From the we-all-saw-this-coming department, Tri-City moved to pick up two defencemen from Kamloops yesterday, acquiring veteran Kevin Krauss and rookie Joel Woznikoski (both 18) from the Blazers for '91 blueline prospect Jeff Weselake and a 2008 7th round pick. Pretty cheap price if you ask me, so either the Blazers really like Weselake for next year or they're just dumping bodies? Either way the Americans needed this deal to shore up their defence and that was obvious to observers last week when they started bringing in guys who couldn't crack the Oil Kings. Neither Krauss or Woznikoski are likely to be all-stars but they will probably be able to fill 5th/6th defencemen roles in Tri which is what the Ams are probably looking for - depth behind Fast, Schmidt, Toll and Mestery.
Four WHLers are on their way back from Vancouver Canucks camp today after the first round of cuts there. Dan Gendur (Everett), Evan Fuller (Prince George), Zach Smith (Swift Current), and Garet Hunt (Vancouver) are back with their WHL clubs. I have updated the roster lists below with those, as well as recent WHL cuts, plus the KAM/TRI trade.
UPDATE: Brady Calla is back with the Warriors after being cut by Florida. And San Jose releases Juraj Valach, so back to the Vancouver Giants for him.
Speaking of NHL camps, if anyone wants to follow the WHLers at the 8-team (ATL, CBJ, DAL, DET, MIN, NYR, STL, TAM) rookie tournament in Traverse City, Michigan, the Red Wings Central site has boxscores and game notes on all the goings-on there. That tournament wraps up today - sorry for not posting that link earlier.
Today's WHL news now....
UPDATE: Tri-City makes their 2nd trade in two days, this one with Saskatoon. The Blades get 17 year old forward Cody Wutzke from Tri-City in return for 16 year old forward Ryan Marshall from the Blades. No idea whether Marshall will join the Ams right now; he had already been cut from the Blades camp.
UPDATE: Yet another trade, this one seeing Lethbridge moving journeyman defenceman Todd Panchyson to Portland for a conditional 2008 6th round pick. Panchyson is probably a depth defenceman at best so the conditional part of the pick may have to do with how many games he plays and/or whether he even sticks in Portland all year.
UPDATE: And a third trade today, as Edmonton resolves their overage situation by trading defenceman Lyon Messier to Kelowna. That's Mark Messier's son and he had expressed his desire to play in the same city his dad did - in the same rink even. Guess he'll have to circle the dates that Kelowna visits Edmonton instead. Whoops, he can't do that either since the big thinkers in this league don't think every team needs to visit every opponent every year, and so Kelowna doesn't play in Edmonton this year. Sorry kid!
A look at how 2006 4th overall bantam pick Cole Penner is doing at Raiders camp so far.
19 year old rookie Sean Ringrose hopes to replace some of the veteran scoring lost by the Tigers this year. He scored 32 goals in the AJHL last year so he should be able to pop a few in the WHL for sure.
A little roundup of Saskatoon Blades camp. Sounds like Lorne Molleken is not happy with a few vets so far and when you've still got 29 players in camp, there's options....
More news later if there's cuts made either NHL or WHL - etc, etc.
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