Three Chiefs Get Drafted

Well, the NHL Entry Draft was this past weekend and three of our Chiefs got drafted. Two of them weren't a surprise but one sort of was. For those who aren't in the know... The Spokane Chiefs are a junior hockey team that play in the WHL (Western Hockey League). This season, the Chiefs won the Western Conference Championship before winning the WHL Championship in a pretty quick series against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. A lot of people thought Spokane had a solid team but figured someone else (i.e. our main rivals, the Tri-City Americans) would advance to the Memorial Cup. Well, after a grueling seven-game series, we beat them. It was a great feeling of accomplishment and after we beat Lethbridge, it felt like everything was paying off. The Memorial Cup is junior hockey's greatest glory, akin to the NHL's Stanley Cup or the Super Bowl trophy in the NFL. By winning the WHL title, the Spokane Chiefs earned a berth into the Round Robin Tournament against the Gatineau Olympiques, the Belleville Bulls and the host (not to mention "favored to win") team, the Kitchener Rangers. Guess what? We went 4-0 and won the Memorial Cup. Sure, the trophy collapsed in team captain Chris Bruton's hands after the game but who cares?? WE WON. We proved to every one that not only did we have a solid team, we had the best team. It was official. To quote Kevin Garnett, we had become certified.

The first player to get drafted was #14, Mitch Wahl. He was picked 48th overall in the second round and it was sort of obvious why. Wahl had a fantastic season with 20 goals, 53 assists and 73 points. If you want to compare him to a basketball player, I'd say Steve Nash. A common name in the game but not for the shots he gets... It's for the shots he GENERATES. All season long we got to watch Mitch get scoring chances but most of the time, he'd dish a sweet pass to a team mate who would in turn get a goal. Who got him? The Calgary Flames.

Another eligible player that was either expected to go high in the draft or go low (depending on the idiocy of the scout/critic) was goalie Dustin Tokarski. #34 had quite a season. He was the MVP of the Memorial Cup Tournament, named to the Memorial Cup All-Star Team, had 53 saves in the championship game, led all WHL goalies in the playoffs with .944 save percentage, tied for first with the best save percentage in the regular season (.922) and the list could literally go on for miles. I figured he'd be snagged in the first three rounds and I figured... Well, wrong. Drafted #122 overall and the first pick of the 5th round, Tokarski is going to play for the Tampa Bay Lightning which isn't as bad as you might think. They also got the best player in the draft, Steven Stamkos, at #1 overall.

The biggest surprise of the weekend was the drafting of #18 Jared Spurgeon. He had a solid year with 12 goals and 31 assists but I didn't expect him to get picked. I'm glad he did. Spurgeon was selected in the sixth round (#156 overall) by the New York Islanders. Two other Chiefs who were up for the draft but didn't get selected were defenseman Mike Reddington & center Tyler Johnson. Reddington was a fairly reliable guy but also made a lot of mistakes. Johnson, a Spokane native and therefore "hometown hero," had a very good season but I'm assuming he was looked over because of his size. It's a shame because Johnson is one of the fastest dudes in the WHL.

Go Chiefs Go!