Importrance of Bantam Draft

[maple leaf]

In the 30 some years I've been watching the WHL the 2002 bantam draft

for the Saskatoon Blades has to rank up their as one of the worst, with only

Devon Setoguchi making a impact for the Blades and Kieth Voyetochek and

Nick Knudson being traded away. Their is not one other player from that

year's draft playing in the WHL. With the recent trade that sent Devon to

Prince George we get 2 first round draft pick's that mean's we will have 5

first rounder's in the next 3 year's. If Blades management does their homework

in the up and coming draft's they should assemble some fairly good team's in

the next few year's. And maybe just maybe a Memorial Cup. My question to

you other guy's and gal's is:

The Saskatoon Blades if they stay the same this year will not have 1- 20 year

old competeing for a job next year. Either I'm to old or have not been paying

attention but has this been done before. Just curious to see if other team's

have had no 20 year old's to start a season.

[Swando]

I can't answer your q whether it has been done before. But that puts you guys in a great situation for the future again. I can see your management trading a 17/18yr old that is "good" for high draft picks in future years. Because you can pick up 20 yr old players for very low draft picks it won't hurt the teams depth. The Vancouver Giants played 1 short (20 yr old) all year until the play-offs when they received help from Parker who was playing in SJHL

[Tinner]

Not having a 20 year old can be a good thing and a bad thing. The 20's should be the 3 best players on your team, or at least in the top 5, which means by not having any, your younger guys are better players (good). That said, it also means that you may have drafted poorly or traded away the better players. The 20's certainly add maturity to a dressing room and should provide leadership on and off the ice.

My take on the 20 year old situation is this; In years gone by, there were more 20's to pick from than there were spots on WHL teams for them to play. The talent level of the 20's was also evenly divided between the top, middle and bottom thirds of the group. Now, with all the teams, both Tier 1 and Tier 2, the opportunities to play overseas and minor pro and the NHL teams keeping younger players, the crop of talented 20's is lessened to the degree that you might have no top third and most of the players in the middle and bottom third as compared to years ago. What this means is the league's talent base is watered down (bad). I also think that the CHL/NCAA continued problems over player eligibility has hurt deeply. My point with respect to that is based on the top 2 players on any Tier 2 team may/are better than the bottom four players on a WHL team.

Kind of a long winded answer. I think that having no returning 20's is not a good thing and your team may be in trouble now and maybe later.