Friday notes

Nothing new yet on the death of Darcy Robinson, but the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix tracked down his old Rebels teammate Colby Armstrong for his reaction.

Two takes on the big Vancouver-Regina trade yesterday, mostly focusing on the enigmatic Tim Kraus. First we have the Vancouver perspective from Don Hay, and then the Regina one from Brent Parker. Lots of quotes from Kraus in both pieces as well, and a few more here.

Parker has also explained his overage and import situations. The Pats have released the injured Kaspars Saulietis, who will return to Latvia and play there once he is recovered from his shoulder injury.

Hurricanes G.M. Roy Stasiuk offers his viewpoint on why he thinks using an overage spot on a one-dimensional tough guy is a good thing, as opposed to another defenceman who can get the puck to Boychuk, Fadden et al.

As I feared yesterday, it looks like Cougars rookie backup goalie Joel Danyluk is the casualty of the team's decision to acquire Tommy Tartaglione. Danyluk has apparently been assigned to the Yorkton Terriers of the SJHL.

For Brian Sutter, just as it was for previous Rebels boss Brent, it's farming first and hockey second.

UPDATE: Portland has acquired Medicine Hat overage forward Kevin Undershute in return for a 2008 4th round pick.

Looking for where some of your recent WHL favourites are playing now? The WHL site has a good look at the upcoming season in the Canada West university league. Lots of WHL alumni name-dropping in the article.

Uncharacteristically light Friday night sched in the WHL tonight, with only five games scheduled on what is usually the league's busiest night of the week. Included are battles between two unbeaten teams (Calgary visiting Brandon) and two winless ones (Kelowna in Everett), as well as a division rivalry gets renewed in Lethbridge when the Ice visit. Luke Wiens is unable to play his first game for the Hurricanes against his old team, however, as he is still suspended by the league for this game. His Canes debut will have to wait until tomorrow night.

And in response to a reader query about yesterday's list of 16 year olds in the league, here's how the remaining kids break down according to the round they were selected in the bantam draft:

1st round: Brayden Schenn (BRN), Chase Schaber (CGY), Ryan Howse (CHI), Jimmy Bubnick (KAM), Tyson Barrie (KEL), Nathan Lieuwen (KTN), Carter Ashton (LTH), Cody Carlson (MH), Justin Maylan (MJ), Riley Boychuk (POR), Landon Ferraro (RDR), Stefan Elliott (SAS), Steve Chaffin (SEA), Jared Cowan (SPO), Cody Eakin (SC), Jason Gardiner (TRI), Evander Kane (VAN)
2nd round: Scott Glennie (BRN), Matt MacKenzie (CGY), Jeff Regier (EVT), James Priestner (KAM), Collin Bowman (KEL), Brayden McNabb (KTN), Linden Vey (MH), Kevin Smith (MJ), Brett Ponich (POR), Ryan Button (PA), Ryan Kowalski (PG), Garrett Mitchell (REG), Curtis Hamilton (SAS), Adam Hughesman (TRI), Neil Manning (VAN)
3rd round: Brody Melnychuk (BRN), Cam Braes (LTH), Brandon Herrod (PA), Art Bidlevskii (PG), Alex Pym (REG), Brad Hoban (SC)
4th round: Jesse Paradis (KEL), Joe Antilla (KTN), Joel Rogers (SC)
5th round: Brennan Yadlowski (LTH), Josh Lazowski (SEA), Charles Wells (SEA)
6th round: Kyle Verdino (KEL), Lane Werbowski (TRI)
9th round: James Henry (VAN)
Not Drafted: Matthew Konan (MH), Brenden Silvester (SEA), Mason Wilgosh (TRI)

Only four first rounders are not currently in the league: Cole Penner (PA), Kellan Tochkin (EVT), Brett Miller (REG), and Mitch Berg (SAS). Penner is not there by his choice, while the other three were all sent to midget for another year by their WHL clubs.

Only six second rounders are not here too: Drew Shore (CHI), Burke Gallimore (SPO), Justin Weller (RDR) , James Martin (SC), Austin Fyten (LTH), and Zac Ashdown (SEA). Oddly enough, Shore, Gallimore, Weller, Martin, and Fyten were five of the first six picks of the 2nd round.

To me, you can't really judge a draft until three years later, so we need to wait until this time next year and see how many more kids from the 3rd and later rounds of this draft make the WHL as 17 year olds next year.

I can say this though: Every single player picked in the first three rounds is still listed by a WHL club, although two of them (Michael Burns and Cole Grbavac) have been dropped and picked up by different teams now. Two players from the 4th round are no longer listed anywhere (Jeff Pelletier and Jeff Beattie) while one other (Jessi Hilton) has been dropped by his original team and picked up by another. And in the 5th round, only four players (Adam Bellar, Darren Gillen, Erich Binner, and Bo Lenard) are not listed anywhere anymore. So for the most part, teams tend to stick to their draft picks for a few years.

Lastly, 35 years ago today was probably the most memorable moment in Canadian hockey and to this day, Canadian (and many non-Canadian) hockey fans can still tell you exactly where they were at that precise moment. Me, I watched the game from the hospital nursery, having made my entrance just one day earlier - so I could see the game, of course. I was born to be a hockey fan. ("The goal" is at around the 6:41 mark on that clip if you want to skip right to it)