Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008
Silvertips in line for top prospect
Everett picking ninth in today's bantam draft
By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer
For a change, the Everett Silvertips won't be sitting at their table at the WHL bantam draft, watching helplessly as other teams snap up all the best prospects.
Well, at least not as long.
Everett selects ninth overall in today's draft, the earliest the Tips have picked since 2003 when Everett was an expansion team yet to play its first game.
Everett might not have had the season it envisioned in 2007-08, but one small consolation is an earlier slot in the bantam draft. Last year, the Tips had to wait until pick No. 22 before making their first selection. Prior to that, with the exception of 2003, the earliest Everett pick was 10th overall in 2005.
"It will be nice to be able to get a very talented player picking ninth," Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said.
"Our scouts have worked extremely hard again this year," Soetaert added. "They've been out on the road evaluating talent all winter long, so we feel very prepared. There's a lot of good players in this draft, so it will be interesting to see who ends up at No. 9."
The draft begins at 7:30 a.m. today in Calgary, Alberta. The players eligible for the draft are those born in 1993 who reside in western Canada and the western United States. They won't be eligible to be full-time players in the WHL until the 2009-10 season.
Picking ninth overall means Everett will still have to watch many of the most-desirable players taken off the board. However, it appears to be a good year to be in those circumstances. This year's draft class is considered strong, with many players clustered near the top. Therefore, the Tips could land a player in the first round who's considered as strong a prospect as any of those taken beforehand.
"I think it's a good year to be drafting that high," Soetaert said. "We should end up with a pretty talented player at that point. There's some really good defensemen and forwards out there and we feel the draft is really deep.
"I think that the last couple years there have been a lot of talented first rounders," Soetaert added. "This year we feel there will be two rounds of solid drafting. We're content sitting at No. 9 and watching where everyone falls."
Soetaert provided no clues as to which direction the Tips will go with their first-round pick. However, it's highly unlikely Everett would pick a goaltender in the first round. The Tips selected goalie Kent Simpson in the first round last year.
Everett will continue to pick ninth in each round with two exceptions: The Tips do not have a fifth-round pick, and in the sixth round Everett has Red Deer's pick (second in the round) instead of its own.
Red Deer holds the first overall selection. As of Wednesday the Rebels had given no indication of who they planned to take with the first pick, a good indication of the clustering at the top of the draft board.
Among the players expected to be taken early are forwards Michael St. Croix, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ty Rattie and Brent Benson, as well as defensemen Mitch Topping and Duncan Siemens.
There are also a couple of wild cards in the mix in Californian forward Shane McColgan and Texan forward Colin Jacobs. Both are considered on par with the top Canadian prospects, but there's always the risk that American players will choose to go to the NCAA rather than the WHL. Everett, as an American team, may have a better chance of getting one of those players to report than a Canadian team.
Nick Patterson's Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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