My 5 cent Kelowna Rockets defence scouting overview
I think there are an amazing
8 guys who have a good shot of turning pro on talent. Toughest part will be finding minutes for all the young guys so they get showcased enough. It's not a mature group yet, but collectively they are the most promising group of blueliners I've ever seen here. As always with player development you never 100% know but I think they'll be pretty good.
The two real blue chippers among the 17 year olds on the blueline are Bowey and Jesse Lees - Jesse was drafted in the first round the year they took Bowey and looked as good a player to me last year as a 16 year old before he missed a huge chunk of time with injury. He's from Calgary and is an offensive puck moving d-man.
The other 95 who looks pretty darned good is Mitch Wheaton who they just convinced not to go NCAA:
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/jrh...010501987.html
Then you've got last year's NHL 2nd rounder Severson - probably not as good offensively as Lees or Bowey but more of an allrounder.
Two real promising 16 year olds for this year who look like they might be sticking around are Stewart Coyle who went undrafted and really bloomed late:
http://dubnation-news.blogspot.ca/20...blue-line.html
and Riley Stadel (3rd rounder last year), another guy who is a great skater and passer who looked really good last year when he got called up as a 15 year old.
Rounding out the group, Myles Bell - would certainly have been at least a 3rd rounder and NHL prospect if not for what happened, because of the circumstances I think he makes the Rockets group even more promising at the WHL level as he could be, on talent, the best 20 year old we've ever managed to keep if he stays next year. He's not as quick as Stadel, Coyle, Bowey or Lees but he's got as good a shot on the powerplay as I've seen in the dub.
Cole Martin who the Dallas Stars have had at development camp is the other 18 year old (besides Severson), probably the least talented guy naturally (which isn't saying much) and probably the most hard working, story about him in Dallas camp:
http://stars.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=637739
Then there are about 3 more decent 18 year olds who I won't go into who all played full time minutes last year - won't go to the NHL but will be moved if they go with two 16 year olds as they are good enough to be in another team's top 6 at least. The depth and talent is just ridiculous. If only the forward corps looked as good.