CALLER-TIMES INTERACTIVE: NEWS
Tue 05-May-1998
First choice in draft goes to IceRays
Corpus Christi's hockey team has until May 30 to scout available talent
By MARK BUTTON
Caller-Times
The Corpus Christi IceRays will receive the No. 1 pick in the 1998-99 Western Professional Hockey League expansion draft, which will be held May 30 in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the annual league meetings.
The WHPL, currently a 12-team minor league, will expand to 17 teams next season -- not 14, as the league previously planned. Originally, league officials said the WPHL would expand to Corpus Christi and Little Rock, Ark., for the 1998-99 season. However, Tupelo, Miss., and Alexandria, La., have since been granted franchises and it is projected that Abilene will be the 17th team to join the WPHL. Each of the 12 current teams have 20-man rosters and will be able to protect as many 15 players for the expansion draft. Those not protected will be available. In addition to the first overall pick, Corpus Christi secured the 10th, 15th, 16th and 25th picks in the draft. Each of the five expansion teams received five selections.
IceRays' coach Taylor Hall said he was thrilled that his team won the lottery for the first pick.
``Someone is looking over us, that's for sure,'' Hall said in a telephone interview Monday from Namaimo, British Columbia, where he was scouting talent in the Canadian Tier II Junior Hockey Championships. ``I think there's going to be some good players available.''
Taylor said between now and the draft he will receive information on all the available players.
``I'll spend my time contacting all those players over the next couple weeks depending on who would want to come here and who wouldn't,'' Hall said.
Hall wouldn't say whether he would look for an offensive or defensive player to select with this first pick.
``Right now, I haven't even seen the list of who's available,'' Hall said. ``I know that we will be able to get five players who will contribute, so I'm not even worried about that.''
The IceRays have signed one player, Jodi Praznik. The 6-foot-1, right-handed defenseman played for Hall two years ago in Albuquerque, N.M., when they led the New Mexico Scorpions to the WPHL Governors' Cup for the best 1996-97 regular season record.