McEwans selections

[grainbear]

Thankfully , we have with the completion of this draft seen the last of the choices for 1992. When you look and see that only one player with even a connection to the Hurricanes that being Alex Therieau which Stasiuk traded away says a great deal about the poor job scouting did a few years ago. This is not to say that we don.t have any of these 1992 and older players who will step it up and I certainly think they will but it certainly makes a comment as to what was not done by previous management. This is history and with the competition we will see this year at camp some of the veterans may not be back. Look at 1990/1991 and 1992 and see how many players never even made the team . It is not only my observation but when your read the gm comment in Pat"s column a few days ago he also was not happy with our list and players when he took over last year as well. Still not sure if we have enough horses to put the puck in the net but we are defensively strong but we do need the offensive d-man to lead on the point.I can hardly wait for the puck to drop and at least this year we will see an exhibition game against Red Deer in Lethbridge.

[ZAMBONI-PHONEY]

I really doubt if anyone was surprised that the Hurricanes came up empty at the NHL Draft. Oh sure there were players eligible but of what quality. This draft certainly shows the record of the previous GM was not all that impressive afterall. Certainly his claim to fame was Luca Sbisa, but after that, nothing much to write home about. I certainly hope for the current GM and the fans of the Hurricanes that there will eventually be a steady stream of picks. No they do not have to be number one's, afterall there are only 30 of those. But having players go in the 2-3-4-5 rounds on a regular basis means that everyone in the organization is doing their jobs. Finding the talent, developing the talent and the character, along with playing in a winning environment.

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS!

[canes77]

Not good at all to see zero draft picks, when over 40 were chosen from the WHL. I thought MAYBE Anderson or Hood would go, but NHL teams dont seem to draft from the bottom teams anymore unless they are Hockey Canada players like Calvin Pickard... as for all the older players, they still have a chance at NHL camp invitations later this summer.

All i hope for is the Canes turning around much like Portland has done. Went from last place three straight years before turning into a contender the next season, including an amazing 8 players drafted last weekend. All this turnaround in only 10 months.

I dont see the Canes winning the league next year but it appears the organization is heading in the right direction with our 93 and 94 crop. The Canes followed Portland's lead in saying they wanted to hire a former NHL coach to run the club, which they have done... heres hoping next year is a winning season! With the strong rookie crop coming in, I cant wait to see the vets fight it out in training camp, knowing themselves that some wont get a job.

[canes watcher]

I think the focus on talent instead of pedigree will pay off. Players like Merkley are top-end kids and contain real potential. The draft is a real mystery, as kids are drafted too young but I like the looks of the players taken the past two years and it takes time and effort to help them pan out. The atmosphere around the organization before was toxic. It's too bad our previous coach didn't have a supportive GM to work with.

[shushu]

WOW..........it hard to believe this actually happened..if you look at the numbers it doesn;t make sence......

round 1 theriau ( traded)
reners

round 2 traded away

round 3 brandon anderson
brent martin ( a no show, and if memory serves me correct he was 1st round material but was passes over because nobody thought he would report...and it happened)

round 4 traded away

round 5 traded away

round 6 derek ryckman

round 7 traded away

round 8 neal tarnasky

round 9 chris parke

after looking at this draft it becomes very clear why this team is lacking in talent...

[canes watcher]

Serously, Shushu, it had to break your heart putting that together. I mean, it reads like a team without a plan. One guy trying to be the smartest guy in the room instead of just picking good players. Martin is much like when they picked Tyler Vavra, who was a baseball player and everyone — but one — knew it.

[CanesCrazy]

I don't recognize this name at all. What happened to this player?

[shushu]

just like 90% of roy's picks that year....and yes c/w it was very painfull putting that together especially when you look at the names that were drafted that year....fesur in the 9 ninth round and johansen in the 7th make you wonder how tarnasky was our 8th....to funny , i relize the draft is a crapshoot but still that year was brutal to say the least for the canes.........

[canes77]

Shushu, my friend, did you mean to omit the other Canes drafted that year? I disliked Roy's strategic plan as much as all of you but Ryon Moser, Cody Castro, and Brandon Brossoit also got drafted by the Canes in 2007... and they all played at least a game with the Canes... Moser being a regular player for the Canes after captaining his midget team to the National Final.

The team had a bunch of picks traded away but did okay with each pick on that day. Most teams get 5-6 regular players from each draft, the Canes did better than some, worse than some. No high end players in that draft, but a bunch of regular players.

Theriau was a great pick (but guess who traded him?!) and Reners had just broke the provincial record for goals. More goals than Zach Boychuk or Tyler Ennis ever got, even more than Iginla, Ryan Smyth, or any other Alberta kid ever scored in his 14 year old Bantam season.

I would have picked him too. He could get 30-40 goals if given regular PP time, easily the best shot on the team! Too bad the other aspects of his game arent as great yet...I hope he surprises us with a big improvement by September!

As for Brent Martin, we got Jeff May for the 2008 playoff run in exchange for Brent Martin and 2 others. May helped the Canes win the conference whereas Martin only played 14 games for PA in the past 2 years. Good trade.

Beyond the 5th/6th round, those players dont usually make the WHL and the Canes got Ryckman, Tarnasky, and Moser from it. Not bad at all. Again, I disliked our former GM a lot but these picks werent as bad as it looks, given the FEW selections he had available to pick in. Even his 2006 picks of Ashton, Fyten, Braes, and Yadlowski arent too bad either!

If you want to see a terrible drafting record, check out Maxwell's track record in the Bantam Draft... he was a tremendous coach but a poor GM!

Given what Preston started with last summer, he has done a great job so far. Keep it up and the Canes will be a perennial contender!

[shushu]

sorry for not posting the whole draft but to be fair 2007 was a mess.....moser is there for sure but castro and brossoit are not whl material, you might as well add elaschuch to the mix of low draft pick that didn't work....i relize theriau was traded and rener's is young and need time to mature into a good player, fair enough....but when you pick a top 4 draft pick that the whole league knows will not show that stupidity at it best.. if memory serves me correct we traded 2nd round pick, coifi(sp) and martin , so to say martin had anything to do with may being here is unrealistic.....most of my point is when you dont have your 2nd,4th ,5th and 7th round picks make the ones you have count........the 07 draft has everything to do with roys mess, from bad selections ,stupid moves and way to many spots missing in the draft. you may not agree but the truth lies in our weak 92 born players this year(not including preston group)......preston said last year that some of these kid had a job for the simple reason they didn't have the bodies to fill out the roster....so we will see how this years 92 do............. ps look at preston's group of pick from this years and try to compare... ....go canes go........................