How the T-Birds were built: The protected list and import draftees

The seventh and final installment of a series of articles looking at how the current T-Birds roster was built through the draft and various trades over the past five years:

Success in the Bantam Draft is paramount for any team hoping to do well in the Western Hockey League. Make your picks count, develop them appropriately, and you should be in good shape moving forward.

Of the 23 players currently counted on Seattle’s postseason roster (including the injured Keegan Kolesar), 14 were selected by Seattle in the Bantam Draft. However, selecting players when they’re just 15 years old can prove to be an incredibly inexact science. Just look at former T-Bird and current San Jose Shark Brenden Dillon. Undrafted by any WHL team, a growth spurt and some hard work earned him his opportunity with Seattle, where he was eventually named team captain and scored 59 points in 72 games as a 20-year-old. Now 6 foot 3 and 227 pounds, Dillon is making an impact at the game’s highest level.

When players go unselected in the Bantam Draft, a team has the opportunity to add them to their Protected Player List, as Seattle did with Dillon. According to the WHL website, the list works as follows:

Each WHL Club is permitted to place a maximum of 50 players between the ages of 14 and 20 on their list. A player may not be added to a WHL List until he has been eligible for the WHL Bantam Draft, which occurs following his final season of bantam hockey.

The current Thunderbirds roster features four listed players: Scott Eansor, Jerret Smith, Calvin Spencer, and Nick Holowko.

Eansor made his debut with Seattle as a 17-year-old last year and has since developed into one of the league’s most tenacious defensive forwards. While his relatively low point totals so far may cause him to go unnoticed by some – he has 49 in 124 career regular-season games – Eansor could easily be considered a candidate as one of Seattle’s most valuable players.

The Englewood, Colo. native is tasked night-in and night-out with defending the opponent’s best line, he’s a very good faceoff man and one of the fastest players in the league. He’s an incredible asset on the penalty kill and has a quickly growing offensive arsenal that saw his point total increase from 12 in his rookie year to 37 this season.

Smith, part of Seattle’s trio of stellar 19-year-old defensemen, also debuted when he was 17 during the 2012-13 season. Like Eansor, Smith sometimes goes unnoticed because he’s not particularly excellent at one thing. However, also like Eansor, Smith is a very good all-around player whose accountability allows those around him, particularly his defensive partner Shea Theodore, to unleash their skills.

Added to Seattle’s list out of his hometown of Surrey, British Columbia, Smith is now an alternate captain and member of the team’s top defensive pairing. He’s been a plus-25 in the past two years combined while amassing 57 points and not missing a single game. In fact, in his three WHL seasons, Smith has missed just one game in total, earning him a reputation from head coach Steve Konowalchuk as someone who can always be counted on.

The contributions that Eansor and Smith have provided Seattle over the past few seasons demonstrate just how valuable a team’s Protected List can be. It takes some heavy scouting by the team to find those “diamonds in the rough,” as well as a deep commitment from the player to his own personal development.

Spencer, a 1996-born forward, came to Seattle midway through last season and has provided an energetic lower-line presence in his 99 regular-season games to date. While his 19 points in his WHL career won’t turn heads, Spencer has also become a mainstay in the lineup, playing a power forward role that can give opposing defensemen headaches.

The Brooklyn Park, Minn. native has established himself as a positive contributor in the locker room and someone who will stand up for his teammates without hesitation. The definition of a grinder, Spencer’s contributions, like both Eansor’s and Smith’s, go beyond what can be seen on the scoresheet.

Holowko, a rookie with the T-Birds this season, comes from the same Burnaby Winter Club that Mathew Barzal played for, which may have helped him get noticed while the Thunderbirds were doing their scouting rounds. Whatever the case may be, Holowko showed enough in training camp to be added to the roster full-time this year and played in 63 games, scoring five goals and adding four assists.

Sticking mostly on the fourth line this year, don’t be surprised if the Burnaby, British Columbia native gets more playing time next season and contributes in a checking line role.

The final two members of Seattle’s roster, Roberts Lipsbergs and Alexander True, were grabbed by Seattle in the 2012 and 2014 CHL Import Drafts, respectively.

Lipsbergs came to Seattle from Riga, Latvia and immediately led the team in scoring with 58 points in 64 games in 2012-13. His second season in Seattle in 2013-14 was just as effective as he finished with 52 points in 68 games. Lipsbergs has been one of Seattle’s best goal scorers in his two-plus seasons with the team, including this year when he hit the back of the net 16 times in just 33 games.

His presence on this season’s roster is a bit of an anomaly as the left wing wasn’t on the depth chart at the beginning of the season, but returned from a brief ECHL stint to replace former T-Birds captain Justin Hickman, who was forced to end his WHL career to undergo shoulder surgery. His versatility has been a welcome addition as he’s averaged over a point per game and was a plus-12 during the regular season.

True, drafted in 2014, came on strong towards the end of the season before a broken wrist sidelined him for two months. The Copenhagen, Denmark native has picked up where he left off in the playoffs with two goals in five games, despite somewhat limited ice time. Next year as an 18-year-old, True will play a much larger role on the team. His big body and smooth skating stride are assets that he can learn to utilize, which would make him a versatile forward that can be effective in a number of different ways.

This season’s Thunderbirds roster, despite its youth, has turned some heads in finishing a close third in the U.S. Division and, so far, giving Portland a run for its money in the playoffs. The future is bright for this talented young group that has come to Seattle via an assortment of routes.