Filed under: Winterhawks
3:49: Curses! They snuck one more in on me…Jake Montgomery from Minnesota in the 11th round.
Now we’re done.
3:30. Time to wrap things up. After 7+ hours and 10 picks, the Hawks are done for the day. Going back to Pouliot for a second, Mike Johnston said he was the consensus number 1 pick among the team’s scouts.
Between Pouliot, Wotherspoon, Daniel Johnston, Rutkowski, Morrow and Ponich, you have to look at the Hawks’ depth on the blue line as being among the best in the league.
3:11: We’ve hit double figures, as it’s now the 10th round. The Hawks took center Adam De Champlain from nearby Sherwood Park, AB. Starting to look like that may be the last Portland pick of the day.
2:54: Into the ninth round now, and the pick for Portland was Adam Smith, a center from Nanaimo, BC.
2:22: To get Stecher, the Hawks gave up a sixth round pick in next year’s draft.
2:12: Teams are starting to drop out of the draft as their lists fill up, but Portland’s still going, taking Alaskan Josh Hanson in the eighth round.
2:03: Portland deals for Spokane’s 7th ronder and take defenseman Troy Stetcher from Richmond, B.C.
1:54: It’s an interesting dynamic here at the draft. With all the teams sitting in the same room, theoretically if you wanted to talk trade, you’d either have to surreptitiously send texts or e-mails, or get up and walk to another team’s table.
Of course, by wallking to another table, all eyes are on you. If I was a Winter Hawks bigwig, that’s what I’d do, just to mess with the other teams, even if I just went over there to ask if they enjoyed lunch.
1:48: Andy Kemper tracked down Low’s stats: 23 goals, 36 assists and 59 points in 71 games. What would I do without Andy?
1:38: The seventh round pick is center Brayden Low from Richmond, B.C. Trying to track down some stats for him…
1:23: Set up interviews For Pouliot with both the Oregonian and the Tribune, look for those in addition to Mike’s comments. They should get good play since there’s absolutely nothing else going on in Portland sports today.
1:06: Long break between picks for the Hawks as they didn’t have a 5th rounder, then the draft broke for lunch. But they returned in the 6th round and took Brendan Leipsic, a left winger from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He posted 16 goals and 20 assists for 36 points in 29 games last season for the Monarchs in the Winnipeg AAA league.
12:51: Andy Kemper is doing a great job posting detailed stats on all the players we’re taking today over at his blog. Second round pick Taylor Leier had himself a decent season last year…
12:15: Draft breaks for lunch. Check back around 1 p.m. Mountain time.
12:19: Just talked to Derrick Pouliot and he’s excited about being taken by Portland. He’s an offensive defenseman who put up 60+ points last season. The Hawks are building a deep blueline.
12:05: Mike Johnston’s on the phone with the Oregonian and he did the Tribune a little earlier, so keep an eye out for those stories online today, and in print in the O tomorrow.
11:48: Vancouver owns Portland’s fifth round pick, so as of right now it looks like we’ll be waiting a bit for the team’s next selection.
11:43: The first names of three straight fourth round picks: Brennon, Bradon and Brandon.
11:39: Winter Hawks owner Bill Gallacher is in Edmonton for the draft, and couldn’t wait to call Derrick Pouliot and his family to tell them Derrick had been taken first overall. His enthusiasm is infectious.
11:23: According to a bio of Michaelson I had forwarded to me, his pre-game music of choice is Down With the Sickness. He should fit right in.
11:15: The Hawks’ fourth round pick was their own, a rarity apparently, since 10 of the 22 fourth round picks were traded in advance of the draft.
11:10: AJ Michaelson from Apple Valley, Minnesota is the fourth round pick for the Hawks. He had 19 points in 21 regular season games last year.
11:00: The most striking thing about the WHL Draft is how calm everyone is. If anyone’s upset that a player they wanted is picked right ahead of them, they’re not showing it. It’s the future of these franchises, and everyone’s completely level-headed.
I’d be terrible at this. I threw tantrum when Paul Maholm got taken one pick before me in the 17th round of my fantasy baseball draft.
10:52: Reece Wilcox is the 3rd round pick, 59th overall. He’s a defenseman from Surrey, B.C.
10:42: Seriously though, not to harp on it, but is there anything worse in this day and age than Internet outages (besides swine flu and According to Jim, of course)? I felt helpless, like a six year-old separated from his mom at the mall wandering around with a bewildered look and hoping someone rescues me.
10:39: First executive decision of the day: pulling the plug on Flickr for the day because of all the Internet issues. Second executive decision today: lunch.
10:29: 2 hours and 34 minutes between entries in a live blog. That has to be a record. Apparently, the wireless internet at the hotel decided to take a break for a few hours. This after it worked perfectly last night and earlier this morning. But they assure us we’re good to go. For now, anyway. At any rate, we’re early in the third round, and Portland is about 10 picks away.
7:55 (All times mountain): We’re live from the Sutton Place Hotel where the WHL Bantam Draft is set to begin in less than 30 minutes, with Portland picking first. The teams are starting to filter in, there’re conducting mic checks and the breakfast buffet is being devoured. We’re getting close.
Filed under: Winterhawks
With less than 12 hours to go until the WHL Bantam Draft, your trusty correspondent is in Edmonton awaiting the proceedings.
It’s my first time in the city, so you can imagine my surprise when the airport was located closer to the Yukon than downtown Edmonton. I think it took longer to get from the airport to Edmonton than it took me to fly here from Portland.
Anyway, the Sutton Place is ground zero for the WHL draft, and already I’ve seen contingents of the Oil Kings, Silvertips and our very own Winter Hawks milling around the hotel.
Things are getting started early tomorrow, with the draft getting underway at 8:15 Mountain time. If all goes according to plan tomorrow, here’s what you can expect on our various platforms:
Winterhawks.com: Press releases and other official information we release about our picks.
Twitter: Instant updates on who we take with each pick.
Flickr: Photos of the proceedings.
This site: A live blog of the draft and expanded information and analysis as events unfold.
Links to all our sites are available on the left navigation bar. Hopefully all goes according to plan and we’ll have continuous updates throughout the day. Or, the wireless connection dies and I’m sitting around all day eating sandwiches.
See you tomorrow.
Filed under: Winterhawks
Is this it? Is this the final frontier? Flickr, Twitter, and now a blog. The Portland Winterhawks are taking over the Web one social networking platform at a time.
OK, so our Facebook page needs work. Actually, it needs to be completely overhauled. But we’ll get to that. One thing at a time.
Now that we’ve taken this bold leap into the blogosphere, what can you expect at this page? Simple really: anything you can’t find at winterhawks.com, our Twitter site, Flickr site, and perhaps one day our Facebook site.
Anyway, when you work in sports, there’s one question you get more than any other: “Can I get free tickets?”
But after that, it’s ”What do you guys do in the offseason?” Most people envision we set up hammocks, turn on some Jimmy Buffett, pour some margaritas and take it easy until training camp starts.
Althought it’s tempting (ok, maybe not the Jimmy Buffett part) that’s not how we do it here with the Winterhawks. We actually have a lot going on right now, and over the next few weeks you’ll be able to read all about it. Until then, here’s a few hints on what to look forward to:
-Thursday is the WHL draft, with Portland holding the number one overall pick. I’ll be in Edmonton updating this site, Flickr, Twitter, winterhawks.com, sending press releases, giving Mike Johnston my opinion on who we should take, and shuffling back to my seat when Mike Johnston tells me what to do with my opinion on who we should take.
In all seriousness, the draft is a big deal for us, and we’re going to have wall-to-wall coverage.
Other things cracking here right now include…
-An upcoming announcement about a longstanding Winterhawks institution calling it a day (hint: eagle-eyed readers can find a spoiler somewhere in this space) .
-A comprehensive amateur hockey program that will be unlike anything this city has seen before.
-An opportunity for people to connect with some prominent current and former Winterhawks later this summer.
There’s a lot more too, but I can’t drop any hints without making it obvious what’s going on. But it’s an exciting summer for us, and we can’t wait to share all our plans with you.
In the meantime, don’t be surprised if we tweak the look and functionality of this site over coming days and weeks as we try to get it to where we want it to be. Hit us up in the comments section for suggestions.
