As was started yesterday, the SBN Hockey bloggers are doing a mock draft. Three picks a day, with the master list running through James Mirtle's From the Rink. He'll update the list each day with the next picks and links to each blog's rationale. With now 9 days left until the real deal, that puts us on the clock.

via i34.tinypic.com

The Phoenix Coyotes select, from the Spokane Chiefs, Defenseman Jared Cowen. Cowen Is one big kid. 6'5" and 220 lbs. He's strong on defense and was getting better and better offensively until he went out with a knee injury late in the season. Reports say that he should be 100% before training camps open so everything will hopefully be fine and not keep a team from drafting him. While plenty of people may value other players over Cowen and scream "Draft for skill!" Cowen has shown he has plenty of tallent, but the tie breaker between him and the rest of the availiable players is the Phoenix needs defensive prospects as right now the cupboard is a little bare and we're stacked on young forwards. In order to get a better perspective, I asked Spokane resident, Chiefs follower and sometimes Pension Plan Puppets contributer Wrap Around Curl her opinions on Cowen.

"He brings presence and leadership and for someone his size, he can skate and he doesn't need to fight and scrap all the time. People tend to stay out of his way and he is ridiculously protective of his goalies."

"He's a mature player, good head on his shoulders. The Chiefs kinda fell apart once he was injured, it was clear he brought leadership"

"I am convinced if he hadnt gotten injured, he could have probably knocked Tavares off number 1"

 A look at his WHL stats from the past couple of seasons...