Prospect update: The Macs
Published 9:27 am Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Macs Midget Tournament, the most-prestigious midget tournament in the region, is quickly approaching, and Alan Caldwell has provided his annual rundown of WHL prospects on teams that are taking part. Everett has eight prospects in the tournament this year. They are, along with their position, birth year, team and current stats:
Austin Adam, D, 95, Valley West Hawks — 24 games, 2-6-8, 4 PIM
Kohl Bauml, C, 94, Saskatoon Contacts — 23 games, 17-16-33, 18 PIM
Brett Boehm, C, 94, Beardy’s Blackhawks — 29 games, 10-9-19, 20 PIM
Darian Henry, D, 94, UFA Bisons — 21 games, 2-11-13, 66 PIM
Trent Lofthouse, LW, 94, Valley West Hawks — 21 games, 2-3-5, 14 PIM
Ryan McDonald, RW, 94, Winnipeg Wild — 27 games, 8-3-11, 6 PIM
Carson Samoridny, RW, 94, St. Albert Raiders — 22 games, 14-12-26, 4 PIM
Carson Stadnyk, C, 95, Saskatoon Contacts — 23 games, 3-4-7, 4 PIM
Bauml and Henry have already signed education contracts with the Tips.
Every year I keep tabs of how Everett’s players perform at the Macs. However, what’s always more interesting to me is Caldwell’s list, because he has access to the league’s protected lists that I do not, and inevitably he reveals a new Everett prospect or two who were listed during the first half of the season. This year the new names are Samoridny and Lofthouse.
Samoridny is actually a familiar name. He was a training camp invitee two years ago and he impressed, being a tall guy (now 6-foot-3) who showed an ability to score goals. If someone had told me after that camp that Samoridny had been added to Everett’s list, I wouldn’t have been surprised. He wasn’t, he wasn’t on Everett’s prospects list provided by Caldwell during the offseason, and he wasn’t at this year’s training camp. But apparently the Tips were monitoring him. Based on having seen him two years ago, and based on his being the second-leading scorer on a quality St. Albert team, he has to be considered a legitimate prospect, provided he’s still interested in playing in the WHL.
As for Lofthouse, I know a lot less about him. He, too, is a big fellow (6-foot-3) who’s playing on a good team. However, he has yet to produce offensively the way Samoridny has. I doubt either of the two is an overwhelming physical force, given the lack of penalty minutes.
The additions of Samoridny and Lofthouse continue a trend. Everett drafted a bunch of good-sized forwards in the past bantam draft (Geordie Maguire, Michael Bell, Kyle Messervey), and since then the Tips have listed several more big forwards (Samoridny, Lofthouse, Nick Landry). It seems the edict is out to get bigger up front.
