The Prince George Cougars will find out today what order they'll pick in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft.
The WHL teams which missed the playoffs this year are participating in today's draft lottery to determine the selection of order for the first six picks in the first round of the draft May 1 in Calgary.
"We could be as high as third, or be fifth or sixth," said Cougars head scout Todd Harkins. "We've established our [draft] list already and we're ready to go [for May 1]."
The Cougars, who missed the postseason by six points, finishing ninth in the Western Conference, join the Kamloops Blazers, Moose Jaw Warriors, Saskatoon Blades, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Red Deer Rebels in the draft lottery. The Rebels lost a single-game playoff Tuesday 5-3 to the Prince Albert Raiders in Red Deer to determine the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The lottery will use a total of 21 balls. The Cougars will have two balls based on their 18th-place finish in the regular season.
Lethbridge, which finished last in the entire league, gets six balls; Kamloops has five, Saskatoon has four, Moose Jaw three and Red Deer will have one.
If Prince George wins the lottery, Lethbridge will have the first pick, Kamloops will have the second pick, Prince George will have the third pick, Saskatoon will have the fourth pick, Moose Jaw will have the fifth pick and Red Deer will have the sixth pick.
Harkins has been watching the top bantam players in the province compete this week at the Bantam Tier 1 B.C. Hockey championship at Kin 1 arena.
"I'm really excited about the talent we're seeing on display right now," he said. "We're watching kids who've improved from September and October, we're drafting 14 - 15 year-old kids and they have a long way to go. But if you can see their growth, you know they will continue to mature and develop."
North Shore Winter Club (56-4-1), Burnaby Winter Club (54-6-5), Cowichan Valley (41-8-0) and Kamloops (36-12-3) have brought their stellar records into Prince George.
Harkins said the bantam-level talent in B.C. is excellent.
"The top teams that are here... we're excited about the health and development in B.C.," he said. "We have seen it in 2012 and 2013 and the number of WHL general managers and scouts who're here is great for the sport."
As for the Cougars success at the WHL draft, there's proof that it does work.
Harkins son Jansen, Brad Morrison, and Tate Olson were all chosen in the WHL Class of 2012 and made the Cougars in 2013-14.
The Cougars do have some holes to fill in their lineup, having lost three overage 20-year-old players after this season - Todd Fiddler, Klarc Wilson and Peter Kosterman.
"We're going to have to make some decisions, about what kids we'll sign and what kids we'll move," said Harkins, who's traveled across the Prairies this season watching them. "I've seen our draft picks play a couple times and I'm really excited. We want competition in training camp, and a healthy competition."
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So far, after nearly two days of play at the Bantam Tier 1 provincial championship heading into the final game of the day Tuesday, Burnaby Winter Club was on top of the standings with a 3-0-0 record.
On Tuesday, Burnaby shut out Kelowna 10-0, then scored a 5-1 victory over Cowichan Valley. North Shore Winter Club defeated Kamloops 5-1 to improve to 2-0-0 and was favoured to beat the winless (0-2-0) Prince George Farr Fabricating Cougars in the late game. Kamloops finished the day at 1-2-0 and Kelowna's record is 0-2-0.
The Prince George-North Shore game started at 8 p.m. Results were not avaialble at press time.
