Short interview with Russ Farwell (part one)

Last week, I came up with some questions for GM Farwell that were not about this last season, but about looking forward.  He returned the following answers (in red).  I appreciate the time and fast turn around he gave on these.

I will post the questions in a couple parts as the relate to events coming up in the off season.

20 year old situation

Is it fair to assume that all 19's get moved to the overage list, therefore freeing up space on the 50 man list? RF: Yes that is how the new spots are created for the bantam draft.

Does this include both Euro's also? 

RF: Yes imports need to be added to the regular list when drafted.

It seems more and more recently, teams that have had extra 20's have tried to move them during the offseason.  Do you think you’ll actively seek to move some of these 20 year old players earlier in the offseason? 

RF: Our (extra) 20s are a bit more complicated.  Troock is signed; Hickman just finished in the AHL so has to be treated as a legitimate possible to play there; and Honey is an unknown due to health so until those guys are settled it is hard to make decisions regarding our other 20 year olds.

With Maxwell announcing his intention of forgoing his overage season, do you have the ability to place him on some kind of different list to retain his rights, just in case he decides to come back? 

RF: No

Bantam draft

Assuming all the 19's and Euros get moved to a 20 year old list, that leaves a lot of space for the draft, and you have 9 draft picks, do you plan on picking into the 10th round? 

RF: We will pick as long as we like players but probably will leave a spot or two open for later on.

I have read this draft is not as strong as years past (maybe not as deep is a better term), any thoughts on that? 

RF: Probably not as strong as some.

With what appears as possibly a very strong 16 year old defensive core coming in (with the hopeful signing of Fabbro, Khaira, Osterman, etc), will the team be leaning more towards forwards? 

RF: We will see.

Seattle has no 3rd or 4th round picks in the draft, does this effect the direction you take with the first two picks? 

RF: No we will pick the two best players we can and hope we can make up for our holes with our two picks in the 5^th.  we will not be trying to trade up to fill those holes.

Last season, you drafted a 19 year old goaltender, this seemed very unusual.  With no 19 year old forwards, is it possible you would do that again with one of the late picks to fill that role?

RF: Possible but unlikely. There are few players able to play in the WHL that are unprotected.