spfreak

All that I was saying was that Gretzky could have taken a more surefire thing in the first round at 5 and then attempted to trade their second and maybe 4th or 5th round pick to get into the bottom of the first round and grab Wheeler there. No mock drafts that I saw had Wheeler going above 20th. Another option would have been to trade out of the 5 spot and get some more picks (which Phoenix could definitely use) even another 2nd out of the deal. Gretzky may not have even made the pick, it might have been one of their scouts or their coach at the time. You never really know who makes the picks for any given team. This is all just my opinion though.

I think that the big point was that the Sioux would have 2 of the top 5 picks in one draft, rather than from different drafts. Also, Wheeler was not a top five talent, unlike the other three mentioned IMHO.

Joe Finley accelerated his schooling, so he graduated. Finley was not as good a prospect as Dowzak. As for Dowzak waiting to commit to a school, he could commit anytime he wanted. He and his family have apparently decided to take the slow and steady route.

Blais was the one that said that.

The people covering the '03 draft wondered the same about Vanek though and he ended up staying two years with the Goofs. I realize that he didn't go as high as Johnson but still I thought that I would put it out there.

I hope that you are joking. The fact that Dowzak seems to be a surefire top 10 pick in next year's NHL draft, I don't think that a) his development has slowed down or b) that any teams are waiting to see how he does in the USHL before they offer him a schollie. That seems qute ridiculous to me to even think that.

Those don't look bad, although I have to wonder whether Kozek will be on either of the top two lines let alone the first line. I think that either Porter or Stafford (I realize that left wing may not be his natural position) may round that line out better. Who knows?

They have some good players (Horton, Bouwmeester, Luongo, Weiss, possibly Anthony Stewart). Not as good as the Pens would have been but not as bad as if the Wild were playing a split squad game against each other.

Regarding Blackburn, he is a free agent now and it sounds like they don't plan on bringing him back.

Lee, Vandevelde and Ammerman were all Gopher fans.

That matchup is a lot more intriguing with Crosby in the mix.

As far as I know there is a ten or twelve plex (I believe) that is going to be built in town with stadium seating. They are also goiong to change the current ten plex to stadium seating.

How can TSN have Andrew Cogliano going number 18? That makes me question their mock draft and the validity of Lee going number 13.

Unless things have changed greatly, those rules do not apply to the college kids who were drafted. They can wait until after their senior year to sign if they so choose.

I have not seen Finley play so I cannot make a judgement on him (although his size is intriguing). However I have seen Dowzak a couple of games last year and he was quite impressive. Another that I have seen, as have many on this board, is Lamoureux who played much bigger than his size. Either of those two would be great pickups and it sounds as though we have the edge on one and may have a slight edge on the other.

I am absolutely psyched over this. My mom was one of the people that wrote the proposal, so I am very proud of her.

Do you have a source or are you just saying that based on a gut feeling?

The way I understood Finley's situation from the article posted on this thread was that he was looking at going to college this fall but I read it was that there was a much better chance that he would be going in 06.

I kind of thought that since Lincoln spent their only first round pick on him, that he was apparently going to play juniors.

Yeay!!!

Oops. Sorry about that.

Did anyone notice that Les Reaney committed to Niagara as of today?

What is the deal with the Gamblers, they traded first round and second round spots with Omaha. Does anyone know what trade that was involved in?

That's what I was wondering. I guess with the fact that he got taken first overall says that he will likely not play at Shattuck, unless Des Moines decided to pull a Tri City American maneuver with Okposo in Toews place.

Ditto