WHL and the National Hockey League Entry Draft

Ok, so first things first, I need to welcome everybody to my new blog. Here i will be featuring alot of number crunching and giving people some information that they might not have known regarding the numbers part of this great game we all like to call Hockey.

The NHL Draft was conducted recently, on June 22nd and 23rd to be exact, and although it wasn't the best talent pool this year, it still had a few interesting story lines to follow. First and foremost, the biggest surprise In my opinion, and there are a few large ones, was Thomas Hickey of the Seattle Thunderbirds going #4 overall to Los Angeles. People had him later 1st to early 2nd round, however, LA took a chance and will go with the man from Seattle. The other shocker would be how much Cheraponov droped in the draft. One has to think if perhaps he wasn't in that good of shape during the physical tests, perhaps he did not have the answers that the GM's were looking for during the interviews, who knows, but to see him dropa s far as he did was a big surprise to me.

Anyways, lets leave the reporting for the newspapers and radio's shall we, and get on to some Number Crunching.

This year, the WHL had 37 players selected overall being lead by Seattle's own Thomas Hickey, followed by the next pick by Karl Alzner of Calgary, that surpasses last years total of 24 total WHLers taken, which was led by of course, Everett's own Peter Meuller. How many First round picks have come from the WHL you may ask? The answer is, and this is from 2000 to current, is 48 players. THe best year for the WHL and the first roudn was this year with a whopping 9 players chosen. Here is a break down of year and players drafted;

2000
Scott Hartnell, Brent Krahn, Marcel Hossa, Nathan Smith, Brian Sutherby

2001
Dan Blackburn, Dan Hamhuis, Shaone Morrison, Colby Armstrong, Jeff WOywitka, Adrian Foster

2002
Jay Bouwmeester, Scottie Upshall, Joffery Lupul, Jakub Klepis, Boyd Gordon, Cam Ward

2003
Braydon Coburn, Dion Phaneuf, Brent Seabrook, Eric Fehr, Ryan Getzlaf, Shawn Belle

2004
Cam Barker, Andrew Ladd, Devan Dubnyk, Kyle Chipchura, Jeff Schultz, Mark Fistric, Mike Green, Andy Rogers

2005
Carey Price, Gilbert Brule, Devin Setoguchi, Kendal McArdle

2006
Peter Meuller, Michael Grabner, Ty Wishart, Leland Irving

2007
Thomas Hickey, Karl Alzner, Zach Hamill, Keaton Ellerby, Brandon Sutter, Alex Plante, Colton Gillies, Jonathon Blum, Nick Ross

Now that is alot of Players chosen in the first round out of this league. Now to answer your question of which team has produced the most First Round Picks, the answer is the Calgary Hitmen with 7 in the last 7 years. Brent Krahn in 2000, Ryan Getzlaf in 2003, Andrew Ladd, Jeff Schultz, Andy Rogers in 2004, and Karl Alzner and Alex Plante in 2007, they are trailed closely by the Red Deer Rebels with 6 including the likes of Jeff Woywitka and Dion Phaneuf.

Another interesting tidbit to look at is that a good portion of these first rounders also were a part of the Team Canada World Junior Squad at one point of their career.

Thats about all i have time for right at this moment. Look forward to the next installment whenever it may be.

Keep your pen in your Pocket and your Notebook at your side.