| Subject: GWHL Draft Lottery |
Author:
Mr. Potato Head
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Date Posted: 18:34:04 04/05/04 Mon
The GWHL brought their draft lottery show on the road this year to Flin Flon Manitoba. GWHL powerhouse, Halifax, held the first round picks of the two worst teams last season, Toronto and Charlottetown. Whitehorse, London and Quebec where the next teams in line according to the standings but all 3 picks were held by Edmonton. Victoria, Saskatoon and Calgary, held by Victoria, rounded out the draft lottery. Halifax was obviously very confident leading up to the first pick but when the number was drawn a look of dismay came across the Halifax draft table. Whitehorse had jumped from 3rd to 1st and with that Edmonton had the first overall pick in the GWHL draft. Surely Halifax would at least get the 2nd overall pick right? Wrong, the next number drawn out belonged to Quebec, who jumped three places to 2nd overall and now Edmonton had the two top picks in the draft. A quick glance over at the Edmonton draft table would reveal just how happy the team was. Unbelievably, the next number drawn belonged to Calgary, who had the worst shot at being picked, however teams can only move up and down 3 spots so Victoria, the owner of the pick, was no slated at the 5 spot. Halifax, who’d yet to have one of their numbers drawn, was now assured of the 3 and 4 spots, which are still great picks, but the disappointment was obvious. Victoria remained with the 6th overall pick as their number was drawn next. Edmonton was assured of the 7th overall pick, as London could fall no further. Saskatoon would end up falling from 7th into the last lottery spot at 8th overall.
Despite having the London pick fall to 7th overall, Edmonton was the clear winner of the draft lottery. Picking up the top 2 picks without holding the best odds on either is a major victory. The biggest loser? It is hard to point at a team with the 3rd and 4th overall picks and call them the biggest loser of the draft lottery but that is what Halifax is. They will miss out on Rick Nash, the best prospect available and guaranteed to go 1st overall, and most likely Jay Bouwmeester, the best defenseman at last years World Hockey Championships. The consolation prize for Halifax will likely be Joni Pitkanen, all rookie defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers, and hotshot rookie Finnish goaltender Kari Lehtonen who won his first 4 NHL starts for Atlanta. The top 4 of the draft is by far and away the best of that draft class but there are also some dark horses from previous draft years that are available. The most notable of these is Montreal Canadien rookie sensation Michael Ryder. Ryder tallied 25 goals and totaled 63 points in 81 games for the Habs this year.
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