Canes' Staff Gearing Up For WHL Draft

Well, here we are one month away from the 2010 WHL Bantam Draft and right now that's the main focus for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Last week, I took some time to speak with Hurricanes Assistant G.M. and Director of Player Personnel Brad Robson about the April 29th draft and just what they might be looking for when it comes to specific players.

Pat: Are you looking for any certain player given the fact the Hurricanes choose third overall, just behind Edmonton and Prince George?

Brad: "We're going to take the best player available with that third pick. We have a list of three potential players that we are continuing to watch and monitor with all the provincial camps taking place. Rich Preston and myself were in Regina this past week for the Saskfirst and the next one is down in Anaheim. I pretty confident I know who the top five players are going to be and the consensus on one player, that being Forsberg who will likely go first overall. His older broker plays in Prince George. For ourselves, Edmonton picks second so we have to wait and see what happens. Whoever the player is we have on our list of five that is third, that's the player we'll pick. We are preparing a list presently for the top 40 players for the draft. We also pick 25th, 27th, and 41st (all in the second round). We also keeping in mind that we're building depth for the future."

Pat: Are you looking at any one position when it comes to this draft?

Brad: "We'll we're picking third so if there's one player that stands out and if he's a forward we'll take him and if he's a defenceman we'll take that player too. We are building a lot of depth on defence. We probably have 8 or 9 guys that can play that position for us next season. With some of the young guys like Hulit, Graham, Henry and those types of players plus the returning "D" we have coming back. We do have some depth, but you can never have too many good defencemen. We're looking at everybody."

Pat: Do you think this is one of the most important Bantam drafts in Hurricanes history?

Brad: "Every draft is important, but this one is key given where we placed this past season. That won't happen again. We are building depth at all age groups. Not putting any pressure on us here, but it's up to myself and our scouting staff to find the right players. These four players (in the top 40) could make a huge difference."

Pat: How important is it for this Canes' team to find more offence, given the lack of scoring this past season?

Brad: " No doubt about it. We have to get more offence. We have that in our system now, but they're still young and they're not going to step in our line-up next year and score 20 or 30 or 40 goals. A lot of that offence was sitting in the dressing at the end of this past season and will be coming back in the fall and if those returning players don't have the ability to score and put up points for us, then we'll probably have to go out and find those types of players."

Thanks,
Pat