Prince George Cougars goalie Ty Edmonds and defenceman Sam Ruopp waited anxiously watching their computer screens.
Through seven rounds of the 2014 NHL draft, their names did not appear.
It was a tough pill for them to swallow but they shouldn't feel too badly about it.
Not when they consider the who's-who of pro hockey stars who were in the same boat at one time.
Marty St. Louis, Alex Burrows, Mark Giordano, Curtis Glencross, Dan Girardi, Josh Gorges, Nicklas Backstrom, Anti Niemi, Jonas Hiller, Curtis Joseph -- none of them were drafted.
Pavel Datsyuk got skipped twice in the draft until the Detroit Red Wings finally took a chance on him in 1998 with the 171st pick, and that worked out pretty well for the Wings. Heck, even Wayne Gretzky wasn't an NHL draft pick.
Nine WHL players were taken in first round, including Kootenay defenceman Sam Reinhart, who went second overall to Buffalo Sabres. Assuming each of the 22 WHL teams carries 23 roster players, the 37 chosen this year amount to only 7.3 per cent of the league's 506 players. Even in 2004, when 44 players from a 20-team WHL got drafted, the highest total in the past 12 years, that's only 8.69 per cent who made an NHL team's list.
"The biggest thing for all players who don't get drafted is there are lots of ways to the NHL or pro hockey, especially for guys on our club," said Todd Harkins, the Cougars interim general manager and director of player personnel. "There are many years coming forward that give you the opportunity to get drafted again and you should feel the fire to motivate yourself. When you don't hear your name called it should motivate you to prove people wrong."
Harkins said NHL teams tend to select older players in the later stages of the draft and there were several examples of that Saturday at the draft table in Philadelphia.
"Sometimes it takes guys longer to develop than 18 years of age," said Harkins, who went through the draft as a player in 1988 and was taken in the second round by the Calgary Flames. "Look at how many guys go later in the draft who are potential NCAA-bound players, who have even longer time to develop before they get into the pro system."
Some players are just starting to go through growth spurts while others have leveled off in their physical development. In a game that places such a high value on physical size, smaller players sometimes get overlooked (St. Louis and Datysuk are perfect NHL examples).
Harkins said those varying levels of maturity add to the difficulty of choosing players, whether it's 18-year-old aspiring pros or 14-year-old candidates for the WHL bantam draft. Harkins said 17-year-old forward Jared Bethune, who played high school hockey last season in Warroad, Minn., is another example of a player who flew under the radar. Listed by the Cougars last October, Bethune had been invited to the 44-player Team Pacific under-18 team tryouts along with Cougars forward Jansen Harkins.
"He was in our draft zone but he never got drafted and now he's one of the top 44 kids in Canada," said Todd Harkins. "Some of the best players in our league were late picks in the bantam draft because they were small players when they were 14. I'm thinking about the Brett Kulaks and Damon Seversons of the world. Both were very late bantam draft picks ."
The Cougars failed to make the WHL playoffs and had the fourth-worst record in the league last season. Harkins admits when a team struggles on the ice that adds to the difficulty for individual players to get noticed by NHL scouts. Of the 10 WHL teams with two or more players chosen in this year's draft, only two of those teams -- Red Deer and Saskatoon -- failed to make the playoffs.
"That's something that does go a long way," said Harkins. "By having team success it gives scouts the advantage of seeing players play longer and assess them in a longer time frame. How teams play as a group does give individual players an advantage."
The Memorial Cup-champion Edmonton Oil Kings led the WHL with five drafted players -- Brett Pollack, Dysin Mayo, Brandon Baddock, Aaron Irving and Edgers Kulka. The Portland Winterhawks had four players taken -- Domenic Turgeon, Alex Schoenborn, Keegan Iverson and Chase De Leo, as did the Kootenay Ice -- Reinhart, Rinat Valiev, Jaedon Duscheneau and Tanner Faith -- and the Calgary Hitmen -- Jake Virtanen, Travis Sanheim, Chase Lang and Edgers Kula.
Edmonds was ranked as the 18th-best North American draft-eligible goalie, while Ruopp was ranked by NHL Central Scouting as the 127th-best North American skater. Harkins predicts they will both benefit this season form the considerable icetime they received as WHL rookies and that should raise their stock as NHL prospects.
"Those guys will be more comfortable and being able to play with confidence in your second year will prove valuable for them and if the team has more success they'll be seen by many scouts as the season goes on and that will benefit them," said Harkins. "They're in good spirits. I just told them to look at this {next} season as their draft year. They know what it's like to be rookies in the league, now it's time for them to be stars in the league."
The Cougars did have one of their list players chosen when the Florida Panthers used their fifth-round choice, 143rd overall to select five-foot-11, 186-pound left winger Miguel Fidler. Fidler, who has never played for the Cougars, played high school hockey last year in Edina, Minn., and has verbally committed to Ohio State on an NCAA scholarship.
No Prince George Spruce Kings were among the five B.C. Hockey League players who got picked. That list includes forwards Danton Heinen (Surrey Eagles, fourth round, Boston), Laim Coughlin, Vernon Vipers, fifth round, Edmonton), Matt Ustaski (Surrey Eagles, seventh round Winnipeg), and Jack Ramsay (Penticton Vees, seventh round, Chicago). The L.A. Kings picked Victoria Grizzlies goalie Alec Dillon in the fifth round.
Some of the Cougars' newer prospects will play in the Young Guns game, Friday, Aug. 22, followed the next day by the opening of training camp.
