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DRAFT Edition

Best and Worst of the DWSHL Draft
By: Ryley Weir

BUST

In the draft for DWSHL2 we knew who the first two players taken would be, just not the order. Or so we though. The DWSHL2 draft saw players left out of the league featured in the drafts. With the first selection in the draft, the Calgary Riverblades (Storm) selected Ilya Kovalchuk. After the 1st selection we all knew the Texas Cannons would select the next top prize, Jason Spezza. As the Cannons Gm took the podium, he announced his selection was throw-in player Mikael Renberg. After many seconds of silence, the boo-birds came out and a backlash to this day exists for the Texas organization, which since has had some of the lowest attendence figures.

During the DWSHL5 draft, we saw the first ever draft selection that was heavily critiqued. The Ottawa Attack selected Zachery Stortini with the 24th overall pick and many questioned why he was choosen so early as he could have been taken confortably in the 3rd round. In the end, Zac Stortini was choosen based on favoritism with their GM, not by skills. To make things more interesting, Stortini never signed and was thrown back into the draft, choosen by Winnipeg in the last round 138th overall. The T-Rex would sign him and keep him in the minors for two seasons before cutting him. After no takers, Stortini ended up sitting out DWSHL9. The following season Zac Stortini ended up in Jacksonville and currently is in Seoul.

Like most prospects in the Hanover organization, Guillame Latendresse was drafted 25th overall in the DWSHL7 draft and went unsigned. Two seasons later and not playing a game at any level, Latendresse, also known as "Hockey Jesus", was thrown back into the DWSHL9 draft. The Billings Sabercats jumped on Latendresse, selecting him 11th overall. The team has been patient, playing him in the farm and occasionally the pros.

Jordan Lavallee was drafted 27th overall in the DWSHL8 draft ahead of a few good talents. Once drafted, Lavalle was never signed by Gm Marcel Grzyb and two seasons later found himself without ever having a shot to play a game at the pro or farm level for Hanover.

The Winnipeg T-Rex selected Benoit Pouliot 1st overall in the DWSHL8 draft. Once signed, Pouliot played a season for Winnipeg's farm team the Selkirk Rush. The Rush went on to win the championship and Pouliot graduated to the T-Rex. With such a strong core of players, the T-Rex had no place to play Benoit Pouliot. Along with icetime, his skilled suffered and Winnipeg cut ties with him this offseason.

BEST

The New York Vipers found a gem with the 60th overall pick in the DWSHL3 draft. The Vipers dealt Frolov to Toronto where he played his first year in the farm. From DWSHL4 to DWSHL9 the Kingston Icedogs placed Frolov into their lineup and he impressed many within the prganization. Alexander Frolov would score .75 PPG a game during that tenure before having a falling out in Kingston. Frolov was bounced around and had an injury filled year in DWSHL10 and is on the open market for the DWSHL11 season.

The DWSHL6 draft saw Alexander Ovechkin selected first overall by the Toronto Rattlers. Now the Skyleafs, Toronto managed to continue their excellence while make side trades to acquire the first overall pick. Ovechkin was given fair icetime his rookie season, but was nearly cut in half the following season. In DWSHL8 saw the improbable decline of Toronto, and the rise of Ovechkin. After proving his talents, Ovechkin was inserted onto the top line and Toronto began winning once again and to this day as Ovechkin improves his team and linemates improve. The past two seasons combined have Alexander Ovechkin at over 1.25 PPG.

As the 5th and final round of the DWSHL4 draft was nearing a close, the Helsinki Nighthawks drafted a local Fin in Jussi Jokinen. Drafted 143rd overall out of 150, Jokinen would become the lowest player ever selected to have the most success to date. After being drafted Jokinen held out. The following season Jokinen saw himself playing in the farm for Helsinki, then holding out again the next two seasons. After a rough four years in the league, Jokinen never recieved an offer to play in DWSHL8. In DWSHL9 the Jacksonville Prowlers were quick to call. Jussi Jokinen was invited to training camp where he made the Prowlers roster. Jokinen impressed the league, playing in almost every game and scoring nearly a point a game while going on to win the rookie of the year award. Jokinen once again had to prove himself after being dealt to the struggling Antwerp Icebats. Jussi Jokinen improved slightly and waso ne of the few Icebats to show up consistantly all season.

During the DWSHL10 draft we saw a bit of stragety played by the Seoul Rams organization. After looking dumb for selecting a top 15 goalie for the second straight draft, the Rams shocked many and instantly brought out hte boo-birds. Apparently drafting JoePavelski was atop many teams lists, but with the 30th overall Seoul felt it was proper to take him instead of waiting around. While Pavelski was drafted at a 57 overall, his team could be reaping the rewards next season as many project he will crack the Rams lineup and be a potential second line player.

The DWSHL8 draft faded fast talent wise after the first round. Once the second round began, many teams were looking to build on depth and search for quality farm players. Then in the 3rd round, many cheers were heard from the Phantoms organization after they made their 68th overall pick. The team selected a player that they were high on, and were shocked he was available so late. The then unknown Petr Prucha was selected and made an immediate impact with Arizona. Prucha has impressed since and many project next season will be the year he cracks the pros in a big way.

Team-by-Team Breakdown of Draft Needs
by Alroy Smith

Attack   RW, LW. With only four wingers in the organization, the team must focus on the wings. Drafting a center in the later rounds would benefit the team as well.

IceDogs  C, RW, D, G. The team has only four players in its farm organization, and needs  help everywhere. The team would be wise to keep one of its lottery picks and perhaps trade the other for a bevy of picks to help fill out the farm’s roster.

Chevaliers C, RW. The team has one center on the farm, and with this draft’s deep talent at the center postion, the team should aim to stock its system with some promising centers.

Crunch C. The team has no draft picks in the draft, having traded the two they had left for LW Beniot Pouliot and C Evan McGrath as their way of filling their roster out. It would be wise however to acquire an early round pick and select a center, if any other teams are willing to bite.

Cannons RW, D, G. The team has 10 centers in the organization, so selecting one is very unlikely. The team needs to spend time scouting out some defensemen, and right wingers.  Drafting a goalie in the late rounds would be a good way of getting a lowpriced backup for the farm, as the future is in Bernier’s glove.

Bison LW, RW. Having just one winger in the farm system is never a good thing.

Riptide C, RW. None of the team’s young centers or right wingers (with the exception of M. Pouliot) are going anywhere. It needs to be addressed.

Prowlers  C, LW, D The team has two young stud centers on the pro team (Staal, Toews) but after that they have no one. Only one signed blueliner and left wing for the farm also spells need.

Phantoms LW, RW Hollweg, Hudler, Cliché are three reasons why the team must focus on the wings

Wolves C, RW, D Only Paul Ranger is projected to help the pro team anytime soon from the farm, and with no RWs, expect them to take one with their first pick.

Vikings C, D The team traded away the promising McGrath, creating a hole at center. The team has also stated that defense is important to them, and will work to improve it.

Kings C, LW, G The team has gone from a win it now mentality to a lets look out for our future strategy. And good thing, because this team has no Centers or LWs on the farm, and just traded away all-world goaltender Marty Turco. Expect the team to deal Hecht in an effort to pick up some early round picks.

Spartans C, LW, G Bryan Little is solid at center, but Vantuch is not. Niether LW has much promise to them, and the team only has one farm-eligible goaltender to work with.

Galaxy LW, RW, D, G  With only three (yes only three!) players to fill these four positions, the team will use the draft based on best remaining player other than center. Then the team will fill the organization out through FA and attempting to sign some of their unsigned prospects.

Battalion RW, D The team will probably focus more on forwards since the team always seems to be stacked with veteran defensemen.

IceBats C, RW The team is looking to rebuild, and is having a firesale.. but no one has been moved. Its anyone’s guess as to how they will draft.

Storm LW, G Without any LWs or goaltenders on the farm, their hand is forced to focus on them in this draft.

Brahmas C, LW, G None of the young prospects seem to shine in this organization. A scoring forward would bring some much needed rejuvenation to this club.

SkyLeafs C, RW Pickless, this team is more likely to go about signing players through FA.

Hornets C, G With four first round picks, this team will be scary in a few years.

Blizzard No immediate needs, this team should weed out the underperformers and replace them with the two players taken in this draft.

Rams C, LW, RW Pavelski is a star in the making, but the rest need to be replaced.

T-Rex C The team’s only real need is center. The club is way overstocked on the right side and may try to deal a few.

Blaze C, RW One center and one LW tell you their needs on the farm.

NightHawks RW GM Paxton has kept his team stocked and will benefit from the nice group of centers in this year’s draft.

Vipers LW, RW The team is banking on its big four on the wings (Havlat, Hossa, Elias, Kozlov) but have no one of much promise behind them.

Falcons C, LW The two positions in which the team has no promising youth.

Piranhas RW Expect the team to take a RW and then some blueliners since the new GM is a huge fan of big hits and low scoring affairs.

Racers LW, D, G Umbi will draft by taking the best player off the board, adding to his impressive collection of young stars.

Bandits C, LW, RW, D This team has more holes than a block of swiss cheese.

SaberCats C, LW, RW, D Another organization that is sinking.

Justice LW, RW GM Copeland should focus on the wings in this years draft.

New Position on Positions
by Antwerp GM

Looking Into Free Agency
by Mike Raspburg

The new CBA has arrived, and perhaps its most immediate impact can be seen on the rosters of teams throughout the DWSHL.  Sure cap numbers and contract policies are important, but the new provision on player positions has already turned many teams into lopsided messes.  Teams that once had powerful top lines are faced with figuring out what to do with their three best players all lined up in the same position.  The general consensus, at least from this writer’s perspective, is that the center position became very thin in the off-season as players were returned to natural spots.  This bodes well for the few teams that ended up 3 centers deep during the position changes.  Among those teams, the Racers have already announced they’ll be moving a center, the Blaze has three decent centers but only wants to part with York, and the Galaxy has the best crop of centers in the league, and it’s unclear what Hanover will do: move Lecavalier’s big contract or shop a Savard or Spezza.  Teams are frantically trying to balance out their teams, but compounding the problem is a new fiscally responsible environment.  Since a lot of these players make top dollar, it’s hard to find dance partners in the trading market.  Teams are going to have to engage in a few seasons of swapping bad salaries and/or accepting overall losses in trades to get things sorted out in terms of talent and money.  It’s possible the FA list will offer up some names at center, but given the demand for particular positions, it’s entirely likely that the typically ravenous GMs will drive up the price at certain positions.  The CBA change was intended to make players more comfortable, and so the uncomfortable position seems to be the GM’s seat.  The good news is the change will help to separate the top flight GMs from the rest, as the best will figure out how to make lemonade out of the sour soup that is many a DWSHL roster.

There has been much hype involving free agency entering the 11th season of the DWSHL. A great crop of free agents will hit the market, as teams all over the league, will be looking to address their concerns. This year is especially important for many of the new gm’s to make a “SMART” splash in the market, to help improve their club, and also bring more parity to the league. So we decided to dissect each team, and came out with a top 10 list, of teams that we think will make a big splash come free agent time.

1.	Attack – With the probable number 1 pick we have to like the direction the team is going, that being said there is plenty of young to mid age talent in the FA pool this year, so we would really like to see and expect the Attack to be big players in the market. Money is no concern for the Attack and if spent wisely they could acquire a number 1 forward, defenseman and goaltender, to surround their number 1 pick around in the upcoming years. So what’s the bottom line? The years of the Attack finishing in the cellar are about to end.

2.	Piranhas – A team that not to long ago was a competitive team took a different spin the past few years, as ownership has struggled to find a consistent, dedicated GM. Well now the pressure is squarely on the shoulders of Marvin Wheeler, with over 13 million dollars that must be spent, and with an additional 20 million to spend if he Mr. Wheeler wants? There’s no option, the Piranhas will be big spenders in Free agency, the question is how big? We hope the Piranhas don’t miss this opportunity and spends wisely and brings this team back to respectability. There is no excuse why this can’t happen.

3.	Vikings – Fans are really getting depressed and are losing patience with Gm Chan. Some of the loyal Viking fans were quoted “enough is enough” “why are we in life-time rebuilding stage” “we want a change”. It’s clear that Gm Chan is walking on thin ice. We at hockey central feel that Gm Chan is ready to make that much anticipated splash into free agency. The money is there, the cap room is there, and a great core of young guns, it’s now up to Chan to deliver a supporting cast around these kids, before they start aging. Look for Chan to open up the wallet this free agency.

4.	Wolves –This is a no brainier, and we would be very surprised if Gm Jones kept things status quo, with money to be burned, and a very flexible cap, expect the Wolves to be in the mix in a lot of signings. We think the Wolves will regain respectability that will earn them a playoff spot in the upcoming year.

5.	Storm – Many people believe the Calgary Storm grossly over-achieved last season, now with a new GM, the Storm will be looking to prove all the critics wrong. Gm Cameron Fruin is only a few players away from being a legit contender, and with about 9 million dollars to spend, I would expect the Storm to utilize this amount to acquire some additional depth, to help again prove the Storm are for real.

6.	Prowlers – What’s a free agency without the Prowlers being right in the mix of everything, the Prowlers again will be very active during free agency, mainly because they need to put a full squad together, not sure if they will be gunning after any big names, nevertheless expect at least 6-8 signing out of the Prowlers.

7.	Cannons – Another new Gm will be able to make their mark come FA period. It’s been rumored that Gm Matt Raspburg will try to create an immediate balance up and down the roster, with a blend of youth and veterans. The finances are low but we will not count on the Cannons from being active during free agency, now with Marty Brodeur between the pipes, the Cannon fans have every reason to be excited for the upcoming season.

8.	Bandits – It can’t get worse for the Boston Bandits, well I guess it could if Gm MacKinnon does nothing, but our insiders are telling us that the Bandits will be better, and will be an active party in the FA period. The Bandits will have to watch their finances closely, as there are treading awfully close to the red line.

9.	Vipers – It will be to no surprise that the New York Vipers will again be very active in this FA period, Gm Fiore is a veteran and knows what his teams needs are, we expect the Vipers to fulfill those needs and some, and be back competing with the top dogs again. The Vipers will be going heavily after a defenseman.

10.	T-Rex – After some cuts, the Winnipeg T-Rex will have some cash to spend, rumors are out of Winnipeg is that there are more cuts to follow, which will allow the T-Rex some flexibility to spend, we know they will be looking for help down the middle, we just don’t know of what kind of magnitude, regardless we have them picked for several signings.