This year’s NHL draft is best described as a mystery as far as the Everett Silvertips are concerned.

For most of Everett’s players it’s not so much a question of, “When?” but of, “If?”

The 2009 draft takes place today and Saturday in Montreal, and the majority of the draft-eligible Silvertips find themselves in limbo, wondering whether they’ll hear their name called at all.

“I’m going into it with an open mind,” said Everett right wing Kellan Tochkin, one of the players who’s on the bubble. “If I get drafted, great. If not, great.”

The first round takes place tonight, with the remaining six rounds completed Saturday.

And unlike the past three years, the big question surrounding Everett’s players isn’t when or by whom they’ll be picked, it’s whether they’ll be picked at all.

The past three years there was a degree of certainty about which Tips would be selected. High-profile players like Peter Mueller, Leland Irving, Zach Hamill and Kyle Beach were first-round locks. Even those who didn’t go in the first round knew they’d be picked. Only one of the eight Tips drafted the previous three years went later than the third round. Dan Gendur was taken in the seventh round in 2007, and his selection was a bit of a surprise considering it was two years after he was first draft eligible.

The circumstances are reversed this year. Everett has one player, center Byron Froese, who is certain to be drafted. But the Tips have as many as five others — right wings Kellan Tochkin, Cameron Abney and Shane Harper, left wing Tyler Maxwell and goaltender Thomas Heemskerk — who have a chance of being selected. However, none of those five is a lock.

“It’s going to be an exciting time for a number of them,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “We have a few guys who are available to be drafted. Time will tell whether they do or not. We know Froese will get drafted. We think there’s enough interest in Abney, and we’re hoping for guys like Tochkin and Maxie and all the guys who are available. We’ll wait and see.”

For Froese, the draft represents a meteoric rise in the hockey prospect world. A year ago the 18-year-old product of Winkler, Manitoba, was an anonymous midget player who wasn’t even considered a top Everett prospect, let alone a potential future NHL player. But a surprising rookie season in which he accumulated 19 goals and 38 assists in 72 games, followed by a strong showing for Canada at the U-18 World Championships, saw Froese’s stock spike. He’s now projected to go anywhere between the second and fourth rounds.

“I’m pretty excited, obviously,” said Froese, who is attending the draft in Montreal. “But at the same time I’m really relaxed, as relaxed as I can get. I’m not nervous about anything because I never thought I’d get to this point. It’s all a bonus from here.”

For the rest it’s a waiting game. Each of Everett’s other draft contenders carries a major question mark. Tochkin and Maxwell both had productive seasons as 17-year-old rookies, but there are questions whether they have the physical tools to succeed at the professional level. Abney didn’t have the same kind of production, but his size and fighting ability makes him intriguing. Harper and Heemskerk had the best seasons of their careers, but both have been passed over in the draft before and only a handful of overage players are selected each year.

So that means a little white-knuckling for the Tips this weekend.

“It’s going to be exciting. On Saturday I’ll definitely be thinking about it,” Tochkin said.

“It’s something that’s really nerve-wracking for a lot of guys, but for someone like me who’s kind of on the outside looking in, it’s a good experience,” added Tochkin, who’s planning other activities this weekend to try and keep his mind off the draft. “You learn to deal with disappointment if you don’t get drafted, or you learn to take the excitement of getting drafted without getting too cocky about it.”

Any Everett players selected will still likely play for the Tips next season. NHL teams have two years to sign their draft picks from major-junior leagues, and only the elite players jump straight from the draft to the NHL.

Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog