The Prince Albert Raiders and their WHL contemporaries hope to live their draft dream today at an apt location: Fantasyland Hotel in Edmonton.
Barring a trade, the Raiders were scheduled to pick sixth overall in the WHL bantam draft this morning.
Last year, the Raiders plucked Alberta forward Mike Winther with the sixth pick, and they believe another blue-chip talent awaits them today.
“Right now, we’re certainly thinking about keeping our pick at six, and making a very good selection at six,” Raiders coach and general manager Bruno Campese said Wednesday night after the team’s brain trust finalized its scouting list.
“We don’t know how the draft is going to go, obviously, but we feel that in the top six or seven spots, there’s a pretty quality player to be had.”
A surplus of 19-year-old players, or would-be 20-year-olds, gives the Raiders multiple assets for potential trades today, or later in the off-season. But they’re in no hurry to make such deals.
“We want to just get through the draft, as is, unless somebody comes to us with an offer that’s hard to refuse,” Campese said. “At this point, (we’ll) make decisions on 20s later on.
“We have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to do, and of what teams are looking for as well. No one is in a real hurry about adding 20s, because there is a number of 20s available. I think teams will do their due diligence on what’s out there.
“There is no rush to sort that out. As you saw last year with (goaltender Garrett) Zemlak, he was a player that we had no intention of really bringing into the fold. And, at the end of the day, he’s our MVP. So, we can be patient with that.”
Campese and company have included physical players in listing and drafting prospects during the past couple of years, but they don’t plan to shy away from pure talent in the early rounds today.
“Early on, it’s our responsibility to take the best players possible,” Campese said. “If it’s a bigger-type player, that’s great. I do think there is some size in this year’s draft.
“We’re just going to have to sort it out. You just don’t know what’s going to happen in front of you and behind you.”
A couple of mock drafts and scouting agency rankings put a pair of Calgary Bisons bantam AAA forwards — Morgan Klimchuk and Johnathon Merkley — within Prince Albert’s first-round reach.
“Together, they’re both skilled forwards who are offensively gifted,” Campese said. “Every projection that I’ve seen has them in the top 10. They’re good players, with high skill level, that should go very high in the draft.
“I just saw them at the Alberta Cup (last weekend) and they were linemates there. In different situations, they probably get broken up, but they do play together a lot.”
Klimchuk and Merkley have elite company on a wish list that includes top prospect Alex Forsberg, a Waldheim centre from the midget AAA Beardy’s Blackhawks expected to go first overall to the Prince George Cougars.
“There’s quality players from every province,” Campese said. “I think that probably the top nine (or) 10 picks in the draft are extremely strong.”
Today’s draft is the first with former Regina Pats coach Dale Derkatch as Prince Albert’s director of player personnel. Derkatch is part of the Raiders’ seven-man scouting complement at the draft.
Prince Albert picks 28th overall in the second round and 50th overall in the third round. The Raiders gave their fourth-round pick to the Portland Winterhawks in the November 2009 trade that brought forward Colin Reddin to Prince Albert.
The top five picks belong to Prince George, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Seattle and Regina, respectively.
