Friday facts

It's going to be a busy weekend in the WHL, with 20 exhibition games scheduled for the next three days:

Friday:
Kelowna @ Vancouver (at Ladner)
Kootenay @ Calgary (Calgary Centennial Arena)
Spokane vs. Portland (Tri-City tournament)
Seattle vs. Tri-City (Tri-City tournament)
Saskatoon @ Prince Albert
Kamloops @ Prince George
Swift Current @ Moose Jaw

Saturday:
Edmonton vs. Calgary (at Okotoks)
Everett vs. Portland (Tri-City tournament)
Spokane vs. Tri-City (Tri-City tournament)
Prince George @ Kamloops
Vancouver @ Kelowna
Medicine Hat @ Kootenay
Red Deer @ Lethbridge
Regina @ Saskatoon
Swift Current @ Brandon

Sunday:
Seattle vs. Portland (Tri-City tournament)
Everett vs. Tri-City (Tri-City tournament)
Brandon @ Prince Albert
Regina @ Medicine Hat

Only Chilliwack doesn't play at least one game this weekend, and with most teams having some of their top veterans away at NHL camps, it's going to be make-it-or-break-it time for a lot of rookie hopefuls this weekend. Exhibition play wraps up next weekend but by then many of the vets will have returned from their NHL rookie camps and could be back in the lineups.

Now the WHL news wrap-up....

Kamloops is trying to figure out what to do with four goalies. I'd have to say that it doesn't look very good for Dustin Butler and probably hasn't since they acquired Leclerc. Only question really is whether he gets traded (who needs an overage goalie?) or just released on October 11.

The Cougars discuss yesterday's moves that saw vets Curtis Patterson traded and Steven Kajic released.

Speaking of Patterson, the Blades are happy to have him. Article also mentions a couple new additions to the Blades' protected list.

And still in Saskatoon, nothing really new in this piece, but a nice little roundup of how things are going around the league.

Ex-Bronco Karl Benke is in Edmonton's camp and feeling good about trying to make his hometown team.

The Americans discuss bringing in Paul Levarsky and Brayden Nargang. Allow me to translate: "Our rookie defencemen have not shown they can play in the league this year, so we need to bring in guys who were cut by the Oil Kings".

Tyler Ennis is looking forward to playing a larger role in Tiger-land this year.

The Raiders are on the golf course, already. Kinda early, especially since (IMO anyway) they are one of the better-looking Eastern division teams for this coming season.

Pats defence hopeful Matt MacDermott finds himself right back where he started after trips through Red Deer and Kelowna last year.

A rare (very rare!) article from the Kelowna papers about the state of Rockets camp. However, still not a single detail about remaining players. For a team which is supposed to be one of the league's better organizations, the lack of information out there about how their camp is progressing is an embarrassment. Their website, which should be the best source of information, has been down for a couple weeks now, and nothing has appeared in the papers. And about that website....why do you even need to take your website down at all for makeovers, let alone for weeks at a time? Leave the old one up while you develop the new site. It's not rocket science and you should never need to have your site either down or not being updated.

This tidbit from a Washington Capitals blog: apparently Hitmen defencemen Keith Seabrook hurt his shoulder and won't be attending Capitals camp. Rumour is he dislocated the shoulder on Wednesday and will be out for 2-4 weeks.

More WHL news later when I have a few minutes.

Lastly, an NHL note. I haven't heard any of this myself, but the Edmonton paper says some Oilers fans are unhappy about the Flames using the Alberta provincial flag on their new uniforms since the Flames obviously aren't the only NHL team in the province. Apparently these Oiler fans don't remember that their team was once called the Alberta Oilers, back in their WHA days.