Impressions on the Blades picks...

[Trav]

We obviously won't be able to judge how the Blades did in this year's draft but looking at the picks on paper, though maybe some of you guys have seen some of the Blades picks live, what are your impressions on the draft.

My first impression is the size, I'm quite surprised the Blades took alot of players under six feet. Now of course some of these guys may grow but it appears Molleken may have realised that he needs speedy scoring forwards which leads to my second impression, last year the Blades grabbed a couple scoring forwards (Olsen, Bews and Stovin) and he appears to have gotten a few more this year (McGauley and Stockl both described as speedy and can put the puck in the net. While Nikkel, the Blades second round pick is described as one of the toughest d-men in the draft which I don't mind, doesn't hurt to have a couple of them, he can skate well apparently which to me is huge, last thing we need is another Mitch Berg.

[witness]

I am interested to see the progression of MaGauley.
Good season.
A forward with the big P (potential) beside him. At least in my books.
I don't think he will be an elite player, but more of a Hulak type of forward.

[wango tango]

thrower, dietz, siemens, and vandane will be a good defensive backbone for the next few seasons.

with olsen drafted last and mcgauley this year the blades will hopefully get more offense to come.

so i like the balance.

[wango tango]

I am interested to see the progression of MaGauley.
Good season.
A forward with the big P (potential) beside him. At least in my books.
I don't think he will be an elite player, but more of a Hulak type of forward.

have to disagree a little. hulak in bantam didn't show the same kind of offense mcgauley has in bantam. we'll see when mcgauley makes the jump to midget aaa next season how he progresses, or if his bantam stats were from playing in a weaker league.

[twentyone]

I must say I am very impressed in what this management has done over the past 5 years. Lorne has established this franchise as a tough hard working team nobody likes to play. How has he done this, sart out by drafted hard working tough forwards, Patterson, Toomey, Inglis, Hamilton etc. teamed with defencmen like Teighan Zahn, Sam Klassen (wasn't drafted but) Siemens, and Niemi for that matter. Through some very good trades he has brought the same toughness and has established an identity for this orginization. What has been missing the last couple of years has been a true goal scorer and its nice to see they have targeted that need over the last couple of drafts.

Good on you Lorne. This team will be competitive for a long time