Monday notes

Got an hour? If so, the Edmonton Journal has a massive piece on the history of the Edmonton Oil Kings. Good to see the media in Edmonton taking this kind of interest in the WHL.....certainly more than can be said of the level of interest in the Edmonton Ice 11 years ago at this time.

Not too much news this morning, either in the papers or from the teams themselves. A few WHLers were returned from NHL camps over the weekend and I have updated the rosters below accordingly. I'll see if I can scrounge up some stories on how WHLers are doing in NHL camps, to make up for the lack of WHL news this morning.

WHL season starts Thursday so look for lots of cuts in the next few days. 18 of the 22 teams in the league still have 25 or more players on their rosters, and almost everyone eventually settles on 22-24 player rosters so there are cuts to come. Overage deadline is October 11 so we may see some teams carry a few extra players until then if they can't make up their minds on their three O/A's before then,

I should also mention (for those who have been asking) that I will have a preview of the season this week. It's something I've done for a few years on the WHL-list Yahoo group, and I'll do it again and post it here as well. Basically an analysis of every team's roster and a prediction of their end-of-season finish, which is often staggeringly wrong. I'll probably do one division per day, starting either today (if I get one finished) or tomorrow.

More news later, if there are any cuts, etc, today.

UPDATE: Bunch of cuts announced this morning: Brandon cuts a goalie this morning to get down to two goaltenders. Kootenay cuts a forward and a defenceman to get down to 27. I only have 26 for them below, I'm missing a forward somewhere. Red Deer also cuts a goalie to get down to two there. The Rebels are now down to 22 players total (13F-7D-2G) so you have to think they're done with cuts unless they get J.D. Watt and/or Brett Sutter back from the NHL.

Two more NHL cuts today: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/transactions - Rebels goalie James Reimer and Hitmen defenceman Karl Alzner. Alzner really surprised me as I thought the Caps would give him a longer look in camp considering that he's 19 and was the #5 pick in the draft. As it is, he's one of their first cuts from main camp.