Who are some of the players from the rural/parkland area, that will get drafted or protected by teams. i say Ryan Poluck and jarret day will get protected by dauphin, what about swan?

Sutton Olson will be drafted by someone...not in anyone's area. Same with the Vigier kid from Notre Dame. Don't know many, didn't see too much Bantam this year. These two impressed me but I'm sure there will be plenty to come on here and tell me how much they suck.

only the pussies in wpg get to protect players
its a straight 10 player draft for everyone else
i doubt we'll see many parkland kids get drafted

Lots of talented kids in the southwest region this year. Gow, Peel, Olson, Greig, Rowat, Heath, etc. all have a very good chance of being drafted.

I think you mean straight 5 player draft for everyone else. In my opinion...their should be no "Protected" players. This is why the league is so unfair. If you are going to "protect" players, then they at least should be your 5 draft picks, otherwise you are getting 10 and 5 of them nobody even gets a chance at. Winnipeg should therefore ALWAYS win the MJ. They get to protect 5 kids from their area with a huge pool of kids, and don't give me the BS about it being fair that everyone can. Get rid of that rule and make it fair, a draft is a draft, do away with the 5 protected before the draft!

The rule should be changed, afterall, Kim Davis and the leaque changed it when OCN used it as anvantage to atract top prospects that weren't protected back in OCNs championship Yrs. And if you look at it now, you'll see who's using it as an advantage...Portage, Selkirk, and the 2 city teams.

Actually the reason why those teams are succesfull is not because they exploit that it's because they are in a more desirable location to play. ie..Close to Winnipeg or close to school or home for most of the top players in the league

I agree, that is how those teams got so strong. Obviously if year after year you are able to protect 5 BEFORE the draft and another 5 after, and feasibly the top 5, then obviously after a few yrs that team is going to "RULE" year after year. Why was this rule ever made?

Does this rule not change for this year? Something about going out of your area for players then opens it up to everyone?

once you draft out of your area, its open to the rest of the teams
except winnipeg.
meaning rural teams can't draft winnipeg players until the sixth round, which is stupid
saints and blues can **** right off

"saints and blues can **** right off" You might as well include Portage and Selkirk in there cause they're part of the WPGs unfair system too even though they're rural.

The 94 age group is terrible anyway

aww man must a sucked when u got passed eh bud

Like Stokes when was in Flon, Cassidy and Spiller would never make it as good coaches away from WPG. what a shame..Tsk, tsk.

6th round??? There are only 5 rounds in the MJ! They get 5 players to protect BEFORE the draft, that nobody else can touch!

Wrong. Draft has changed this year.

Its always been suggested that OCN....Swan Valley....and Wayway somehow transfer westward to the SJHL as we are all about 20 miles from the border.We would eventually have acess to a much more talented pool of Bantam and Midget aged players in the SJ program.Our travel costs would go down with fewer over nite stays required and the sucky Winnehog girls could play right at home all the time as well as they could fight amongst themseleves for the "STARS" from the AAA-Midgets in the city.The SJ has the best Midget Player/Draft program anywhere which the MJ should look at....if not, the City and close to the city teams will always have power-house teams and the rest of us will always be at the bottom except for the OCN years and we all know how that happened!!!!!!!!!

First off, travel costs for the three above mentioned teams would not drop if they switched to the SJ and it has never been seriously brought up. OCN to Estevan/Weyburn/Notre Dame etc is every bit as far as where they go now as would those teams along with the La Ronge's and Battlefords for Wayway and Swan.

Next, the drsft hs changed. Get all over me if I am wrong but here is how I understand it.

Old rules: Each team would protect 5 players from their minor hockey sytem before the draft even starts. Then 5 open rounds.

Good points: Teams get to keep hometown boys.

Bad points: Winnipeg teams have a huge talent pool to choose from, rural teams have squat, especially the likes of Wayway, Swan, Neepawa. Even Portage (largest rural team) would rarely want 5, and on a good year 2 of those 5 may eventually play for the team. Winnipeg teams should have 5 bona fide MJHL'ers every year.

This year, it it somewhat more open. However, there are no autoprotects. This is where I am unsure of the exact rule. But from my understanding, as soon as you go out of your region, the rest of the players are then open. So, let's say in round 1, the Blues/Saints draft a Winnipeg player. The no one else can. Same for Portage. If they draft a Portager, then Portager's cannot be drafted by other teams yet. However, if they draft someone from Souris, then all Portager's become eligible for the rest of the draft. Rarely would the best player available actually be from the community the drafting team is from so it will create an interesting dynamic.....go for the best player available, or the hometown boy who is not quite as good. Once the 6th round hits, it is wide open no matter what happened.

Good points: rural teams in bigger communities don't automatically get five local guys. (which they probably didn't want anyway)

so/so point: When a superstar shows up in a rural town once in a blue moon, that team will automatically get them. Better chance of this happening in a bigger town, so unfair, but it is good business for any team to have their best locals.

Bad points: Winnipeg still gets to protect 5 from a huge pool of talent.

This is kind of how I understand it...will be a touch off though I'm sure.

Only if they are their 5 first picks.

The protected area for Winnipeg has never been the entire city. It has always been a region of the city closest to the team. With 2 ciry teams only 10 were ever taken off the market. If the talent pool is so huge that still leaves the majority open to the rest of the teams.

Also the Sherwood fans on here constantly cut down the city kids as soft mommy's boys. Why would you want them so badly when you could pick up good tough country/reserve kids that don't live in mom's basement.

Protected area makes sense. Why should Hawes and Payne be told that they are property of OCN or Way Way. The protected area should motivate Jr A teams to contribute to local minor hockey to develop kids into top level players.

A draft is a draft, in which EVERYONE should be available to every team. I don't even agree with the change, but baby steps I suppose. In the WHL teams have to DRAFT their local players if they want them, why should this be any diff....jr hockey is jr hockey.

As long as the MJ Team"s governors and Davis are happy with the 'powerhouse'upper team situation in and around WPG. things will never really change,unless 2 or 3 teams were added in the city thus somewhat diluting the strength of those teams.Rural MJ teams have neither the money nor a large enough talent pool to draw from.Dauphin probably has the money but that didnn"t help them this year.Portage is close enough to WPG. that it doesn"t matter.Untill the number of auto-protects are cut down to 1 or 2 and all remaining players are placed in a draft giving all teams an equal chance to pick, things won"t change.The draft works very well in the NHL and CFl and other sports leagues with last picking first and so on,or deals and trades are made for draft choices.As for saying 'why should Hawes report to Wayway',well,if your young and talented enough,and drafted by say a west coast Dub team,you will be alot further away from home then Wayway or you can quit!!!!!!!

Well look at this way, As long as the city coaches/kids keep making the decision in staying within city limits instead of helping out trying to balance out the leaque, the longer it'll be for the unbalanced MJ to win the RBC. You know, I don't think Kim Davis even learned anything from former commish MCKinnon about how to balance out the leaque by looking at as whole instead of one....What a shame.

Good post .162,the MJ will always be un-balanced untill there is a fair,even draft of AAA players.City players who balk at playing out of town,should give it a fair chance.There may not be the nite life but there lots of other great things about rural hockey.The trading,moving,drafting and being away from home only increases if a young man makes it to the show so he might as well get used to it at an early age.

The only answer to all the problems is to go with an open draft with no restrictions.
There are 9 rural teams and 2 city teams. I don't understand why the rural teams allow the current disparity with the draft rules favoring the city teams.
Teams should be allowed to draft the best players available when it is their turn to draft. If teams want/need a higher pick, then they can make a deal for it.
The MJHL will always be known as a second rate junior loop until they figure out how to run their league like the big boys.

Excuse me but, there's 4 city teams involved, not 2. Portage, Selkirk, WSBs and the Saints are all into one. Why do you think they keep winning Yr after Yr, it's not because they have the best programs that's for sure, they just have the huge advantage with the best AAA players picking them first instead of the rural teams that really need them. And Yes, an open draft will be the best solution to use. Not only it will benefit the MJ as a whole, but it will also put more butts in the empty seats at every game with a real good chance winning the RBC with a good solid team.

Terriers have two players on their entire roster from their autoprotect list. Trust me, protecting 5 kids from Portage is no big advantage. After the top one or two, that's it.

Unless you're telling me that Portage and Selkirk get to protect 5 Wpg players, it isn't much more of an advantage for them, although it still is an advantage. At the very least they should change it to say Winkler can protect 5 players within the Pembina Valley region and Dauphin in the Parkland region and so on, to make it more fair. Even if it is by region, just based solely on population, Winnipeg still has the advantage. I just don't get the "protect 5 player rule" and whoever commissioned it, must have only been looking for it to be an advatage to Wpg teams. The $ they save on billets, can go to equipment, players fee's, perks, etc to make a better organization, so of course they will have a HUGE advantage. Give your heads a shake MJHL board and change this!

Does anyone know if any other provincial junior hockey league allows this?

These last great and informative posts show why the MJHL will always be what it is.....fill in the blanks yourself.Other leagues quietly laugh at our miss-guided draft system and auto-protect program.I predict you will see major changes after we all see the fiasco that the RBC will have been in Dauphin in 2010.

I have a strong feeling Kim Davis wont change the unfair draft untill Portage, Selkirk, WSBs or the Saints wins the RBC. ****...wouldn't that be another kick in the ass for the rest of the rural teams that have waited impatiently Yr afer Yr for them to win only to wait for another long time.

I'm not sure how anyone feels the autoprotect helps Portage. Look at the Central Plains Caps, the midget team in this region (the feeder team with the autoprotects). Not only are they routiniely near the bottom of the AAA league but half of their decent players are from outside the region anyway. Autoprotects really only help the city and when you watch the draft most of the players drafted come from the city.

I agree, I think the person who said it helps Portage & Selkirk is misinformed. It really only benefits the city. The only thing that may help them is if they don't have to billet Wpg players and therefore save that money, not sure how that works being the distance they are.

well, if all you needed to be good was being close to winnipeg, why are the blades always bad. obviiously selkirk and portage are just well run franchises, thats just the truth.

No auto-protects,open un-restricted draft is the only way all teams will have equal acess to the whole talent pool.How can the bottom rural teams ever hope to compete with the small budgets,6 to7 thousand dollar per month billet costs .etc.Its apples and oranges to say small rural areas should develope young players at home when you have populations of 3to10 thousand compared to 650 thousand.If the rural governors are happy to be getting whipped every year,well so be it....otherwise wake-up and listen to the comments from rural supporters and DO SOMETHING ABOUT AT THE NEXT MEETINGS!!!!

Cuthbert, Nelson, Jago, Cross, Sitko, Morrrison will all probably go in the 09 MJ Draft

who cares who goes, that's not the issue here!

Yes, why is this allowed to happen year after year, do the rural bodies on the board have no say, or are they scared to get blackballed?

Again, do ANY OTHER provincial jr leagues allow this kind of BLATANT favortism to happen?

I think the MJHL should be restricted to 3 ....20 year old players same as the DUB,which would make alot more quality young players available.

how does it look for the the boys in eastman .which one will get draft to mj.

I totally agree, Get rid of the cities auto-protects and open an un-restricted draft. Like....Why should Portage, Selkirk, and the 2 city teams the only ones to benifit from the city's best AAAs programs rewards and not the rural areas that have to use their time and $$$ in order to keep the MJ alive. IT"S NOT ****ING RIGHT!

I don't get why people keep mentioning Portage in this. They don't auto protect out of Winnipeg. They get the Central Plain region which isn't the greatest or near the biggest. We have to scout, draft and trade like all other rural teams. We just happen to be good at it. The only advantage we get is location (but how do we help that). We get Winnipeg kids who are serious about Jr A want to be traded here, cuz of the hockey program, the fact we supply Teacher assistant jobs that pay $16 an hour, or if you want to go to school you can go to College while playing. All good reasons if you ask me.

The raiding that takes place by the USJHL should also be dealt with.Naturally ,if a young man wants to go south to play[big stepping stone to a sckolly] you can"t very well stop him but the USJHL should be made to do something to compensate the team the player came from.There are some un-ethical methods being used to lure some of these players south which in the show would be called tampering.I"m not saying young Vieger[sp?]would have led SWAN Valley to anything....but I know coach Vestby,the board and the fans where looking to him to do great things for 2008-09.

We just happen to be good at it...he says. Any team from further North would also be good at it too if they were located near WPG. That's why there should be an un-restricted draft in the MJ so other rural teams will have the same advantage and benefits as the ones near or within city limits like Portage, Selkirk, WSBs and the Saints. Geez, it's bad enough the Southern teams, Portage, Selkirk and the 2 city teams are starting to look more like they're in total control of everyting of what goes in and what goes out of WPG and even in Brandon. And that my friend, is not a good sign.

Same could be said then for Winkler, Beausajur, and Neeps. And how do explain Dauphin? Their always able to ice a good team. I think its just you small market, remote towns that are looking for excuses. The fact is maybe your towns just don't have the all around appeal that helps attract kids that are accustumed to city life and its many benefits.

Why are you Wpg.teams so afraid of an open un-restricted draft? Are you happy that somebody like Beasejour may be near the bottom all the time?How do you ever expect it to even out if someone like them or Swan valley could never have acess to the best 'draftable'player? Even if that player refused to report he certainly could be traded for another player or a draft choice.I don"t feel the rural teams are making excuses....you live where you live...fact of life,but a level playing field would be nice!

I agree. But how and why do you feel Portage cheats. We play by the rural team ruals. But benefit cuz of our location. Like you said "you live where you live. Fact of life"

Portage does not even get to protect central plains. they only could protect portage and rm of portage kids. The other stuff about location can only be changed if you make a league that is all within an hour of the city. Stupid.

I don"t think anyone was accused of cheating,everybody has to play by the rules its just that the closer you are to WPG.the more of an advantage you have with the current auto-protect program.The closer you are to a bigger centre naturally you will have a larger pool of highly talented AAA players to protect.Place all AAA players in a draft,allow last place team to pick first and then the trading and shuffling can begin....Win.Win!!

As mentioned before, OCN had their way with the best draft picks before when it was once open for everybody to use until Kim Davis stepped in and put a stop to it, So, Make it fair for others to benefit from it too instead of Portage, Selkirk, WSBs and the Saints whom btw seem to be the only ones that are always getting the first choice with the top prospects to trade or protect for future use. Why do you think Portage, Selkirk and the WSBs are always trading with each other for good players, well, that's because they know they have something good in return for them to fall back for the future that's why. Hmmm, I wonder what the WSBs got in return for Ellement and Nixdorf....4 good WPG prospects perhaps!

well any from eastman that will go in the draft

open draft sounds perfect. that means the mjhl will never do it

A team from Winnipeg has won the league once in the last 10 years. Once. So I'm not too sure they even factor into the equation. Although their 5 autoprotects (not Portage's/Selkirk's) should all be studs with the big pool to pick from. Maybe they need that to survive. With little money to scout and recruit from their small fan base, the autoprotects keep them going. You could say tough sh*t and fold them I guess...didn't help the Blues this year and maybe it isn't everyone else's problem. Fold them and drop to 9 rural teams, one division. But remember...one championship, that's it. So the advantage they have doesn't seem to be paying off.

When OCN was kicking a$$, everyone complained about them. Cheating, bending the rules etc. Now Portage and Selkirk are having their turn and they are the cheaters and rule breakers. They'll have some lean years and the next team that wins will be the cheaters. Just a fact of winning. OCN knows all about sour grapes and Portage and Selkirk are getting it now. They have the same rules as all the other rural teams.

who will go 1st overall in MJ draft???

Who cares. The MJ won't take anyone really good in the first round as to not waste a pick as the best players are drafted to the dub, so why waste a top pick on a guy who most likely won't even play there?

Yup, And this is where the vultures of WPG, Portage and Selkirk wait for the MJs top draft to get cut or get send down from the dub till they're ready to play at the top level. Sigh!

bruyere, cote should go in the draft any others out of eastman

Matt Vigier, Stephan's little cousin will go first overall

Brett Cote
Nick Kobelka
Brendan Harms
Colin Baudry
Taylor Frisen
Will all get drafted outta Eastman

Yeah, Baudry, Kobelka and Harms all are good forwards
Cote and Friesen and good on the point
I see them all getting drafted

You guys just don't seem to get. Every rural team bar none has the same opportunities to draft players that Portage and Selkirk does. Period... Now get off your pity party and and you fat butts and get scouting so when you do get your turn to pick you won't blow it!!!!

Ya but not a lot of teams have gm like cockell in their hip pocket like Spiller does. WSB should be classified a farm team for the Terriers.