Rebels Confident Their Shelves Remain Well-Stocked Following Trades

Shaun Sutter

“The Red Deer Rebels are selling the farm to load up for the Memorial Cup!”

This has been a common refrain from pundits near and far in wake of the blockbuster trades the Rebels have made over the past couple of weeks.

There’s a concern out there that the Rebels are doomed to follow the lead of the Saskatoon Blades in going all out now by giving away their future. (We all know how that worked out for them )

Team brass, however, is confident in their belief that the Rebels cupboard for next year and beyond is not as empty as many believe.

Assistant GM Shaun Sutter spoke with Cam Moon during Wednesday night’s broadcast on 106.7 The Drive of the Rebels’ 5-0 win in Saskatoon. Sutter presented the team’s case that they are indeed not talent-strapped for the post-Memorial Cup era.

“A lot of people see what’s going out the door, the abundance of draft picks and players going out,” Sutter noted. “But, we’ve accumulated an abundance of draft picks for this reason, to hopefully keep our younger players in the fold, those on our roster and those who aren’t on our team, so we can have success down the line.”

REBELS: Draft Day 2014

Once again, the Red Deer Rebels tapped into some NHL bloodlines in the first round of the WHL Bantam Draft.

There was Brandon Sutter in 2004, Adam Musil in 2012, and today Jake Leschyshyn whose father, Curtis, patrolled the blue line in both the NHL and WHL and was an Assistant Coach with the Saskatoon Blades last season.

Leschyshyn, the 6^th overall selection in today’s draft, headlines the group of 11 players selected by the Rebels. The group of 11 also includes a local product and a pair of very intriguing American players.

Overall, Rebels Assistant GM Sutter feels the club was able to address the needs they had identified heading into today’s draft.

Rebels Go Prospecting

Even though I’ll only be around for the first day, I’m quite looking forward to this year’s edition of the Red Deer Rebels annual prospects camp.

34 players will hit the ice at the Penhold Multiplex Friday (3-5pm), Saturday (3:45-5:45pm) and Sunday (9-11am) with all three sessions open to the public.

If 34 seems like a high of players number that’s because, compared to past years, it is. Usually, somewhere around two dozen players come to town for this annual camp. The increased camp roster will provide a new and interesting dynamic.

“We’ll have enough players that we can have 17 on each team, so we’ll scrimmage more than we did in the past,” Rebels GM / Head Coach Brent Sutter told Greg Meachem (@GregMeachem) of the Red Deer Advocate.

It makes sense. It can only help these up and coming players to put them head to head and see what they’re made of. Let them measure themselves against each other so see where they are now and where they need to be in order to someday make this team.

Rebels: WHL Bantam Draft

Even when it's finally nice outside it's fun to talk hockey.

The 2013 WHL Bantam Draft took place today in Calgary.  Here's who the Rebels selected...

Player                         Selected                                  POS    Birthdate        Hometown    

Jeff de Wit                   1^st round, 14^th overall              C          Mar. 14, 1998  Red Deer, AB

Joshua Mahura             2^nd round, 36^th overall              D         May 6, 1998    St. Albert, AB

Caleb Riess                  4^th round, 70^th overall              RW      Aug. 20, 1998  Rocanville, SK

Nick Darling                6^th round, 113^th overall            D         Feb. 12, 1998  Saskatoon, SK

Cale Chalifoux             6^th round, 124^th overall            D         May 15, 1998  Edmonton, AB

Joshua Logel                7^th round, 137^th overall            C          Apr. 17, 1998  Calgary, AB

Max Salpeter                8^th round, 168^th overall            D         Apr. 2, 1998    St. Albert, AB

Tyler Kirkup                9^th round, 190^th overall            C          Apr. 3, 1998    Virden, MB

Kyle Sargent                9^th round, 195^th overall            D         Mar. 2, 1998    Carlyle, SK

New Kids In Town

What better way to celebrate the arrival of June than to hit the ice for hockey practice!

This weekend, 21 skaters and 3 goaltenders will hit the ice at the Penhold Multiplex for the 2012 Red Deer Rebels Spring Prospects Camp. 

Draft Day Dawns For Rebels

[  NOTE - Diving into any sort of draft analysis is a new thing for this particular reporter so do bear with me and feel free to add some input of your own :)  ]

The 2012 WHL Bantam Draft takes place tomorrow (Thursday).

After the Draft Lottery took place shortly after the end of the regular season, I received a pair of interesting tweets (@Troy_Gillard) from one of my hockey followers...

"Do you think the scouting staff can get it right this time? Haven't much success in the draft recently."

"Scouting staff needs to do a better job following the easy rd 1 & 2 picks."