Bantam draft wrap-up
Published 3:59 pm Thursday, May 1, 2008
So the bantam draft is over and the dust has settled. The Tips ended up drafting six forwards, four defensemen and one goaltender. That included four players from Manitoba, three from Alberta, two from Saskatchewan, one from British Columbia and one from Alaska, so just about everyone has a long drive/flight for rookie camp in August.
I’ve talked to general manager Doug Soetaert, director of player development Scott Scoville and first-round pick Ryan Murray, so here’s a wrap of how things unfolded for the Tips today:
– Murray is described as the type of offensive defenseman the Tips have never had in franchise history, and he’s also described as a high-character guy. It was difficult for me to read any of that from the constantly-breaking-up phone conversation I had with him (he was on a bus). But he did say he was committed to the WHL, so no worries there.
– If the draft had played out exactly to Everett’s designs the Tips wouldn’t have gotten Murray. Everett tried to trade up to land one of the draft’s top centermen, but was unsuccessful. However, everyone seemed happy with Murray as a consolation prize.
– The Tips did indeed surrender a third-round pick to move up and get Tyler Giebel (pronounced GUY-bull). Everett had a spare third rounder in 2009 thanks to the Ondrej Fiala trade, and the Tips wanted to make sure they came away with a skilled center after their first-round machinations didn’t work out.
– Scoville was particularly pleased with getting fourth rounder Michael Berry. Berry was described as a rock-solid defenseman with a cannon for a shot, and Soetaert seemed pleased with the idea of Murray and Berry manning the points on the power play together in the future.
– The Tips finally took an American in the 12th round with the selection of Alaskan right wing Austin Wuthrich. He was described as having third- or fourth-round ability, but there will have to be some recruiting involved to get him to Everett.
– In order to make room for their final pick the Tips had to drop a player off their protected list, so left wing Tyler Eskesen was released.
– Everett made one other trade. The Tips sent their first-round pick in this year’s European draft to Regina for the Pats’ first-round pick in the 2009 European draft. What this means is that Russian center Vitaly Karamnov and Slovakian left wing Lukas Vartovnik, both of whom will be 19-year-olds, will return to the Tips next season.
