The Western Hockey League Bantam Draft was held today. Here are the first names of the players selected, as compiled by Blueshirt Banter’s Adam Herman:


It must be noted exactly who we’re dealing with here. The draft pool consists of players who have graduated the Bantam division, so these promising young players were born in the year 2000. These are prime Total Request Live-era babies.

And it’s not drawing from all of North America either. Per the WHL’s rules,

Players who reside in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming are protected for the WHL and are eligible to be listed by WHL clubs through regular WHL listing procedures.


So, Western Canada and, roughly the U.S. states west of the Mississippi. (If Utah and Idaho ever become hockey hotbeds, future lists will look like Star Wars Expanded Universe character lists).

We’re all to blame, though.

Photo: The Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association 2011’s WHL draft class, featuring Rourke, Colin, Kolten, Dawson, Rylan, Braden, Vukie, Ross, Rod, Jesse, Cody. [Caption correction—see below.]