In the eyes of cougar fans

[habsfan12]

haha...yeah i was kidding about the best driver....!!

[hannon09]

he may not be the best driver in town that blaiser but wow what a car!!

[catsfan]

Everyone here is saying Set had a crappy regular season but I disagree. Seto was mediocre right up until mid january. from there he lived up to the expectations for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs. There is no doubt in my mind that he was the best player in the whl in the second half of the season.

I think it was a great trade. The cougars have a very low success on highly picked bantamn draft picks. The majority of star players for the cougars were either very late round picks or just camp invites. Eric Brewer was drafted in the last 5 rounds and look where he is now. Being drafted high up doesn't mean as much in the WHL as it does in the NHL.

[old_time_hockey]

Getting drafted high in the NHL doesn't make a superstar either.

Of the kids that got picked yesterday in the Bantam draft, I would be curious to see how many of the top 4 round players are playing in the WHL in 2 years and how many of the 5-8 rounders are playing. And are the 1st rounders living up to what people thought.

Jonathan Blum was a 7th rounder in 2004. And now he is on the top D pairing heading into a second WHL Finals.

I forget who said it, but anyone can come up with gold in the opening rounds. A good GM/scouting staff comes up with gold mid pack.

[Sput]

Drafting at the bantam level is a crap shoot at best. There are always later bloomers in any situation. Just because a guy is lighting it up in bantam AAA might mean his development has plateaued and isn't going to excel in his development, whereas someone picked later, maybe not as good 'right now' as a high pick, could still be developing at a faster pace.

I've heard some coaches say that they would sooner have a group of hard workers than a group of superstars. The hard working guys have likely always had to work at their skills more, listen to coaches more intently, and just do whatever they get asked to do. The superstar sometimes (not always) can have a chip on his shoulders, and doesn't want to do the assignments that a coach might give him, if it isn't what HE thinks he is to be doing.

Takes you back to the saying "hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard".