check it out....

		LAT/SUI/SLO							USA
Name	Pos	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM	+/-		GP	G	A	PTS	PIM	+/-
Adam, Luke	F	4	3	2	5	6	+5		2	1	2	3	2	+4
Bourque, Gabriel	F	4	3	6	9	4	+7		2	0	0	0	0	-2
Caron, Jordan	F	4	0	2	2	4	+5		2	0	2	2	2	+3
Cormier, Patrice	F	4	2	3	5	4	+4		2	0	0	0	0	-1
Cowen, Jared	D	4	0	1	1	2	+5		2	0	0	0	0	-1
deHaan, Calvin	D	2	0	1	1	0	+5		2	0	0	0	0	-1
Della-Rovere, Stefan	F	4	2	3	5	6	+7		2	1	0	1	2	+2
Eberle, Jordan	F	4	4	5	9	2	+4		2	4	0	4	2	-1
Ellis, Ryan	D	4	1	6	7	2	+5		2	0	1	1	0	-3
Hall, Taylor	F	4	5	4	9	0	+4		2	1	2	3	0	-1
Hamonic, Travis	D	4	1	2	3	0	+8		1	0	0	0	0	+1
Henrique, Adam	F	4	1	0	1	2	+2		2	0	0	0	0	0
Kadri, Nazem	F	4	3	3	6	14	+4		2	0	2	2	0	-3
Kozun, Brandon	F	4	2	4	6	0	+7		2	0	0	0	0	-1
McMillan, Brandon	F	4	4	3	7	0	+4		2	0	1	1	0	+2
Nemisz, Greg	F	4	0	0	0	0	+1		2	1	0	1	0	-1
Pietrangelo, Alex	D	4	2	8	10	2	+9		2	1	1	2	12	0
Scandella, Marco	D	4	1	1	2	2	+5		2	0	1	1	0	+2
Schenn, Brayden	F	4	2	4	6	4	+7		2	0	2	2	0	+1
Teubert, Colten	D	4	0	1	1	0	+5		2	0	0	0	0	0

	LAT/SUI/SLO							USA
Name	GP	Min	SV%	GAA	W	L		GP	Min	SV%	GAA	W	L
Allen, Jake	3	180	.978	0.33	3	0		2	111.4	.839	4.85	0	0
Jones, Martin	1	60	.926	2.00	1	0		1	18.1	.889	3.31	0	1

You can see some players padded their stats against the patsies and did little against the tough American team, while some other players picked up their game when it counted. Obviously this is only stats-based and that's not always a good way to tell how well somebody played, but it's something to look at anyway.

Most glaring example is probably Gabriel Bourque, who racked up 9 points in 4 games against the weaklings but was a big fat zero and a -2 against the USA. For that matter, his linemates Brandon Kozun and Patrice Cormier weren't any better.

Others who fared a lot less well when the games were tough - Ellis, Pietrangelo, Kadri, Allen.

On the flip side, Luke Adam stands out as a player who did better against the tougher competition than against the weaklings. So did Caron, Eberle, McMillan, and Scandella.

WJC postmortem

USA is the deserving gold medalist. It's that easy. They were better than Canada and any Canadian fans who deny that are not looking at the facts. USA beat Canada (once and almost twice), Finland, and Sweden. Canada beat USA once, in a shootout, and then nobody else of consequence. Canada did not win a single hockey game (shootouts don't count in my books) against a quality opponent in the entire tournament.

USA outplayed Canada by a considerable margin in both their meetings, and only late-third heroics even enabled Canada to get the games to OT/SO. The Americans were faster, grittier, and heartier (if that's a word) than the Canadians.....in short, they were better at being Canadians than the Canadians themselves were. They deserve this. 100%.

So what went wrong for Canada? Lots of things, but I think a lot of the buck has to stop with some decisions by the coaching staff. I know some Tigers fans are probably going to be all over me in Desjardins' defence, but the way it works when coaching Canada is that when you win you get to be the hero whether you deserve it or not, and when you lose you get to take some blame whether you deserve it or not. Is the loss all the fault of the coaches? No, but they deserve some of it so Willie needs to face some music for the way he was outcoached by Dean Blais.

For starters, the way he handled his goaltending was unacceptable. Jake Allen looked unbeatable against teams (Latvia & Switzerland) full of shooters mostly not good enough to play in the CHL. But Allen looked mortal against the USA in the round-robin and downright sieve-like last night. Blais had no problem admitting he started the wrong goalie last night - he pulled Mike Lee after Canada's 3rd goal. But Canada did not pull Allen until after his embarrassing 5th goal, when in reality he should have been gone after the 3rd USA goal as well, if not the 2nd goal.

Would Martin Jones have done better? I'm not saying he would, but the point is that he wasn't given the chance. He did give up the OT winner but it was a 4-on-1.

Secondly, some of the choices for players on the team are a little bit questionable. Hindsight is 20/20 in this regard, but you really have to question why the coaches chose Jared Cowen to be on the team when they didn't trust him enough to play him more than a few minutes a game. With Hamonic's injury, wouldn't it have been nice to have six other defencemen last night whom the coaches felt comfortable with? Instead they used five guys, with a few shifts for Cowen and a few shifts on defence for forward Brandon McMillan.

Patrice Cormier was a poor choice for captain. I didn't see any captain-like behaviour out of him in the entire tournament. Maybe he's a vocal guy in the dressing room, I don't know....but his on-ice play was not very inspiring. Why not Jordan Eberle with the "C" instead of just an "A"?

Nazem Kadri was a poor choice for the team. His only contributions were stupid penalties and multiple turnovers due to his inability to pass the puck. Wouldn't Cody Eakin have looked better in Kadri's spot?

While I'm at it.....a few other notes.....

Like Kadri, Taylor Hall is genetically incapable of passing the puck too (is that an OHL thing?). At least Hall does make something happen with it once in a while, but his watch-me-I'm-gonna-beat-all-five-opponents-twice-no-honest-this-time-its-gonna-work routine isn't going to fly with coaches in the NHL. He is tremendously skilled but needs to understand that it's not just him out there on the ice. Half the time in this tournament his linemates might as well have stood at the blueline and watched him, for all he cared about where they were.

And Alex Pietrangelo being named the tournament's top defenceman....get outta here. Who cares how the guy played against Lower East Slovenia or any of the other patsies, he was terrible against the USA, twice. Guess whose stupid decision to pinch while playing 4-on-4 with both forwards already deep led to the winning 4-on-1? Yeah, the tournament's "Best Defenceman". He wasn't even the best defenceman on Canada this year....that would probably be Hamonic.

The good....well, I already mentioned Eberle, but you can't say enough about him really. Is he the greatest player in the history of this tournament for Canada? That's debatable but the scoring numbers say yes, and certainly he is the greatest clutch player Canada has had.

I thought Brandon McMillan was outstanding as well....he was asked to play a couple different roles and he played them both excellently. And Brayden Schenn had the misfortune of having to play with No-pass Hall some of the time, but he also acquitted himself very well and should be a key player on next year's team, if he's not in the NHL.

I'm gonna stop here.....I'm sure some folks will disagree with some things I said already.

New Medicine Hat rink update

Looks like some bad news for the plans to build a new arena in Medicine Hat - their city council voted down the idea in a 5-4 vote last night. It sounds like there is a push to put the issue to a general plebiscite now, which could revive the plan, but for now there will be no new rink for the Tigers.

Here's what I don't get about the reasoning by some of the "No" aldermen here though. I'm no economist but it seems to me that the right time for government to spend money is when times are tough. I mean, if you're going to build this thing, why wouldn't you do it when your economy could benefit from an injection of a large amount of money (which means jobs) like this? Why wait until times are good and people don't need jobs and the economy doesn't need public dollars to give it a boost?

Plus, when things are "down", land, materials and labour are cheaper so it actually costs less to build now than it does when things are booming. When you add all this up, I'm not sure why anyone who agrees that a new facility is needed would oppose building it now in favour of waiting for better days. If you don't think it's needed, fine....I understand opposing it no matter what the circumstance in that case. But it sounds like some of the "No" aldermen in the Hat actually want the facility, they'd just rather wait a few years and pay more for it than do it now. Crazy.

Canada-USA tonight

Canada-USA for the World Junior gold medal tonight. So order a pizza, then take the phone off the hook. Turn out the porch light and disconnect your doorbell. Write the kids' teachers a note certifying that the dog did eat their homework, because nobody in the family is going to want to miss this one.

Am I overselling it? Maybe. Probably. But Canada and the USA have played some very entertaining games at this tournament over the last four or five years and there's no reason to believe that tonight's tilt for all the marbles will be any different.

Canada will have to play tonight's game without key defenceman Travis Hamonic, who is out with a separated shoulder. More confusingly, they may also play (by choice) without defenceman Jared Cowen, who has fallen out of favour with the coaching staff and spent the semifinal game anchored to the bench out of concerns about his lack of footspeed. For tonight, it sounds (according to TSN's Bob McKenzie anyway) like forward Brandon McMillan will be moved back to the blueline to replace Hamonic, rather than use Cowen against the ultra-fast American forwards.

Canada is going to have to find a way to deal with the Americans' speed if they are going to win this game. The Canadian defence was caught off-guard and flat-footed several times in the round-robin meeting and the Americans had more breakaways and odd-man rushes in that game than Canada gave up in all their other games combined. Canada might also be wise to abandon the 1-3-1 powerplay format they were using, since having only one man back on the point resulted in two American shorthanded goals in that game. It didn't help that the man on the point was Ryan Ellis, not known for his defensive inclinations to begin with.....but the Canadians are going to have to play this game more conservatively than they have played so far in this tournament because I don't think they want to give the Americans a good half-dozen breakaways or 2-on-1's like they did on New Years Eve. That's a recipe for a loss.

Should be a gooder, any way you look at it and regardless of which team you cheer for. So yeah, maybe that first paragraph isn't so ridiculous after all.

One other item of interest relating to tonight's game - if you haven't heard already, one of the secondary spectacles at the games this year has been watching the size of the 50/50 jackpot grow. The Canada-USA game on New Years Eve saw a total pot of over $187,000, with the winner pocketing a tax-free $93,525 share. There have been several other winners pots in excess of $30,000 to $40,000 as well. With all the excitement that goes with a gold medal final, I would expect tonight's take to top $200,000, so over $100k to the winner. Pretty nice little souvenir from the game if you ask me.....

Monday stuff

Welcome to trade deadline week....the deadline is this coming Sunday at 3pm Calgary time. Yes, it's on a Sunday.

There were trades made every day of the final six days leading up to the deadline last year, so we can probably expect to see some deals happening over the course of the coming week. Players who are currently still playing in the World Juniors cannot be traded until Wednesday morning but I doubt we're going to see any of the WHLers on Canada or the USA be moved. Just a feeling but I just don't see the Pats throwing in the towel and trading Eberle & Teubert so soon after loading up with the Ashton deal.

The Pats are 10th in the East, six points out of the playoffs, and give up a whopping five games-in-hand to the 8th place Warriors too. But there's still 30 games left to play, six points is not insurmountable if they get things straightened out there. If anything, I'd expect to see the Pats ADD more players instead of moving them out....

One WHLer in the WJCs who I do expect to see moved is Switzerland's Luca Sbisa, although you have to think the price for him is dropping by the day almost. First came the news that he was going to play for the Swiss at the Olympics, and now he has torn abdominal muscles at the WJCs and will be out six weeks with that. Doing the math, that puts his return to action just in time for the Olympics, which means he won't be in a WHL lineup again until early March - and that's assuming his injury heals properly and on time. We've all seen abdominal muscle injuries that stretched on and on and on....so all this stuff has to be a concern for any team that might have been interested in trading for the guy.

Teams that would want Sbisa are more concerned about having him in their lineup in April than in February, so the Olympics are probably not that big a deal. But his health status is going to be an issue when it comes to negotiating a price for him....nobody's giving up a fortune for a guy who might be damaged goods, no matter how good he is when healthy.

Other burning questions heading into the deadline week.....

• Are the Rockets going to fold their tent and move an asset like Brandon McMillan? They have fallen behind Chilliwack into 3rd in the B.C. division and 7th in the conference, meaning if they don't improve in the 2nd half of the season they will have to face one of the leaders in the first round.

• Is Kamloops doing the same? They're in the same boat as Kelowna. C.J. Stretch and Kurtis Mucha should be available if they're selling. Maybe Tyler Shattock too although he's likely going to be back next year.

• Where will Dallas Jackson of the Cougars end up? He's the one guy off the Cougars who I think is very likely to be moved. He's an overager but can play top-four minutes on most teams and work on your PP. Some contender has to think he's better than one of their current overagers. Cougars could also move Marek Viedensky if somebody wants to upgrade an import spot to a big center with decent hands.

• Tomas Vincour of Edmonton is another option for teams looking to upgrade their imports. But I'm a lot less certain of Torrie Jung moving now than I was a few weeks ago. Jung is 2-12 in his last 14 decisions, with a GAA of 3.68 and a .870 save percentage in that span. Not playing his best hockey right now, that's for sure.

One other note before I end this rambling post here - the two WHL-area teams did not fare well at the World U-17 Challenge this year. Team Pacific finished 5th in the 10-team tournament, while team West finished a very disappointing 8th. Sweden will play Russia for the bronze medal this afternoon while Ontario will play USA for the gold tonight.

Hamonic done

TSN is reporting that Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman Travis Hamonic suffered a separated shoulder when he was cheap-shotted into the boards from behind by Swiss forward Jeffrey Fuglister in the final minute of Canada's win.

Depending on the severity, he's probably out anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks. Big blow for the Warriors, especially if they were planning to trade Hamonic before the WHL trade deadline.

Fuglister deserved a beating for that hit (last minute of the game, you're down 6-1, why are you hitting people from behind???) and there were probably 21 players on the Canadian team ready to give him one. Too bad the linesmen got to him first.

Swiss upset Russians

In what is surely one of the biggest hockey upsets in years, the Swiss knocked off the Russians, 3-2 in overtime, today in their WJC quarterfinal game. The Swiss trailed 2-1 in the final minute of play but tied it up with 33 seconds left and then won it late in overtime, both times on goals from Portland's Nino Niederreiter.

By rights, Russia should have crushed the Swiss - and they did outshoot them 52-31. But strong goaltending from the Swiss and an uncharacteristically weak group of forwards on this year's Russian team kept the game low scoring.

Think about it - last year the Swiss weren't even in the A group, they were in the B pool and had to win that tournament just to qualify for this year's WJC A pool. Their goal going into this tournament was probably just to avoid being relegated to the B pool again. Then they lost their two best defencemen - Luca Sbisa and Roman Josi - over the course of the tournament and had to play today's game without them. And they still won, and so they are now guaranteed to play for at least a bronze medal....forget about just avoiding relegation, they will finish no worse than 4th in the standings. Good story.

Switzerland now must play Canada in tomorrow's semifinal. The Canadians beat the Swiss 6-0 in the round-robin in a game that was more lopsided than the score suggests - so some might say this is a cakewalk into the gold medal game now for Canada. But if the Swiss play tomorrow like they played today, and Canada plays tomorrow the way they played the first 50 minutes against the USA, Canada might be in for a rude surprise.

I don't see it though....I think you have to expect Canada to win that game.

USA is playing Finland right now (2-0 USA midway through the 2nd) and the winner of that game plays Sweden in the other semifinal tomorrow night. A Canada-USA gold medal game would be a beauty, wouldn't it......

One other thought that occurred to me seconds after Niederreiter's OT goal.....does this make the collapse against Canada sting worse for the USA? Had the USA hung on to beat Canada, it would be them getting the "free pass" into the gold medal game instead of Canada. Instead they have to beat Finland and then Sweden (who look really good this year too) to get there.

Wednesday notes

Couple things today...

First, Lethbridge defenceman Luca Sbisa was named to the Swiss Olympic team today, so he will indeed be missing another couple weeks of WHL homestretch action in February as he jets to Vancouver for the Olympics. Just another factor that whoever acquires him in the next 12 days will need to take into consideration.

And lets not kid ourselves, he WILL be traded by the Hurricanes. They're 15 points out of the playoffs right now, there is zero reason for them to hang onto an asset that has that kind of value.

Secondly, a big trade today as the Edmonton Oil Kings trade their all-time leading scorer, 19 year old forward Brent Raedeke, to Brandon for 16 year old forward Klarc Wilson and a conditional 2011 3rd round pick. Probably the pick is conditional on Raedeke returning next year as an overager, which isn't likely.

So Brandon gave up Wilson - their 2008 first round bantam pick (10th overall in that draft) - for a half season of Raedeke. Yikes, are the prices ever high this year....but Brandon has no reason to hold back when they know they're in the Memorial Cup. Question now is, who else is prepared to pay these prices to load up in an attempt to be the WHL's other rep at that tournament....

Canada 16, Republic of Pylon 0

The title might sound a little harsh but that's exactly how this game played out. It was one of those games where you knew the outcome was decided already by the four minute mark of the first period. Canada was up 2-0 and the Latvians probably hadn't touched the puck yet.

If Latvia is the 9th or 10th best country in the world in this age group, then this game is exhibit A (yet again) for why this should go back to being an 8 country tournament like it was for years. Bottom line is that the Latvian team does not belong at this level if that's their best effort. Their goaltender couldn't even make all the routine saves and he certainly got no help from the inept defence. There probably aren't more than one or two players on the entire team who are good enough to play more than benchwarmer roles on any team in the CHL.

Everybody knew before the puck dropped that Canada was going to win this game, but nobody should beat anybody else by 16 goals at the highest level of any hockey competition. I doubt any of the 44 kids on the ice was having fun by the end of the game and the fans had long stopped cheering for goals....so lets not play games like this any more.

Wednesday notes

Couple things today....

Team USA made their final two cuts for their World Junior team, and those cuts were forward Chris Brown (Calgary Hitmen listee) and defenceman Max Nicastro (Everett Silvertips listee). The final cuts mean that two WHLers - Spokane's Tyler Johnson and Portland's Luke Walker - have made Team USA this year. Seven other players on the team are property of WHL clubs although they are currently playing in the NCAA. See my post from December 2nd for those names, if you're interested.

Also, the B-pool World Junior tournaments wrapped up the other day, and Germany and Norway have won promotion to the 2011 A-pool tournament in Buffalo with the big boys. Germany was relegated last year and have now won their way back, while Norway will be returning to the A-pool for the first time since 2006.

The two weakest teams from this year's A-pool will of course be relegated to the B-pools for next year....I'm betting on them being Austria and Latvia.

Lastly, there will be no posts here for the next few days at least, as I spend some holiday family time with the "three terrors", who are bouncing off the walls with anticipation. Then the World Juniors and the Macs midget tournament start on Saturday, the U-17 Challenge starts next Tuesday, and the WHL's 2nd half starts on Sunday. Is this a great time of year or what?

Safe and happy holidays to everyone....

U-17 Challenge info

If you're interested in following the World U-17 Challenge this year after Christmas, you can do so through Hockey Canada's website for the tournament. Rosters are available for all the teams there now, although only Team Pacific and Team Western have any current WHLers on them.

The European teams almost certainly have a few players who will play in the WHL in the future, perhaps as early as next season, but of course there is no way to know who those players will be....

The USA team is almost 100% the USNTDP U-17 squad, with no CHLers brought in....which I think is unfortunate since a player like Kelowna's Shane McColgan deserves to play in a tournament like this and would be a lock to play in it if he were Canadian. Perhaps a guy like Seattle's Colin Jacobs deserves some consideration as well....I just don't get how they can bring in some high school and midget players but won't bring in CHLers.

Anyways, if you're interested in following the tournament, here's the WHL affiliations of the kids in the tournament who do not currently play in the WHL:

Team Pacific:

Brock Balson (F) - Prince Albert Raiders

Laurent Brossoit (G) - Edmonton Oil Kings

Spencer Grabowski (F) - Kelowna Rockets

Aaron Hadley (F) - Vancouver Giants

Liam Liston (G) - Brandon Wheat Kings

Team Western:

Wilson Dumais (F) - Prince George Cougars

Todd Fiddler (F) - Medicine Hat Tigers

Zach Franko (F) - Kelowna Rockets

Jordan Fransoo (D) - Brandon Wheat Kings

Rene Hunter (D) - Brandon Wheat Kings

Boston Leier (F) - Medicine Hat Tigers

Austin Lewis (F) - Brandon Wheat Kings

Jens Meilleur (F) - Brandon Wheat Kings

Evan Morden (D) - Everett Silvertips

Colin Mospanchuk (F) - Medicine Hat Tigers

Tyler Oswald (G) - Saskatoon Blades

Zach Rakochy (G) - Red Deer Rebels

Chad Robinson (F) - Red Deer Rebels

Michael Sofillas (F) - Lethbridge Hurricanes

Mitch Vanteeling (F) - Kamloops Blazers

Team USA:

Rocco Grimaldi (F) - Vancouver Giants

Zac Larraza (F) - Prince George Cougars

Matt McNeely (G) - Portland Winterhawks

Adam Reid (F) - Lethbridge Hurricanes

The Russians are coming

Or one of them, anyway.

It's halfway through the season but it looks like Tri-City is apparently about to land their Russian goaltender, 19 year old Alex Pechursky. Pechursky is going to play for the Russians at the World Juniors and then - reportedly, anyway - will join the Americans.

Which creates a goaltending situation for the Ams. They're surely not bringing in a 19 year old import who's good enough to play for Russia at the WJCs, just to sit on the bench. So he's probably coming in to be the starter - or at least to compete with Drew Owsley for the starters job. All of which doesn't leave current backup Brett Martyniuk's roster spot in the "sure thing" category.

My guess is that assuming Pechursky shows up, Martyniuk gets traded or reassigned to Jr A.

Top Prospects rosters announced

It's Christmas break for the WHL clubs, so news will be a little slow for the next week or so. One bit of news today though, the rosters for the annual CHL Top Prospects game were announced today.

13 WHLers made the cut for the big game this year:

Forwards:

Brett Connolly (Prince George)

Emerson Etem (Medicine Hat)

Curtis Hamilton (Saskatoon)

Quinton Howden (Moose Jaw)

Ryan Johansen (Portland)

Nino Niedereiter (Portland)

Jordan Weal (Regina)

Defencemen:

Matt MacKenzie (Calgary)

Dylan McIlrath (Moose Jaw)

Alex Petrovic (Red Deer)

Mark Pysyk (Edmonton)

Troy Rutkowski (Portland)

Goaltenders:
Calvin Pickard (Seattle)

Joining Twitter

Some of you have mailed me over the last year suggesting that I should get a Twitter account....I gave in today and set one up: http://twitter.com/smallatlarge

Just another way to keep on top of and discuss my favourite sport and league I guess....

Credit where credit is due

Just a quick note to make a request from those of you who read this blog.

If you want to repost, borrow, quote, or use in any way the original work that I post here (basically anything which I do not credit another source for), you are welcome to do so. I only ask that you properly attribute where you got your information from. A mention would be nice. A link would be better.

I have seen two examples today where I believe somebody has borrowed my Macs midget data and reposted or rephrased that info without credit to me. I did a lot of work to come up with that info; you did two minutes of work to borrow it. You can at least give credit. Thanks!