WHL's Bantam Draft This Week

The Western Hockey League's Bantam draft takes place on Thursday in Edmonton.

All the teams will be in the Alberta Capital for the day. The Hurricanes will be represented by 8 staff members on draft day, including G.M. Roy Stasiuk. Stasiuk told me on Monday that this year "it's a fairly deep draft". The Hurricanes do not have a first round pick though. That was traded to Everett when the Canes' picked up Kyle Beach at the January trade deadline. In fact, the Hurricanes are the only team not to have a first round pick this year.

The WHL's Bantam draft is similar to the NHL draft is a sense. Teams make their first round selections by going up to a podium. After that selections are made from each team's table. No players are there because all those kids selected are still in school.

So what are the Hurricanes looking for this year? Stasiuk is confident the Hurricanes will get a very good player when it picks in the second round (33rd overall) . “We have a staff that attends about a 1000 to 1200 games a year. We make consistent and regular evaluations on players starting when they are fourteen years old and we wrap it all up with provincial camps that help us summarize in terms of where we see players fitting and really determining how they fit with our organization” says Stasiuk who continues his scouting and player evaluation as part of his role as GM “When I am out scouting what I guess I really enjoy is being out in a hockey environment and whenever I am in an arena I always think this might be the greatest office in the world. It’s something I have been successful at my whole career and as far as the draft itself I have turned that over to Brad Robson, our assistant GM, in terms of making the selections. I am there to oversee and manage but it is exciting for me to see someone else with the same passion and with a very good ability in terms of scouting; to have that excitement and having that responsibility of really building an organization and a franchise.”

Lethbridge also has two picks in round three (47th and 55th overall), Round four (77th overall), Round 5 (99th and 103rd overall), Round 6 (111th and 121st overall), Round 8 (165th overall), nothing in Rounds 9, 10 and 11, Round 12 (253rd overall), Round 13 (275th overall), Round 14 (297th overall), Round 15 (319th overall)

The Portland Winter Hawks will pick first on Thursday followed by Moose Jaw, Chilliwack, Red Deer, and Regina.

I'll post the Canes' selections once the draft is complete.
Thanks,
Pat