Thursday, February 8, 2007

Frey feeling heat as WHL draft approaches

It’s a luxury Lorne Frey hasn’t had since 2004.

The Kelowna Rockets Director of Player Personnel will have an opportunity this spring of picking a player in the top 6 at the upcoming Western Hockey League bantam draft.

Not since Frey selected Josh Lepp with the 4th pick overall in 2004, have the Rockets been anywhere close to picking that early in the draft.

The reason?

Winning!

When you win as much as the Rockets have over the last five years, Frey has been forced to picked near or at the end of each round at the draft, yet has been able to pick up some pretty good players along the way despite being handcuffed by the teams successes over the last couple of years.

In 2003 and again in 2004, Frey picked dead last in every round of the draft, and had the modest luxury of selecting 19th overall in 2005 and an improved 18th overall in 2006.

That’s four consecutive drafts of picking at the back of the pack, with not even a top 15 selection in sight.

Yet, Frey has successfully acquired, Luke Schenn, Tyler Myers and Tysen Barrie with those late picks. All three are defenseman, an area Frey believed needed to be overhauled once the team graduated players like Card, Cumiskey, Weber and Gorges. Frey knew the s**t would eventually hit the fan with that area of the hockey club, so took proactive measures at the draft table.

Some will say he is a year too late - that the hockey club is showing signs of weakness on the back end right now. While they may be right to a point, Frey believed by selecting Kevin Reinholt with the 10th selection in 2002, that the Rockets would be ok now. We all know that Reinholt didn’t pan out as planned, which shows that even one slip in the first round at the draft can have devastating results down the road.

We are seeing that first hand this season.

Why is there so much pressure on making a good pick in the first round of the draft?

Not only are franchise players found there, but it’s where the high end talent resides. Throw in the fact of an ever increasing depletion of the talent pool across Western Canada and the competition for players at an all time high, making a mistake in round one with a bad pick can result in dire consequences.

Oh sure you will find a diamond in the rough in the later rounds, but those success stories are few and far between. Frankly more success stories have bee shared of players overlooked at the draft all together. Look at Josh Gorges, Shea Weber and Dan Hamhuis as examples.

Over the years Lorne Frey has had more hits than misses over his time with the Rockets, and scouting defenseman appear to be his fortay.

His best pick?

How about Scott Hannan at #8 in 1994, Kyle McLaren at #5 in 1992 or Ritchie Regehr at #9 in 1998. All three are playing in the National Hockey League, and yes all three are d-men.

Better than average picks would include Kiel McLeod at #8 in 1997 and Tyler Spurgeon at #16 in 2001. Neither has played at the N.H.L level, but both were better than average junior players.

His worst picks would include Craig Cuthbert 20th overall in 2003, Reinholt in 2002 and Josh Lepp with the 4th selection in 2000. The year Lepp was picked; players selected after him included Eric Fehr, Brent Seabrooke and Shawn Belle.

Ouch!

Now that Frey has potentially a top 5 pick in this years draft, his scouting staff are busier than ever watching as many bantam games as possible to make sure they make the most of the early selection.

It’s a selection which will be another piece of the puzzle as the Rockets regroup again into a contender for a WHL Championship.

Lorne Frey has built a winner at the draft table before, my money is on him that he can do it again.

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