Class of 2012 on TPS Part 4

This is the fourth part of the year in review series of discussions we have had on The Pipeline Show about the 2012 NHL Draft. Below are the topical interviews from the months of February and March, taken from our convenient and publicly accessible media archive.

If you missed the first three installments in this series, you can get find them here: (Part 1), (Part 2) and (Part 3).

Don't forget, the 2-hour ISS Draft Special is slated for Tuesday June 19th. Head scout Ross MacLean will join us in studio for the entire show and we'll be taking your questions via email, Twitter and text. Don't miss your chance to get caught up on the draft and maybe have your questions answered on during the big show. 

Photo: Jesa Koivunen

The March 3rd edition of the ISS Draft Countdown featured Ross MacLean on Finnish forward Teuvo Teravainen, Swift Current's Coda Gordon, Charles Hudon from Chicoutimi and OHL skaters Gemel Smith and Jarrod Maidens.

Another well spoken youngster was Malcolm Subban of the Belleville Bulls. The goaltender joined us back on March 6th to talk about the season and more. 

The top rated skater for the Alberta Junior Hockey League was a guest on March 10th. Sherwood Park's Peter Quenneville would go on to capture league MVP honors and made news recently when he announced he would head south to the USHL after being recruited by the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Guelph Storm defenceman Matt Finn spoke with us about following in the footsteps of Drew Doughty who wore the same jersey until the 2008 Draft.

The ISS Draft Countdown on March 17th was highlighted by scouting reports on Kamloops forward Tim Bozon, Victoriaville goalie Brandon Whitney, Nic Kerdiles from the US-NTDP, Belleville import Danil Zharkov and Guelph forward Scott Kosmachuk. Ross MacLean shared his opinions on them all.

Photo: Aaron Bell

Potential #1 overall pick, Ryan Murray, made another TPS appearance in late March as the WHL playoffs began. The Silvertips captain discussed Everett's chances, the draft, the WJC and more.

One of the highlight player interviews of the year, in my opinion, was seldom talked about forward Dane Fox. The Erie Otters trade deadline addition spoke with ease about being dealt from the eventual OHL champion London Knights to the cellar dwelling Otters and more.

Red Deer Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin was named to the bench for Canada's entry into the World U18s. We spoke with him about getting the gig plus one of the key players both of his teams, Mathew Dumba. 

Coda Gordon's Swift Current Broncos failed to reach the playoffs but his season wasn't over. We chatted with him about playing for Canada at the upcoming U18s, the draft and the season that was.

Speaking of Canada and the U18s, we asked head scout Kevin Prendergast to go through the team that he helped assemble, a lot of draft interest here. Plus, this was the interview where we broke the news that Canada's U20 squad was heading over to Russia this summer for a charity series.

The final show in March contained another bi-weekly edition of the ISS Draft Countdown. In Ross MacLean's spotlight this time around were power forward Brandon Troock of the Seattle Thunderbirds, Edmonton Oil Kings defenceman Cody Corbett, Russian Nikita Gusev, Brady Vail of the Windsor Spitfires and Boston University recruit Robbie Baillargeon. 

We kicked off April in fine style welcoming Alex Galchenyuk back to TPS. We discussed the injury, missing all the marquee events and also covered the U18s and the draft.

Ross MacLean helped us preview the World U18s by giving in-depth scouting reports on 5 players to watch: Damon Severson, Warren Steel, Ludvig Bystrom, Calle Andersson and Petr Sidlik. 

Kevin Roy had an unbelievable year for the Lincoln Stars scoring 54 goals and 104 points. How good was it? Beat writer Ryan S. Clark made the case that it was probably the best season the USHL has ever seen from an individual player.

Edmonton Oil Kings defenceman Ashton Sautner fit TPS in between playoff series. The draft, the playoffs and being ranked in the top 100 were all covered with him on April 9th. 

The Director of Amateur Scouting for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tyler Wright, was our guest the night before the NHL held the draft lottery. Of all the questions we asked... not winning the lottery wasn't one of them. Still well worth a listen.

Photo: Calgary Hitmen

Underrated goaltender Chris Driedger of the Calgary Hitmen delivered one of the best interviews of the season without a doubt. I dare you to listen and then not want your team to draft him.

Sure fire top-10 pick Morgan Rielly missed a ton of playing time this year with Moose Jaw but we were able to speak with him prior to the semi-final series against Edmonton. We also talked about the draft too of course.

Chris Peters writes an outstanding blog called The United States of Hockey. When he's not writing top-notch features he's helping broadcast games like he did for USA and Canada at the World U18s. He also talked to us in the middle of the night from the Czech Republic to report on several key 2012 eligible players.

Photo: Tricia Mercuri

International Man of Mystery, Tim Bozon, was a guest in mid-April. The Kamloops Blazers forward has ties to Switzerland, Italy, the United States and France and talked to us about all of that plus why he came to play in Canada.

Back from the World U18s, Ross MacLean brought us another chapter of the ISS Draft Countdown. This time around: Mathew Dumba, Anton Slepyshev, Sebastien Collberg, Filip Forsberg, Matt Murray and Jacob Trouba were under the microscope.

Jon Gillies first joined us before Christmas but we wanted to speak with the big goalie again since his college status had changed. The Indiana Ice 'tender updated us on that situation and commented on the QMJHL and the draft too.

The last draft eligible player we squeezed into April was Kelowna Rockets defender Damon Severson.

We'll recap May and June in the 5th and final part to the series in the next few days.