DeSerres for Rouse

Couple of notes here on the trade the Tbirds made yesterday.

Brendan Rouse... listed at 6'0" and 173 lbs. Was listed at 5'10" as a bantam so he has grown a couple of inches already. Related to former NHL player Bob Rouse who is also an assistant coach and assistant GM with the Chilliwack Bruins. Rouse has some scoring potential logging 31 goals and 107 points in 77 games season for his Langley team in his final year as a bantam.

What makes the WHL so interesting but also so difficult to follow is that with this kid being in Brandon I honestly have never seen him skate and I really don't have any idea what he looks like. So lets take a look at this from an organizational stand point. He is listed as a center with Brandon but he was drafted as a winger so he can probably do a little bit of both.

1989's

Prab Rai - F
Lindsay Nielsen - F
Jeremy Schappert - D

1990's

Sena Acolatse - F
Brendan Dillon - D
Stefan Warg - D (I)
Brad Haber - D
Kyle Jahraus - G

1991's

Brenden Silvester - F
Charles Wells - F
Jonathan Parker - F
Scott Ramsay - D
Steve Chaffin - D

1992's

Brennan Tutt - F
Mikhail Sentyurin - F (I)
Luke Lockhart - F
Chance Lund - F
Brendan Rouse - F
Erik Fleming - D
Calvin Pickard - G

1993's

Tyler Alos - F
Colin Jacobs - F
Jacob Doty - F
Mitch Elliot - F
Tanner Muth - D
(Connor Sanvido) - F

I'm throwing Sanvido in there assuming he will probably be here next year. As you can see... I think the biggest challenge facing Farwell in the next year or two is getting some more quality defenders in the '92 and '93 classes. If we think the defense is bad right now... there is going to be a giant hole in the roster as you approach the 2011-12 season. Now... obviously Farwell will make some additional moves before that happens, so it isn't like this is something we should be totally concerned with but something will obviously have to give.

Next season... you probably don't keep Jahraus as a 20, so you're looking at Sena and two of the defenders unless they go out and upgrade at that spot (not out of the question). Let's just say for the sake of argument that Warg returns and you pick between Haber/Dillon... your D will look something like Warg - Chaffin, Ramsay - Muth, Dillon/Haber - Fleming. That is only 6 D guys. Now you certainly could bring back a guy like Crema and you will likely have some choices with Zach Walker and Ryan Armbruster but the Tbirds didn't draft very many defensemen in the '09 bantam draft with just Evan Wardley, John Dora and Jordan Houghton being the 3 selections.

Looking forward even more... your 2011-12 defense is a little tougher to project with 5 current 18's making it a little tougher to decide on who stays. Wells, Silvester, Parker, Ramsay and Chaffin are on the current roster... Parker should be a lock with the battles probably being between Wells/Silvester and Ramsay/Chaffin battling for those other two spots. Right now it would be a difficult decision and I'd probably go with Wells and Ramsay to go with Parker. So your defence is penciled in with Fleming, Ramsay, Muth and... well... I dunno... and therein lies the rub. Something will have to give.

This is sort of a fun exercise but obviously things will change a lot between now and August of 2011 but I expect that Farwell is far from finished shaping this roster going into that 2011 season. As for the trade for Rouse... needless to say if he turns out to be a nice player I like the trade but from a depth point of view I would have much preferred a defensemen in the '92 or '93 class even if it wasn't a player that would be in Seattle right away.

If I were GM for a day (again a fun exercise... but really wtf do I know) I would be looking at spinning off a forward with some decent value like Wells or Silvester for another defender in those two younger classes. You could try to spin off a Dillon or Haber but by the time a player gets to his 19 year old season he really starts to lose trade value quickly if he isn't a true impact player. How many teams are going to give up a lot for a 2nd or 3rd pairing defender who probably won't be with the team the following season (depending on their own 19 year old situation). So that makes it pretty difficult for Farwell to extract any value out of another team.

On the positive side... I know we have all been pretty frustrated by the offensive production this season but the future actually looks pretty bright.

In 2011 you'll be looking at Parker and Wells/Silvester to go with Sentyurin, Lockhart, Lund, Rouse, Jacobs, Elliott, Sanvido, Alos and Troock/Hickman/Houcher as possible development players. That is possibly 3 pretty strong lines with a pretty decent chance at a solid 4th line or checking line.