A look at Everett’s prospects (with a big assist to Alan Caldwell)

Published 12:34 am Thursday, June 10, 2010

The ever informative Alan Caldwell has begun his annual offseason prospects review, and first up are Everett’s prospects.

Each year Caldwell lists off every prospect on each WHL team’s 50-player protected list, along with their vital statistics and their playing stats from the previous season. This is all handy information to have compiled in one list (and must be an absolute pain to track down).

But what makes these lists particularly interesting is that Caldwell always has updated protected lists, which most teams don’t make public, including Everett. Therefore, every summer when these lists come out there’s some unfamiliar names that have been added, and some familiar names that have been dropped.

So what’s interesting about Everett’s list this year? Honestly, not much. Let’s begin with the names that are new to me (along with position and 2010-11 age):

Mark Alt, D, 19

Brett Boehm, C, 16

Matthew Hansen, C, 17

Christian Isackson, RW, 18

Miles Koules, RW, 16

Ryan McDonald, RW, 16

Shawn Pauly, C, 18

These are all players who were listed by Everett in the past year who I didn’t previously know about. Just about all of these guys appear to be NCAA bound players who the Tips are hoping to get lucky with. The two exceptions are Boehm, who attended last year’s training camp, and McDonald. Both played midget AA last season as 15-year-olds rather than midget AAA, so they’re probably projects. I suppose there’s some hope with Koules, too, since his dad played in the WHL. However, if you’re attending Shattuck St. Mary’s the chances you’re headed to the WHL are pretty much nil.

Most of the NCAA or NCAA-bound players who were on Everett’s list at this time last year (Josh Birkholz, Nick Bjugstad, Derek Forbort, Max Nicastro, Jordan Schroeder) are still on it this year. Bjugstad and Forbort are both rated as first-round picks in this year’s NHL draft, so I suppose the Tips have a glimmer of hope of landing them if they’re picked by the right team. However, I haven’t heard a peep regarding the possibility they might play in Everett, which pretty much means they’re not coming. Brett Mulcahy, who’s been non-committal about his future, is still on the list, too. As far as I can tell Mulcahy hasn’t said anything publicly yet about where he’ll play next season, but considering he’s never attended a training camp with the Tips I figure Everett’s a longshot. Interesting to see Trevor Bauer still on Everett’s list.

There are a couple names that I knew about and have discussed briefly in the past, but might be unfamiliar to some fans. Those would be 1993-born right wing Taylor Cote and 1992-born center Cody Fowlie, who were also listed during the course of last season. Both are late birthdates and both are considered legitimate candidates to make the team next season.

Now for the names who have apparently dropped off Everett’s list over the past year (with position and 2010-11 age):

James Barr, G, 17

Michael Berry, D, 17

Mitch Boucher, D, 18

Ryan Cadieux, G, 17

Kole Harvey, F, 17

Brendan Jost, F, 16

Keenan Martens, D, 17

Dylan Smith, F, 18

Mark Valtr, G, 16

Jeremy Ward, F, 17

Justin Waskewitch, F, 18

I can’t say any of these are a surprise. There was never a strong indication any of these players were a part of Everett’s future plans.