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04-30-2008, 09:06 AM
Molleken in lockdown mode as WHL draft draws near

Cory Wolfe, The StarPhoenix

Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Saskatoon Blades coach-GM Lorne Molleken and his top deputies have sequestered themselves in a Calgary hotel since Monday.

They're cramming for one of the most important tests in franchise history -- a test whose results will affect the team through the 2013-14 Western Hockey League season.

"We'll just go over our list again, tweak it a little bit and have some discussions about different players," said Molleken, whose team owns two of the first six picks in Thursday's bantam draft.

The 51-year-old former goaltender has appointed his brother Doug Molleken (the Blades' head scout) and assistant GM Jarrod Brodsky as pointmen on this project. Five regional scouts joined the war room Tuesday night.

"I don't know which way we're going to go yet, to be honest," said Lorne Molleken, whose team picks third overall and then again in the sixth slot. "I have no idea. It all depends on what Red Deer and Portland do."

Some shrewd dealing by Molleken has positioned the Blades enviably. They own four of the first 42 picks. Saskatoon will select three players before the Moose Jaw Warriors -- owners of the 33rd overall pick -- pick one.

While Saskatoon's stash looks impressive on paper, remember that the Blades have a long paper trail of draft busts. Many of those failures precede current management, but no one is immune to the future's fickle hand.

Previous Saskatoon regimes were stung by both bad research and bad luck.

In the cases of Gabe Gauthier (12th overall, 2000) and Justin Kanigan (sixth overall, 1998), the Blades could be charged with not doing their homework.

Gauthier, a California winger, never reported to Saskatoon. Instead, he played Junior A with the Chilliwack Chiefs and advanced to the University of Denver, where he won back-to-back NCAA championships. He's now a prospect in the Los Angeles Kings' system.

In Kanigan's case, the Blades were guilty of putting too much emphasis on his 6-foot-5 frame and not enough on his limited skills. He scored six goals in 91 games with Saskatoon before being traded to Spokane.

Old-fashioned bad luck has burned the Blades multiple times, too.

Adrian Foster (third overall, 1997) was a can't-miss kid while growing up in Calgary. When veteran scouts sized up him and Dany Heatley, the talent hawks pegged Foster as a better pro prospect.

That projection proven nowhere near accurate. Injuries had something to do with Foster's stunted development. As a 16-year-old playing Junior A with the Calgary Canucks, he collided with a goal post, tore an abdominal muscle and was never the same.

Foster played just 25 games during 21/2 seasons with the Blades. The New Jersey Devils gambled on his natural talent when they drafted him 28th overall in 2001, but Foster has spent the past six seasons with three different minor-league teams.

In another case of tough luck for the Blades, Chad Elmy's once-promising career came to a sudden halt on Jan. 11, 1999. The fifth overall pick in 1996, Elmy collapsed during practice. He underwent emergency surgery to repair a blod clot on his brain, and he never played competitive hockey again.

So goes the tricky business of scouting. Even when you get it right, it can still go wrong.