Everett Silvertips Hope to Bolster Talent with Ninth Overall Pick and Eleven Selelctions in WHL Bantam Draft

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com – Calgary, AB - The Everett Silvertips will be looking to bolster their talent and depth Thursday at the Round Up Centre in Calgary, AB, home of the WHL's annual Bantam Draft. With the ninth overall pick and eleven subsequent selections, Everett will have a wide variety of talented skaters to choose from.

Along with the ninth overall pick, Everett also occupies the 31st, 53rd, 75th, 112th, 141st, 163rd, 185th, 207th, 229th, 245th and 251st overall slots. The ninth pick is Everett's highest since drafting Zach Hamill with the third overall selection in May, 2003. The Silvertips' inaugural Bantam Draft in 2003 was widely renowned as the best draft in league history, featuring NHL first round draft picks Hamill, Peter Mueller and Leland Irving in the first five rounds. Future early round NHL picks Taylor Ellington and Brady Calla were also selected among the first five players Everett drafted in 2003.

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Led by Vice President / General Manager Doug Soetaert and Director of Player Development Scott Scoville, the Silvertips' scouting staff has widely been recognized as having an inherent ability to find WHL talent in the later rounds of the draft as well, when many marquee names have already been selected. In 2003, future Team Captain Jonathan Harty was selected 221st overall, while Graham Potuer was taken in the ninth round. Other late-round draft picks on Everett's current roster include Jesse Burt (10th - '04), Shayne Barrie (11th - '04) and Chris de la Lande (11th - '05).

Goaltender Kent Simpson was Everett's first round choice last year, selected 22nd overall. He made his WHL debut on March 16th at Seattle as a fifteen year old, stopping nineteen of twenty Thunderbirds shots.

All 1993-born players from Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and the Northwest Territories will be eligible for selection at the 2008 WHL Bantam Draft. Players born outside of North America will be available at June's CHL Import Draft.

Make sure to check www.everettsilvertips.com all week long as we will be featuring articles on several current Silvertips who will be reminiscing about their draft-day experiences, as well as several Silvertips alumni who will be looking back at their time spent in the WHL. For up-to-the-minute information on the draft's early rounds, we will be posting a Live Draft Tracker on the website, where you will be able to immediately find out about the Silvertips' selections, as well as the players' backgrounds and statistics.

The draft is scheduled to begin promptly at 7:30 AM PDT on Thursday, May

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