Rockets GM Bruce Hamilton on Wednesday's CHL Euro Draft

On paper you look like you are in a good position Bruce for the CHL Import Draft picking 7th overall in the first round?

"Sure picking 7th is good, but my fear is what's going to be there. As we are finding out today, the pool gets smaller and smaller because a number of these players have decided they don't want to come over to North America and play. I think what's happening is the Czechs and the Slovaks in particular, their federations are doing everything they can to keep these players at home and playing in their programs, which enhances them. In the past the Swedes have been very hard to get, but we got really lucky with Alexander Edler, and their has been more interest in those players to come over because they don't get to move up to the senior teams there as fast as they do in the other countries."

What type of player would you be looking for?

I have my eye on a couple of guys, and picking in the first seven we are hoping we can get a player in that group that is going to help us. The second pick, it'll be like throwing a deck of cards in the air and see who's still available there. I am probably leaning more and more to a younger player that we would look at bringing next year rather than this year because of the age of our team.

So you'd be satisfied with just one European player on your roster this season?

"We'll I'm not going to bring a player over that isn't much better than the guys we have. If I do, I am not doing my job very well. I know that if we get fortunate in the first pick, and get the guy I am interested in, then I know he can step in and play and have an impact on our team."

We talked last week that the purpose of your trip to the NHL draft was to make contact with several European scouts. Was your trip fruitful from that standpoint?

"They are all selling, but their are alot of players that would like to come over, but they are not better than the players we have here already. I went to the under 18's, so I saw all of these players that they are trying to pedal, and some of them aren't quite what they are selling".

Some teams have more success at the draft than others. Why so?

"The year that Vancouver got Schwartz and Mezaros was...some people didn't know those guys were interested in playing in the WHL, if you can read into what I am saying. That's why this thing is more about being controlled by the European agents in alot of ways, and that's why we invested and went over to the under 18's to watch it so we could see who was there."