Published: Friday, April 30, 2010
Silvertips trade down, still get their top choice
Everett lands the center it wanted and gets two additional picks; Mill Creek teen drafted by Seattle
With a shortage of picks in Thursday’s 2010 WHL bantam draft, the Everett Silvertips decided to take a chance.
Little did they know just how well it would play out.
Everett traded itself out of the first round to help fill its draft gap, then wound up with the player it would have taken anyway, landing center Ryan Chynoweth with its first selection.
“I was really pleased with getting Chynoweth and picking up a pick that turned into a good player, also,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said via cell phone from Edmonton, Alberta, where the draft took place.
Everett faced a quandary heading into the draft, which disperses the top 1995-born players from western Canada and the western United States among the WHL’s 22 franchises. The Tips considered this a deep draft, but previous trades left them with just five picks in the first eight rounds and had them poorly positioned to take advantage of the draft’s depth.
To help rectify the problem Everett traded its first rounder, the 18th pick overall, to Edmonton in exchange for Edmonton’s second rounder (24th overall) and the Oil Kings’ fourth rounder. That made it the first time in the franchise’s eight bantam drafts the Tips didn’t pick in the first round.
Had the Tips kept their first rounder they would have taken Chynoweth. So, they were thrilled when Chynoweth was still available six picks later.
“At the time we made the decision we felt we would still get a player we wanted (at No. 24),” Soetaert explained. “We had five guys left on our list and figured we would get one of them. The one we got just happened to be the highest on the list.”
The Tips also addressed their lack of picks later in the draft by acquiring the back end of Kootenay’s draft. Everett sent the Ice a seventh rounder in 2011 in exchange for what turned out to be four picks, taking players with Kootenay’s eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th rounders.
In total, Everett drafted 12 players — six forwards, four defensemen and two goaltenders. These players aren’t eligible to join the Tips full-time until the 2011-12 season.
There also was a local player selected. Forward Brad LeLievre, who’s listed as being from Mill Creek and played for the Northwest Admirals out of the Seattle Junior program, was taken in the seventh round by the Seattle Thunderbirds. LeLievre is believed to be the first Snohomish County player taken in the bantam draft.
In Chynoweth, the Tips got a member of one of the league’s legendary families. Chynoweth’s grandfather, Ed, is a former WHL commissioner whose name adorns the league championship trophy. His father, Jeff, is Kootenay’s general manager.
Chynoweth is a hard-nosed two-way center. The 6-foot, 150-pound resident of Lethbridge, Alberta, had 21 goals, 39 assists and 78 penalty minutes in 32 games for the Lethbridge Golden Hawks this season.
“He’s grown up around the game,” Everett director of player development Scott Scoville said. “He’s lived and breathed it his entire life, and he knows what it takes at this level. He’s a big, strong kid who is a passionate player. He plays the game the way it should be, he plays for his teammates and not for himself.”
Those characteristics were a common thread among Everett’s picks as the Tips targeted hard-working players who make themselves difficult to play against.
The Tips found defensemen who fit that description with their second and third selections. Everett took Tye Hand with its own second-round pick, then selected Austin Adam with the fourth rounder acquired from Edmonton. Both are rangy, physical, stay-at-home types who are also capable of moving the puck.
Hand, who resides in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, but played for a team based out of Kelowna, B.C., is Everett’s first-ever player from the Northwest Territories.
“When you have to play against 6-foot-3 guys every night and try to go to the net, it’s very uncomfortable for the opposing forwards,” Scoville said. “We don’t want to be just a regular season team, we want to do well in the playoffs. Hand and Adam are the type of players you do that with.”
The Tips followed by taking a pair of hard-working power forwards, selecting Geordie Maguire in the fifth round and Michael Bell in the seventh round. Scoville said he was very happy both were available when Everett picked.
Everett didn’t target goaltending in the draft, but the Tips believe they got a steal in seventh rounder Austin Lotz. Lotz, who was the 21st goaltender taken, was ranked by the Tips as the second-best goalie available. Lotz, who comes from rural Manitoba, may have slipped under the radar.
The Tips went for broke late in the draft, picking a pair of highly-skilled forwards who come with question marks. Eighth rounder Carson Stadnyk had an up-and-down season as he adjusted to growing three inches, and 10th rounder Cody Depourcq put up huge numbers but is of small stature.
Everett cornered the market of 1995-born offspring of WHL general managers. In addition to Chynoweth, Everett also selected Regina general manager Brent Parker’s son, goaltender Casey Parker, in the 10th round.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
Little did they know just how well it would play out.
Everett traded itself out of the first round to help fill its draft gap, then wound up with the player it would have taken anyway, landing center Ryan Chynoweth with its first selection.
“I was really pleased with getting Chynoweth and picking up a pick that turned into a good player, also,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said via cell phone from Edmonton, Alberta, where the draft took place.
Everett faced a quandary heading into the draft, which disperses the top 1995-born players from western Canada and the western United States among the WHL’s 22 franchises. The Tips considered this a deep draft, but previous trades left them with just five picks in the first eight rounds and had them poorly positioned to take advantage of the draft’s depth.
To help rectify the problem Everett traded its first rounder, the 18th pick overall, to Edmonton in exchange for Edmonton’s second rounder (24th overall) and the Oil Kings’ fourth rounder. That made it the first time in the franchise’s eight bantam drafts the Tips didn’t pick in the first round.
Had the Tips kept their first rounder they would have taken Chynoweth. So, they were thrilled when Chynoweth was still available six picks later.
“At the time we made the decision we felt we would still get a player we wanted (at No. 24),” Soetaert explained. “We had five guys left on our list and figured we would get one of them. The one we got just happened to be the highest on the list.”
The Tips also addressed their lack of picks later in the draft by acquiring the back end of Kootenay’s draft. Everett sent the Ice a seventh rounder in 2011 in exchange for what turned out to be four picks, taking players with Kootenay’s eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th rounders.
In total, Everett drafted 12 players — six forwards, four defensemen and two goaltenders. These players aren’t eligible to join the Tips full-time until the 2011-12 season.
There also was a local player selected. Forward Brad LeLievre, who’s listed as being from Mill Creek and played for the Northwest Admirals out of the Seattle Junior program, was taken in the seventh round by the Seattle Thunderbirds. LeLievre is believed to be the first Snohomish County player taken in the bantam draft.
In Chynoweth, the Tips got a member of one of the league’s legendary families. Chynoweth’s grandfather, Ed, is a former WHL commissioner whose name adorns the league championship trophy. His father, Jeff, is Kootenay’s general manager.
Chynoweth is a hard-nosed two-way center. The 6-foot, 150-pound resident of Lethbridge, Alberta, had 21 goals, 39 assists and 78 penalty minutes in 32 games for the Lethbridge Golden Hawks this season.
“He’s grown up around the game,” Everett director of player development Scott Scoville said. “He’s lived and breathed it his entire life, and he knows what it takes at this level. He’s a big, strong kid who is a passionate player. He plays the game the way it should be, he plays for his teammates and not for himself.”
Those characteristics were a common thread among Everett’s picks as the Tips targeted hard-working players who make themselves difficult to play against.
The Tips found defensemen who fit that description with their second and third selections. Everett took Tye Hand with its own second-round pick, then selected Austin Adam with the fourth rounder acquired from Edmonton. Both are rangy, physical, stay-at-home types who are also capable of moving the puck.
Hand, who resides in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, but played for a team based out of Kelowna, B.C., is Everett’s first-ever player from the Northwest Territories.
“When you have to play against 6-foot-3 guys every night and try to go to the net, it’s very uncomfortable for the opposing forwards,” Scoville said. “We don’t want to be just a regular season team, we want to do well in the playoffs. Hand and Adam are the type of players you do that with.”
The Tips followed by taking a pair of hard-working power forwards, selecting Geordie Maguire in the fifth round and Michael Bell in the seventh round. Scoville said he was very happy both were available when Everett picked.
Everett didn’t target goaltending in the draft, but the Tips believe they got a steal in seventh rounder Austin Lotz. Lotz, who was the 21st goaltender taken, was ranked by the Tips as the second-best goalie available. Lotz, who comes from rural Manitoba, may have slipped under the radar.
The Tips went for broke late in the draft, picking a pair of highly-skilled forwards who come with question marks. Eighth rounder Carson Stadnyk had an up-and-down season as he adjusted to growing three inches, and 10th rounder Cody Depourcq put up huge numbers but is of small stature.
Everett cornered the market of 1995-born offspring of WHL general managers. In addition to Chynoweth, Everett also selected Regina general manager Brent Parker’s son, goaltender Casey Parker, in the 10th round.
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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