Burnaby’s Mathew Barzal first overall in WHL bantam draft, and other notes

As expected, Mathew Barzal, the 5'9" centre out of the Burnaby Winter Club went first overall in Thursday morning's WHL bantam Draft to the Seattle Thunderbirds, keeping him close to home.

The big story from the floor in the first round was the trade that sent Tri-City's star goaltender Ty Rimmer to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a pair of picks. Rimmer, the '92-born who will be an overage next season, led the WHL in save percentage this past season, posting a .922 in 46 games, to go along with a league-leading 2.43 goals against average and a league-high 5 shutouts. He lost out on the WHL goaltender of the year award to Tyler Bunz.

Rimmer's exit from Tri-City hinges, sources say, anyway, on a promise made by the American's organization to give more playing time to Eric Comrie, the '95-born rookie out of Newport Beach, California, who was the 13th pick in the 2010 draft.

Comrie earned just 31 starts this season and didn't see a second of action in the post-season, but that was largely hinging on Rimmer's terrify season. In part making things right with the Comrie family, Rimmer finds himself a new home in Lethbridge for next season, but it's nothing new to him. After being drafted by Brandon in 2007, he's been traded twice before, making a stop in Prince George for the 2011 season.

Other news and notes…

-The Saskatoon Blades last season added several players, most notably Brayden Schenn, to make an all-out run for the MasterCard Memorial Cup, that ended when they ran into the Kootenay Ice in the second round and were swept four games to none. They host next year's Cup, and made two draft day moves, acquiring Shane McGolgan and Jessey Astles from the Kelowna Rockets, and Brendan Walker from the Brandon Wheat Kings in separate deals that will cost the Blades a few picks and centreman Ryan Olsen.

McColgan is listed at 5'9", but plays a few inches taller, and also has dependable offensive ability, scoring 18 goals and 64 points with the Rockets last season. He was also selected 134th overall by the New York Rangers last June. Astles is 6'1" and conveniently tough, averaging a little over 2 PIMs a game over his last two WHL seasons. Walker saw some time with Mark Stone in Brandon this season, earning 81 points in 68 games, He will be an overage next season.

-It's a bit of a disturbing trend, but highly-regarded prospects have earned the right to influence where they play. Nathan MacKinnon and Max Domi are recent examples, and of course there's the Continuing Story of Seth Jones in the WHL. The rumour heading into draft day was that Barzal would only play close to home. As it happens, Seattle, who held the first pick the draft, are close to Barzal, from Burnaby, which is about a three-hour drive from Seattle depending on the border.

-Their first pick from last year, Kamloops' Ryan Gropp, is also uncommitted, but perhaps the Thunderbirds have stepped up their recruitment efforts. Check out Gropp's last two follows on Twitter: the WHL and the Seattle Thunderbirds official accounts.

-A number of Barzal's Burnaby Winter Club teammates were selected high. Adam Musil, the 6'1" 160 centreman, went to the Red Deer Rebels with the sixth pick. Defenceman Ty Schultz went number 16 to Medicine Hat, but the most notable one was Ty Ronning, picked at number 15 by the Vancouver Giants.

This is notable and a good fit because Vancouver is home to Ty's father Cliff, who scored 158 goals in 141 games as an undersized forward in the Western League back in the high-flying 80s. He went on to have a very long NHL career, playing five and change seasons with the Canucks in the early 90s. At 5'8", he showed that a player can be successful overcoming small stature. Ty is listed at 5'5" and 130, easily the smallest guy in the first round, but the Giants know exactly that size may not matter: they got 46 goals in 60 games (regular seasons and playoff) out of 5'8" Brendan Gallagher this season. Ronning should grow a few inches in the next couple of seasons, and I doubt he'll still be 130 lbs by the time he plays his first WHL contest.

-Adam Musil, yes, is the brother of Giants' defenceman David Musil, the B.C.-born, Czech-raised player. Here's what David had to say about Adam:

-The first American selected was Keoni Texeira, a 5'11", 196 lbs defenceman from Fontana, California (although I guess regarding his birthplace, he counts as a 'defenseman'). He was chose by Portland with the 26th pick of the draft after they traded up with Everett. As with a lot of high-profile rearguards taken in these drafts, he's described as a "big, powerful skater with a huge shot and major toughness".

-The Edmonton Oil Kings enter tonight's WHL final thanks in part to a terrific playoff performance from Curtis Lazar of the Okanagan Hockey Academy, chosen 2nd overall in 2010. Brad Morrison was the top OHA player this season, and the Prince George Cougars made a trade with Everett for a chance to draft the talented, speedy forward. The Cougars used their own #2 overall pick on Jansen Harkins out of the North Shore Winter Club, so a very busy first round for them and general manager Dallas Thompson.

-I mentioned Seth Jones above. Portland, who acquired his WHL rights two weeks ago, drafted brother Caleb in the fourth round. Some politicking to appease the Jones family, perhaps?

-Even after all the rounds are completed, there is still untapped talent potential. Patrick King at Sportsnet wrote a good piece today about Michael Houser and Brendan Shinnimin as MVP of their respective leagues. What do the two have in common? Houser was bypassed in the OHL priority selection and Shinnimin's name was never called in the WHL bantam draft.

Follow Cam Charron on Twitter @camcharron