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The "Trade" Opinions · Friday November 9, 2007

Here is some of the around the league opinions of the multi-player trade with Lethbridge and Moose Jaw.

Prince George Herald:

“The long-suffering Hawks, mired in last place in the WHL standings at 3-15-0-0, will be the third WHL team for Kerr, who was taken first overall in the 2004 bantam draft by the Prince George Cougars, a selection that is all but certain to go down as the biggest mistake of Dallas Thompson’s career. Kerr, Sceviour, Bobbee and Ehrhardt are all former first-round choices.”

Moose Jaw Times:

“In Frazer McLaren, we’re getting a true leader. We’re getting a five -year veteran guy,” said Hunchak. “We’re getting a big strong power forward that’s going to create room for himself and guys like (Riley) Holzapfel, (Jason) Bast, (Tomas) Karpov, etc., and he can score. It’s not often guys get drafted at 19 years old.” McLaren has been one of the noted tough guys out in Portland for most of his lengthy WHL career. He was selected in the seventh round of the 2007 NHL entry draft by San Jose. Ariss has 30 penalty minutes in 10 games this season. With all the trades, Hunchak thinks this will get the Warriors closer to the identity they want to have — a tougher team to play against. “We want to be a physical team,” Hunchak said. “We want to be a team that competes hard every night, and if you get something against the Moose Jaw Warriors, you’re going to have to earn it.” The trigger for the deal, Hunchak said, was the Warriors’ overtime loss in Vancouver Oct. 26.

Alan Caldwell:

“For Portland, getting Bobbee and Ehrhardt is probably going to improve their ability to move the puck out of their zone – a real problem for them so far this year, which p-b-p guy Andy Kemper touched on in his blog earlier this morning, before the trades. Kerr will provide some decent defensive play and a little toughness to help replace what they lose with McLaren’s departure. Kerr is probably not more than a middleweight but it’s something anyway. So, their back end is probably better for these moves. The problem for them (IMO anyway) is that up front they have just moved out three of their top six scorers from an offence which didn’t have much punch to begin with – and haven’t really gotten back much scoring help to replace them. Voytechek will score some points but Grecica and the two Dietrichs probably aren’t going to provide much pop.

Frazer’s Phrases:

“Wow, Portland’s cleaning house (I guess) today. And Moose Jaw, on paper, looks like they are a much better team than they were yesterday.”

— S. Blanchard

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Hawks Make Multi-Player Trade · Thursday November 8, 2007

Hawk management made a serious move today to right the ship and plug the back line play with a multi-player trade.

The Hawks sent Colton Sceviour, Nick Hotson, and Lucas Alexiuk to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for defensemen Ryan Kerr and Travis Bobbee; and Forwards Jacob and Nick Dietrich.

The Hawks also sent Frazer McLaren, Ty Ariss and a fifth round draft pick in 2008 to the Moose Jaw Warriors for Travis Ehrhardt and Forwards Keith Voytechek and Jason Grecica.

Totals

All total, the Hawks pick up three defensemen (Ryan Kerr, Travis Bobbee, and Travis Ehrhardt) and give up two (Lucas Alexiuk and Ty Ariss).

The Hawks pick up 4 forwards (Jacob Dietrich, Nick Dietrich, Keith Voytechek and Jason Grecica) and give up 3 forwards (Colton Sceviour, Nick Hotson, and Frazer McLaren.

More on this later.

— S. Blanchard

NHL 100 (US Division) · Monday June 25, 2007

Kudos to the WHL. This year they placed 19 of the top 100 in the NHL entry level draft, better than the 13 in 2006, and 18 in 2005. In that three year span Portland placed 2 (Michael Sauer, Brendan Mikkelson), Everett 5, Seattle 3, Spokane 2, Tri-City 1, and the Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants 8.

The WHL as a whole is amazingly accurate in its assessment of hockey talent evaluating players at the age of 14-15 years old. 8 of the top ten 2004 bantam picks are in the top 125 picks of the 2007 NHL entry draft. The top talent does rise to the front even at a young age.

Vancouver not only can turn top draft picks on the scouting lists into productive players, but can find NHL talent not on other team’s radar (i.e. Jonathon Blum, 134th as a bantam pick, Michal Repik, 21st in the Import draft, Spencer Machacek not selected in the draft, and their highest draft pick (14th), low in the top 100 (91st), Tyson Sexsmith).

The top teams know how to evaluate and develop talent. New Hawk’s management has an up hill climb to recover from a poor 2003 bantam draft and have not yet been able to develop any gems from the lower rounds.

For Portland to become an elite team again, it will have to come from the Bantam drafts starting with the class of 2005 (Thomas Frazee, Ty Ariss, Colin Reddin), 2006 (Riley Boychuk, Brett Ponich, Cole Grbavac), 2007 (Bradley Ross, Kyzen Loo, Joe Morrow) and with all Championship teams a few guys that nobody knew existed at draft time. Guys that developed later in life and are determined to make their hockey dreams come true. Time will tell if this group of picks will step out and show that they are worthy of the next generaion of NHL 100.

WHL Players in the Top 100

— S. Blanchard

US Divisional News · Friday January 18, 2008

— S. Blanchard

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