The Regina Pats' braintrust mixed a little business with pleasure at the NHL entry draft.

General manager Brent Parker, director of scouting Todd Ripplinger and head coach Curtis Hunt enjoyed a working vacation in Ottawa over the weekend, using the visit to do some legwork for Thursday's CHL import draft.

"It's a social event in a lot of ways from a junior team's standpoint because the whole hockey industry is there," said Parker. "You're talking to people and getting an opportunity to ask questions about guys you have on your list (of European prospects). And you get some new names along the way too."

Regina will pick 27th out of 60 CHL teams after swapping first-round positions with the Everett Silvertips, who acquired Regina's top choice in next year's draft. The Pats then shipped their original pick this year (No. 51) to the Vancouver Giants for a first-round selection in 2009, replacing the pick they sent to Everett.

Although Regina improved its odds by moving up 24 spots, there are no guarantees of landing an impact player from across the pond. Besides the requisite challenges in acclimating them to North America, there are also politics involved in drafting top-rated players, some of whom carry huge pricetags and will only deal with certain teams.

"Any draft in some respect is a bit of a crapshoot," noted Parker. "But this one is such a different animal because of all the different dynamics that come into it from the money that's paid by some franchises and the side deals. We're talking to agents and weeding out the ones who from a financial standpoint are out of the scope of what the CHL allows. Right now we've probably got 15 real solid names. We've got another 30 probably that we're still piecing together. As long as we've got 27 good names come Thursday, I'll feel very comfortable."

The Pats have done as much of their own research as possible, identifying players who've visited North America for events like the Mac's midget tournament and the world under-17s. However, most of the scouting is done through second-hand information from NHL teams and other contacts. For example, ex-Pat Karel Mosovsky, now a player agent in the Czech Republic, recommended Rudolf Cerveny to the team last year. With Cerveny expected to be back next season, the Pats will only draft one player on Thursday to fill out their two-man import quota.

"Everybody has their contacts that they work a little closer with," said Parker. "We get reports on these guys from between six and eight different NHL teams. We do the homework we can and cross-reference what we can. It's a process. And it has been a little bit different this year because I haven't been as active the last month (while undergoing cancer treatment). Curtis and Todd have done a lot of the legwork. I certainly have all the faith in them on the names they've been able to dig up. Between the three of us we'll put a good list together."

One of Regina's biggest needs is for an offensive-minded forward to provide support for Jordan Eberle. That said, the loss of defenceman Logan Pyett to the pro ranks also leaves the team without its top power-play quarterback.

"We'd like to get a top-six forward if we could but we want to get an impact guy (regardless of position)," added Parker. "We've done that both ways. We've done it with a guy like Fil Novak on the back end and we've done it with a guy like Dmitri Nabokov up front. We've got more names that are forwards than defencemen but that doesn't necessarily mean we will end up taking a forward. If we've got the right defenceman, we'll look that way too."

NOTE: Pats RW Garrett Mitchell, a native of Regina, has been invited to the selection camp for the under-18 team that will represent Canada at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament (Aug. 12-16 in Slovakia and the Czech Republic). Also on the 40-player list is Davidson product Brayden McNabb, a defenceman with the Kootenay Ice. The camp runs Aug. 1-6 in Calgary.

© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008

Back