WHL Drafting and some Theo Comments

Hi everyone,

Just enjoying a couple weeks working in downtown Saskatoon before my project starts up in Calgary at the end of the month. It's strange, I've lived in Saskatoon for 13 years and have not worked downtown since 1999. It's nice going out for a walk at lunchtime, taking the bus to work, and being a block from my gym for a quick lunchtime workout. Saskatoon does not have a great downtown core concentration, and this needs to improve as our city grows.

I'm sure many a hockey fan had their suspicions confirmed when Theo Fleury revealed he was molested by ex-coach Graham James. Out of this, the topic of how to better protect teenage hockey players is being revisited. What popped to my head immediately is some of the hardship that young hockey players go through in being seperated from their families at the age of 16 or younger to go to a strange city to play hockey. Because of this, the primary adult in a lot of these kids' lives is their hockey coach.

Compounding the issue is that the kids are often playing hockey a considerable distance from their families, especially in the Western Hockey League. The Southern/Western most team, the Portland WinterHawks, are 2,200km from the Eastern most team; the Brandon Wheat Kings. Granted, these teams only travel to play each other every other season, but it does display the reach of a junior hockey league. Contrast this to the Ontario Hockey League where the most remote team, the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds is less than 1000km away from its farthest competition the Erie Otters. Even the distance between Rouyn Noranda QC to Charlottetown in the QMJHL is less than Brandon to Portland.

Granted, the teams that are far apart don't play against each other very often. However, when Bantam kids are drafted nothing stops Portland from taking a kid from Brandon and vice versa. Therein lies part of the problem. I am sure it has been explored before but one must think that having a kid playing reasonably close to home has got to be easier on both the kid and his family. Also having the child's support system within a days drive away could help in ensuring that an abusive coach doesn't become the primary adult in his life.

Currently in the WHL, there is 1 team in Manitoba, 5 in Saskatchewan, 5 in Alberta, 6 in British Columbia, and 5 in the Western United States. The WHL could establish some kind of regional drafting system that would allow the kids to be closer to home, while still maintaining fairness in the league. In the 2009 WHL draft, the number of kids drafted in the first 5 rounds were as such:

Manitoba: 17
Saskatchewan: 22
Alberta: 37
B.C.: 29
United States: 5

One suggestion would be to only allow teams to draft from an adjacent province. For teams in Saskatchewan that would mean they could only draft from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. For British Columbia, they could draft from B.C. and Alberta. For the U.S. teams, they would have exclusive rights to U.S. born players in the Western U.S. (as the OHL and QMJHL draft out of the Eastern States) and B.C. players. Of course, a kid from Medicine Hat could still end up playing in Vancouver or Prince George, but the situation where the kid from Saskatoon ends up playing in Portland or Seattle is eliminated. What this would also do is ensure that kids are often playing in a division close to home. For example, let's say a kid from Rosetown is playing in Prince Albert. Parents can easily come watch road games in Saskatoon and Swift Current, and home games in Prince Albert and spend time with their kids more often. That is not really feasible if that kid from Rosetown ends up in Kelowna. For example, in this year's draft the Portland WinterHawks had the first pick and selected a kid from Weyburn SK. Moose Jaw had the second pick and selected a kid from Vancouver. The kid from Weyburn will be almost 2000km from home, and the kid from Vancouver will be 1700 km from home. If the above rules applied, the Weyburn kid would be 150km from home, and the Vancouver kid would be 500km from home without affecting the competitiveness and fairness of the league.

Teams should also be able to "reserve" 1 or 2 hometown talents every draft if they choose. This is not only good for the kids but it is good for business. If two years ago, the Saskatoon Blades were able to have both Luke and Braydon Schenn dress for them, fan support may have increased to see these local products suit up for the home team. Same can be said for Ryan Getzlaf playing for the Pats instead of the Hitmen or Patrick Marleau playing for the Swift Current Broncos instead of Seattle.

Well, that's all today. It will also be the last hockey related blog for a while. 3 in a row is enough, and there is sufficient hockey discussion in cyberspace as it is.

Cheers.