Wednesday's package . . .

The big news Wednesday involves the Red Deer Rebels, who had the second-poorest regular-season record and now will have the first selection in the 2008 WHL bantam draft.
The draft is scheduled for May 1 in Calgary.
The WHL held its draft lottery in Calgary on Wednesday with the six non-playoff teams involved. The lottery was conducted by a representative of the accounting firm KPMG.
Only one ball is drawn as that enables them to set the order, with teams unable to move up or down more than two spots from the inverse order of their regular-season finish.
The ball that emerged belonged to Red Deer, so the second pick automatically went to the Portland Winter Hawks, who finished with the poorest record this season.
Red Deer last held the first pick in 1992 when it took part in its first draft. The Rebels selected D Mike McBain, who went on to play four seasons with them.
The Saskatoon Blades ended up with the third pick, one they acquired last season from the Prince George Cougars.
The Edmonton Oil Kings will have the fourth pick, with the Prince Albert Raiders picking fifth and the Blades, with their own selection, going sixth.
The order for the second and all other rounds will be the inverse order of the final standings.
The order for the first two rounds:
FIRST ROUND
1. Red Deer Rebels; 2. Portland Winter Hawks; 3. Saskatoon Blades (from Prince George Cougars); 4. Edmonton Oil Kings; 5. Prince Albert Raiders; 6. Saskatoon Blades;
7. Kamloops Blazers; 8. Chilliwack Bruins; 9. Everett Silvertips; 10. Kelowna Rockets; 11. Prince George (from Moose Jaw Warriors); 12. Swift Current Broncos;
13. Brandon Wheat Kings; 14. Seattle Thunderbirds; 15. Kootenay Ice; 16. Medicine Hat Tigers; 17. Regina Pats; 18. Lethbridge Hurricanes;
19. Calgary Hitmen; 20. Vancouver Giants;; 21. Spokane Chiefs; 22. Tri-City Americans.
SECOND ROUND
1. Portland; 2. Red Deer; 3. Prince George; 4. Edmonton; 5. Prince Albert; 6. Kamloops;
7. Chilliwack; 8. Saskatoon; 9. Everett; 10. Kelowna; 11. Moose jaw; 12. Swift Current;
13. Brandon; 14. Seattle; 15. Kootenay; 16. Medicine Hat; 17. Regina; 18. Lethbridge;
19. Calgary; 20. Vancouver; 21. Spokane; 22. Tri-City.
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The Winter Hawks held the No. 1 pick last year but dealt it to the Moose Jaw Warriors for the fifth and 28th selections and Michael Burns, a player off the Warriors’ list. The Winter Hawks drafted LW Bradley Ross, younger brother of Kamloops defenceman Nick Ross, and D Joe Morrow, both of whom made their WHL debuts this season. Burns, a forward from Edmonton who was selected by Moose Jaw with the 59th pick in 2006, has been dropped from Portland’s list.
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Prince George beat the Blazers in Kamloops on the season’s last night and moved past Red Deer in the overall standings. That meant that the Cougars had four balls in the lottery instead of five, with the Rebels getting five rather than four. All of which may well have impacted the way things turned out.
Saskatoon, which holds Prince George’s first selection, presently owns four picks in the first two rounds. The 30th overall pick is its own and it picked up Vancouver’s second-round pick, 42nd overall, for F Wacey Rabbitt last season.
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Who are teams looking at early in the bantam draft? According to the Red Deer Advocate, here are some of the names being bandied about these days:
F Brent Benson, Weyburn, Sask., who had 74 points, 37 of them goals, in 26 games with a bantam team.
F Brendan Hurley, Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., who had 83 points and 141 penalty minutes in 31 games in the Alberta Major Bantam loop.
F Mark McNeill, Edmonton Southside, who had 41 goals and 28 assists in 33 games in the AMBL.
F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Burnaby Winter Club.
F Ty Rattie, Airdrie Xtreme, won the Alberta Major Bantam League’s scoring title with 131 points, including 75 goals. He also had 101 penalty minutes.
D Duncan Siemens, Sherwood Park Flyers, top defenceman in the AMBL’s North Division. He had 36 points in 32 games.
F Michael St. Croix, Winnipeg, son of former NHL G Rick St. Croix. Michael had 137 points, including 51 goals, in 25 games with the bantam AAA Winnipeg Monarchs.
D Mitch Topping, Red Deer, top defenceman in the AMBL’s South Divison.
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THE MacBETH REPORT: Garth MacBeth, our man on the European beat, reports that things are starting to heat up as teams begin to make moves aimed at next season. . . . Two moves in Finland this week. SaiPa Lappeenranta (Finland SM-Liiga) has signed F Shayne Toporowski to a two-year contract. Toporowski has played five seasons in SM-Liiga, the past four with Lukko Rauma. He led Lukko in scoring this season with 34 points, including12 goals, in 54 games. He was plus-4 and had 97 PIM while averaging 19 minutes of ice time per game. In the playoffs, Toporowski had a goal and two assists in three games, going plus-1 on just over 23 minutes of ice time per game. Ninth-place Lukko was eliminated in the preliminary round 2-1. . . . Sport Vaasa (Finland Mestis, the second league) announced today that they will not re-sign F Blake Robson. Robson had 26 points, nine of them goals, and was plus-5 in 44 games for Sport. He also had 44 PM. In the playoffs, Robson was pointless in five games. He also was minus-1 and and had two PM, as sixth-place Sport lost 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
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You’ve gotta think that Tri-City head coach Don Nachbaur was smiling Wednesday when he saw the CHL Mosaik MasterCard top 10 rankings that came out of the CHL office. These are the final rankings for this regular season, as selected by an anonymous panel of NHL scouts. The Americans, who just finished the greatest regular season in their history and wound up atop the WHL’s overall standings by beating the visiting Spokane Chiefs 2-1 on Saturday, are ranked No. 4. That’s right . . . FOURTH! . . . And the Chiefs are ranked No. 2. . . . Gee, do you think these ratings just might be in a position of prominence in the Americans’ dressing room? . . . You also have to think that Kelly Kisio, the GM/head coach of the Eastern Conference-champion Calgary Hitmen, just might have tacked up a copy in his club’s dressing quarters, too.
Anyway, here are the final rankings, showing ranking, last week’s ranking, record and weeks in rankings:
1. (1) Kitchener Rangers (OHL, 53-11-1-3) 23
2. (2) Spokane Chiefs (WHL, 50-15-1-6) 20
3. (3) Belleville Bulls (OHL, 48-14-4-2) 12
4. (4) Tri-City Americans (WHL, 52-16-2-2) 25
5. (5) Vancouver Giants (WHL, 49-15-2-6) 22
6. (6) Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL, 47-20-2-1) 20
7. (7) Baie Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL, 45-19-2-4) 18
8. (9) Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL, 44-18-2-4) 23
9. (8) Gatineau Olympiques (QMJHL, 43-19-6-2) 11
10. (10) Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL, 45-21-2-4) 3
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The Regina Pats have had five midget AAA players skating with them. Jordan Weal, the 79th pick in the 2007 bantam draft, won the B.C. major midget league scoring title with 100 points, including 39 goals, in 40 games for the Vancouver-North West Giants. Also with the Pats are forwards Clark Breitkreuz, Dominick Favreau and Graham Hood, all of whom played for the Saskatchewan midget AAA Beardy’s Blackhawks. Favreau was the 13th overall pick in the 2007 draft, while Hood was taken with the 23rd pick.
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It appears that Hockey Canada will have a brand new head coach and two new assistants for its national junior team next season. That’s because all three members of last season’s coaching staff, which won gold in Czech Republic, have declined to return. Head coach Craig Hartsburg (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds) and assistants Curtis Hunt (Regina Pats) and Clement Jodoin (Lewiston MAINEiacs) all chose not to apply this time around.
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Going into the series between the Brandon Wheat Kings and Lethbridge Hurricanes, the four goaltenders on the rosters have a combined 13 minutes of playoff experience. That belongs to Brandon’s Joe Caligiuri. Brandon’s Andrew Hayes and the Lethbridge duo of Mike Maniago and Juha Metsola haven’t yet been playoff tested. . . . Brandon is likely to open play without D Chad Erb (broken wrist) and D Theran Yeo (knee). Erb is practising, however. . . . Kamloops D Mark Schneider (knee), who is from Brandon, missed the last 12 games with an injury suffered in practice. He has resumed light skating but won’t play in the first round. . . . Brandon is carrying Graham Hildebrand as a third goaltender. He was with the Saskatchewan midget AAA league’s Beardy’s Blackhawks. . . . The Spokane Chiefs have added F Blake Gal to their roster. Gal, from Lethbridge, was the 34th pick in the 2007 bantam draft. He spent the season with the midget AAA Lethbridge Y’s Men Titans. . . . Medicine Hat Tigers sniper Tyler Ennis, who sat out the final regular-season game with a leg injury, was back on the ice Wednesday. So he will be in the lineup when the Tigers open at home Friday against the Kootenay Ice. . . . Ennis versus the Ice’s Steve Da Silva should be one of the great matchups of the first round. . . . Red Deer G James Reimer, who turned 20 on Saturday, has signed with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, who selected him 99th overall in the 2006 draft.