Scout
11-07-2007, 11:07 AM
Courtesy Alan Caldwell:
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Wednesday stuff
How often are NHL top-ten overall draft picks made healthy scratches in the WHL? Not very often. Well, Kamloops defenceman Keaton Ellerby was a healthy scratch in the Blazers' 2-1 shootout loss to Red Deer last night. Dean Clark insists he is not going to try to trade Ellerby and instead is just trying to motivate him to play better - but this isn't the first time Clark has had to healthy-scratch Ellerby due to poor play and you have to wonder how much more patience Clark has for Ellerby when the Blazers are really hurting for offence. Being able to bring in a defenceman of Ellerby's calibre (and give him a 2nd chance) could bring out some quality forwards in trade offers if Clark wanted to put Ellerby on the block.
Still with last night, Chilliwack forward Oscar Moller scored two goals last night and is now the WHL's first 20-goal scorer this year. The milestone comes after only 19 games of play, which means that if he continued this pace he would top out around 75-80 goals on the season, which would be far and away the most the WHL has seen in a number of years. The last player to top 70 goals in a season was Pavel Brendl of Calgary with 73 goals in 1998-99. The last player to top 80 was Frank Banham of Saskatoon with 83 in 1995-96.
Moller's numbers are more impressive when you consider that he had only 3 goals in his first 10 games. That's right, he has 17 goals in the last 9 games now, and has at least one goal in each of those games. Check out his game-by-game, it is a very impressive look at a guy who is absolutely on fire and is easily the most dangerous sniper in the league right now. The team is not nearly as hot though - the Bruins are only 4-5 in those 9 games, which would seem to indicate that they need somebody else to be scoring goals for them besides Moller. He has 17 of their 35 goals in the 9 games. And no team has been burned worse by Moller this year than the Prince George Cougars - he has eight goals in four games against them.
Still with Chilliwack, Evan Pighin made his debut for them last night and picked up two assists - on Moller's two goals of course.
Rockets forward Jamie Benn feels right at home in the WHL, and has no second thoughts about giving up his NCAA scholarship to Alaska-Fairbanks to play major junior. With 11 points in 13 games, he has quickly become a key piece of the Rockets offence.
A flamboyant, fun-loving, and entertaining player will be in Vancouver tonight for a game against the local squad. No, not David Beckham and his soccer exhibition; it's Tommy Tartaglione and the Prince George Cougars.
And speaking of red-hot goal scorers, I was checking out the Alberta AAA bantam league numbers the other day, and there's a kid there, Ty Rattie of the Airdrie Extreme, who has 31 goals and 53 points in 10 games so far. He is blowing away his competition for league scoring in that league - nobody else in the league has more than 40 points. I haven't yet started following the top bantam prospects for the 2008 WHL bantam draft so I know not of what I speak, but at 6'0" and 160 lb, Rattie has the size to be considered a top prospect for sure. So now the question: does he want to play in Portland?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Wednesday stuff
How often are NHL top-ten overall draft picks made healthy scratches in the WHL? Not very often. Well, Kamloops defenceman Keaton Ellerby was a healthy scratch in the Blazers' 2-1 shootout loss to Red Deer last night. Dean Clark insists he is not going to try to trade Ellerby and instead is just trying to motivate him to play better - but this isn't the first time Clark has had to healthy-scratch Ellerby due to poor play and you have to wonder how much more patience Clark has for Ellerby when the Blazers are really hurting for offence. Being able to bring in a defenceman of Ellerby's calibre (and give him a 2nd chance) could bring out some quality forwards in trade offers if Clark wanted to put Ellerby on the block.
Still with last night, Chilliwack forward Oscar Moller scored two goals last night and is now the WHL's first 20-goal scorer this year. The milestone comes after only 19 games of play, which means that if he continued this pace he would top out around 75-80 goals on the season, which would be far and away the most the WHL has seen in a number of years. The last player to top 70 goals in a season was Pavel Brendl of Calgary with 73 goals in 1998-99. The last player to top 80 was Frank Banham of Saskatoon with 83 in 1995-96.
Moller's numbers are more impressive when you consider that he had only 3 goals in his first 10 games. That's right, he has 17 goals in the last 9 games now, and has at least one goal in each of those games. Check out his game-by-game, it is a very impressive look at a guy who is absolutely on fire and is easily the most dangerous sniper in the league right now. The team is not nearly as hot though - the Bruins are only 4-5 in those 9 games, which would seem to indicate that they need somebody else to be scoring goals for them besides Moller. He has 17 of their 35 goals in the 9 games. And no team has been burned worse by Moller this year than the Prince George Cougars - he has eight goals in four games against them.
Still with Chilliwack, Evan Pighin made his debut for them last night and picked up two assists - on Moller's two goals of course.
Rockets forward Jamie Benn feels right at home in the WHL, and has no second thoughts about giving up his NCAA scholarship to Alaska-Fairbanks to play major junior. With 11 points in 13 games, he has quickly become a key piece of the Rockets offence.
A flamboyant, fun-loving, and entertaining player will be in Vancouver tonight for a game against the local squad. No, not David Beckham and his soccer exhibition; it's Tommy Tartaglione and the Prince George Cougars.
And speaking of red-hot goal scorers, I was checking out the Alberta AAA bantam league numbers the other day, and there's a kid there, Ty Rattie of the Airdrie Extreme, who has 31 goals and 53 points in 10 games so far. He is blowing away his competition for league scoring in that league - nobody else in the league has more than 40 points. I haven't yet started following the top bantam prospects for the 2008 WHL bantam draft so I know not of what I speak, but at 6'0" and 160 lb, Rattie has the size to be considered a top prospect for sure. So now the question: does he want to play in Portland?