By Drew Wilson

Decisions….Decisions…draft day approaches

May 3, 2011 | 4:59 PM

The WHL Bantam draft is a crap shoot. Scouts and General Managers face the daunting task of projecting how a 14 year old will fare at the Major Junior level years down the road.

However, Coach and GM Bruno Campese and his staff has spent countless hours and logged mega miles scouting the draft class of 2011 heading into Thursday's annual lottery in Calgary.

There is one certainty. The Raiders will choose the best player available when they make their first round selection, 8th overall says Campese.

“That first pick is absolutely critical and we will be looking at the best player possible. As we move back depending who is available in the third round, that may change a little bit as far as positions are concerned, but at that point as well we may be looking at taking the best player possible.”

The best player possible 8th overall according to a Prince Albert based scout for Western Elite Hockey Prospects, is Reid Gardiner, a Prince Albert born 50 goal man who played last year with the Humboldt bantams. Tyler Neisz calls Gardiner one of the best pure goal scorers in the draft.

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“I do think that's a good possibility that Prince Albert may take the semi local player as he is from Humboldt and they are pretty familiar with him, he has size and good scoring ability”.

Neisz correctly predicted the Raiders would select defenseman Josh Morrissey of Calgary 6th overall last year.

The top ranked player according to the organization is Ryan Pilon. The defenseman from Duck Lake who played for Warman had 28 goals and 48 points in just 21 games. However Neisz says Pilon could fall to second or third overall because he was slowed by an injury and illness at the end of the season.

The top player available from the Provincial Champion PA Venice House Pirates is forward Miles Warkentine. The 6-foot, 165 pound power forward is made for the WHL says Neisz.

“Miles is a big player, a big bodied player with skill and anytime I think when you can combine the two traits it certainly makes for an intriguing prospect”.

Western Elite Hockey Prospects also have three of Warentine's teammates ranked in the first three rounds. Defenseman Jordan Harris is a first round prospect ranked 20th overall, Forward Ryan Duret who had 53 goals and 109 points in 24 games is ranked 38th, while defenseman Bryton Sayers who had a very strong Western Canadian championship is ranked 59th. Lance Yaremchuk of the Pirates is ranked 113th. All five are slated to play with the Midget AAA Mintos next season.

The Raiders don't have a second round pick because of the Jamie Tucker trade from Vancouver in January 2010. However they have three selections each in the third and fourth rounds. That means there is a chance for trades to move up in the draft to grab a highly ranked local player or bolster their group of 19-year-olds.

Both scenerios are possibilities Campese says.

“We have had some discussions with some teams and yet teams aren't willing to part with a 92 (birth year of 19-year-old players) unless there is a player they feel they can get at that point in the draft.”

Campese also says they are perfectly happy to make selections with all of their picks (7 selections in the top 88) because of the depth of quality players, particularily forwards in this year's pool.

You can follow all draft day developments on paNOW.com and 900 CKBI.

dwilson@rawlco.com