I doubt the league keeps tabs on this sort of thing, but last night was game #32 of what is, in my view, an unbelievable streak by Hitmen defencemen Karl Alzner: his 32nd straight game without receiving a penalty. His last penalty was October 28, 25 regular season games ago, and he didn't take any penalties in 7 games for Canada at the World Juniors either. The 11 minutes he racked up in September & October are his total for the entire season.
What's more, those 11 minutes are a fighting major (2nd game of the season, with Red Deer's J.D. Watt), one (coincidental) roughing minor, and two delay of game penalties for shooting the puck over the glass. This is a guy who plays 25-30 minutes a night against the opposition's top lines, and he has yet to take a penalty for hooking, holding, tripping, interference, or any of the other things that defencemen have to do to recover when they get beat by an opposing forward - because Alzner just does not get beat, period. He'll be in the NHL next year.
Moving on....I was looking at the standings after last night's games and I can't get over how unbelievably close the Eastern conference is. In the top three spots, Calgary, Regina, and Lethbridge have a little bit of separation from the pack, but the five teams in 4th place through 8th place are separated by just three points. In other words, every one of those teams still has a very realistic shot at home ice in the playoffs, if they were to finish 4th. On the other hand, they all also have an equally realistic shot at finishing 7th or 8th and drawing Regina or Calgary in the first round.
Anyway, for fun, if the season ended today, here's the first-round matchups:
East:
#8 Swift Current at #1 Calgary
#7 Brandon at #2 Regina
#6 Kootenay at #3 Lethbridge
#5 Medicine Hat at #4 Moose Jaw
West:
#8 Chilliwack at #1 Spokane
#7 Kamloops at #2 Vancouver
#6 Seattle at #3 Tri-City
#5 Everett at #4 Kelowna
And some magic numbers now.....two teams (Spokane and Tri-City) have already clinched playoff spots; here's what is required for the rest of the teams to clinch one too:
East:
Calgary: 3.5 wins or Edmonton losses
Regina: 7 wins or Edmonton losses
Lethbridge: 8 wins or Edmonton losses
Moose Jaw: 10.5 wins or Edmonton losses
Medicine Hat: 10.5 wins or Edmonton losses
Kootenay: 11 wins or Edmonton losses
Brandon: 11.5 wins or Edmonton losses
Swift Current: 12 wins or Edmonton losses
West:
Vancouver: 1 win or Prince George loss
Kelowna: 2.5 wins or Prince George losses
Everett: 7 wins or Prince George losses
Seattle: 8.5 wins or Prince George losses
Kamloops: 11.5 wins or Prince George losses
Chilliwack: 12.5 wins or Prince George losses
And what it will take for the eventual 6 non-playoff teams to be mathematically eliminated:
Portland: 5 losses or Chilliwack wins
Red Deer: 6 losses or Swift Current wins
Prince Albert: 8.5 losses or Swift Current wins
Saskatoon: 9.5 losses or Swift Current wins
Edmonton: 12 losses or Swift Current wins
Prince George: 12.5 losses or Chilliwack wins
And lastly for the day.....while you're pondering whether the Patriots have what it takes to win the Super Bowl on Sunday and complete an undefeated season, they're not the only team closing in on a perfect record. In the Manitoba AAA midget league, the Winnipeg Thrashers are currently 35-0 (see standings), with 5 games left to play in their regular season. "Dominant" doesn't quite sum up this team, as they are outscoring their opposition 234-37 through 35 games. That's an average margin of victory of almost 7-1.
They do have two games left against each of the 2nd and 3rd place teams in their division though, so there's some quality obstacles left for them yet. Next game is tonight against their 2nd place rivals, the cross-town Winnipeg Wild.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Ex-WHL goalie scores
Former WHL goalie (Vancouver, Regina, Edmonton, Prince George) Tommy Tartaglione scored a goal in the BCHL last night. This makes Tartaglione the second goaltender who started the year in the WHL to have scored a goal in Junior A this year - David Reekie scored one in the USHL earlier this year.
Or in other words, they've both scored more goals this year than Nick Dietrich.
And an addition to the Kris Beech saga (below) today, thanks to a tip from Gregg Drinnan. Beech's story has taken another strange twist now, as he has twice been denied entry into the United States this week while trying to join the Penguins. Seems he lost his U.S. work visa somewhere in all the moving and paper-shuffling he has done this month, and so he's stuck in Canada (Toronto, apparently) waiting for the Pens to get his paperwork in order before he can get into the USA.
Funny stuff from the Penguins' Ryan Whitney on the situation: "You play hockey, you can get into Canada. America's got no respect for the NHL", and "What's Obama's and Hillary's stance on this? I'll be ready to vote once I hear".
Or in other words, they've both scored more goals this year than Nick Dietrich.
And an addition to the Kris Beech saga (below) today, thanks to a tip from Gregg Drinnan. Beech's story has taken another strange twist now, as he has twice been denied entry into the United States this week while trying to join the Penguins. Seems he lost his U.S. work visa somewhere in all the moving and paper-shuffling he has done this month, and so he's stuck in Canada (Toronto, apparently) waiting for the Pens to get his paperwork in order before he can get into the USA.
Funny stuff from the Penguins' Ryan Whitney on the situation: "You play hockey, you can get into Canada. America's got no respect for the NHL", and "What's Obama's and Hillary's stance on this? I'll be ready to vote once I hear".
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Life's a Beech
Guess which former WHLer is on his 4th NHL team this month? Yup, Kris Beech. He was claimed on waivers from the Capitals today by Pittsburgh, which means that since January 10, Beech has now been the property of four different NHL teams: Columbus, Vancouver, Washington, and now Pittsburgh.
This is his second stint with the Penguins organization, coming fresh on the heels of his third (very short) stint in the Capitals organization. Since being drafted 7th overall in 1999, Beech has been a Capital, a Penguin, a Predator, a Capital again, a Blue Jacket, a Canuck, a Capital yet again, and now a Penguin again.
Probably not the way his NHL career was supposed to go, after being such a high pick and having such a great WHL career. His skating has always been an issue though and that might be what keeps him a permanent fringe NHLer like this.
Funny though, points-wise he is having what would be his best NHL season, pro-rated of course. He has played 20 games in the NHL this year and has 11 points, a pace which would give him 45 points over a full season.
This is his second stint with the Penguins organization, coming fresh on the heels of his third (very short) stint in the Capitals organization. Since being drafted 7th overall in 1999, Beech has been a Capital, a Penguin, a Predator, a Capital again, a Blue Jacket, a Canuck, a Capital yet again, and now a Penguin again.
Probably not the way his NHL career was supposed to go, after being such a high pick and having such a great WHL career. His skating has always been an issue though and that might be what keeps him a permanent fringe NHLer like this.
Funny though, points-wise he is having what would be his best NHL season, pro-rated of course. He has played 20 games in the NHL this year and has 11 points, a pace which would give him 45 points over a full season.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday Monday
Great start to the week....it's -47C with the wind chill here in Calgary. That's -53F for those of you reading this south of the border. I know the weather is crappy all over the western part of the continent though so I won't complain too much since I'm sure everyone has their own problems right now!
Oddly enough, that's not as cold as Brandon goaltender Joe Caligiuri was at the Saddledome yesterday. But we'll leave the poor guy alone. Just say that if Brandon is going to make any kind of a playoff run befitting their once-lofty place in the standings, they'll need their goaltender to make routine saves. Brock Nixon of the Hitmen had the hockey equivalent of baseball's hitting for the cycle, scoring even-strength, powerplay, and shorthanded goals. The only other way it is possible to score a goal in hockey is on a penalty shot....I think Mario Lemieux did that once in the NHL, score ES, PP, SH, and PS goals in one game.
Back to goaltenders though, Portland's Kurtis Mucha may finally be feeling the weight of carrying that team. He had some interesting comments in the Portland paper on Friday in which he basically said some of his teammates don't belong in the league and some other ones think they are far better than they are.
Rare to see somebody talk publicly about their teammates like that.....and if it were anyone else on that team but Mucha, it would be a lot easier to heap some scorn on him too. But that guy is about the only thing that has stood between that team and an oh-for-72 season, so I think he has earned the right to point out some people who aren't pulling their weight.
Here's some numbers to chew on: the goalies with the highest average number of shots faced per 60 minutes of action:
Jordan White (POR) - 42.12
Kurtis Mucha (POR) - 39.97
Real Cyr (P.G) - 35.14
Steven Stanford (P.A) - 34.77
Alex Archibald (EDM) - 33.77
Tommy Tartaglione (P.G) - 33.77
James Reimer (RDR) - 32.45
Dustin Butler (P.A) - 32.22
Dalyn Flette (EDM) - 32.08
Morgan Clark (RDR) - 31.38
And at the other end of the spectrum:
Tyson Sexsmith (VAN) - 21.23
Juha Metsola (LET) - 22.92
Dan Spence (CGY) - 23.48
Michael Maniago (LET) - 23.81
Martin Jones (CGY) - 23.93
Kevin Armstrong (SPO) - 24.63
James Priestner (KAM) - 24.87
Ryan Holfeld (M.H) - 24.89
Dustin Tokarski (SPO) - 25.11
Joe Caligiuri (BRN) - 25.9
Portland's goalies - Mucha and Jordan White - face on average nearly twice as many shots per game as Vancouver's Tyson Sexsmith does. Twice as many! Yes, I think Mucha has earned the right to complain about lack of support.
To the NHL for a second; the All-Star weekend was once again (in my opinion anyway) something to get over with quickly so we can get back to games that the players care about. The league hypes the All-Star game as some big event showcasing the best players in the sport, but what you get is a weekend of no-hit, no-defence hockey which is in no way a showcase of anything but a bunch of millionaire athletes goofing off. The NFL and NBA have the same problem with their All-Star games.....none of the players care. Maybe the NHL needs to do what baseball does; baseball has the only All-Star game that the players seem to care about and perhaps that is because the winning league in the MLB All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series. I suppose there's still players on teams whose teams are out of playoff contention by the All-Star break who still don't care, but it has to be better than what hockey has right now.
The skills competition is another thing....personally, the only part of the skills competition I care about is the breakaway competition, since none of the other events (obstacle course, accuracy shooting, hardest shot, fastest skater) are applicable to game situations. But breakaways and shootouts, that's part of the game. But for some reason this year they decided to have judges give points for each players' attempt, hoping this might spur some creative moves, similar to the NBA's slam-dunk competition. And we did see some creative stuff, but one big thing was overlooked by the judges, I think: NONE OF THEM SCORED! I mean, I think the only guy who actually scored on any of his attempts was Datysuk and he got the worst score of the competition from the judges for it. I could care less that Alexander Ovechkin can flip the puck in the air and take a baseball swing at it....he missed on the swing (twice!) and the whole point is to put the puck in the net. So how about making whether the player actually scores be part of the judging, eh? At least in the slam-dunk competition, the players actually complete many of their efforts by actually scoring the two points.
Oddly enough, that's not as cold as Brandon goaltender Joe Caligiuri was at the Saddledome yesterday. But we'll leave the poor guy alone. Just say that if Brandon is going to make any kind of a playoff run befitting their once-lofty place in the standings, they'll need their goaltender to make routine saves. Brock Nixon of the Hitmen had the hockey equivalent of baseball's hitting for the cycle, scoring even-strength, powerplay, and shorthanded goals. The only other way it is possible to score a goal in hockey is on a penalty shot....I think Mario Lemieux did that once in the NHL, score ES, PP, SH, and PS goals in one game.
Back to goaltenders though, Portland's Kurtis Mucha may finally be feeling the weight of carrying that team. He had some interesting comments in the Portland paper on Friday in which he basically said some of his teammates don't belong in the league and some other ones think they are far better than they are.
Rare to see somebody talk publicly about their teammates like that.....and if it were anyone else on that team but Mucha, it would be a lot easier to heap some scorn on him too. But that guy is about the only thing that has stood between that team and an oh-for-72 season, so I think he has earned the right to point out some people who aren't pulling their weight.
Here's some numbers to chew on: the goalies with the highest average number of shots faced per 60 minutes of action:
Jordan White (POR) - 42.12
Kurtis Mucha (POR) - 39.97
Real Cyr (P.G) - 35.14
Steven Stanford (P.A) - 34.77
Alex Archibald (EDM) - 33.77
Tommy Tartaglione (P.G) - 33.77
James Reimer (RDR) - 32.45
Dustin Butler (P.A) - 32.22
Dalyn Flette (EDM) - 32.08
Morgan Clark (RDR) - 31.38
And at the other end of the spectrum:
Tyson Sexsmith (VAN) - 21.23
Juha Metsola (LET) - 22.92
Dan Spence (CGY) - 23.48
Michael Maniago (LET) - 23.81
Martin Jones (CGY) - 23.93
Kevin Armstrong (SPO) - 24.63
James Priestner (KAM) - 24.87
Ryan Holfeld (M.H) - 24.89
Dustin Tokarski (SPO) - 25.11
Joe Caligiuri (BRN) - 25.9
Portland's goalies - Mucha and Jordan White - face on average nearly twice as many shots per game as Vancouver's Tyson Sexsmith does. Twice as many! Yes, I think Mucha has earned the right to complain about lack of support.
To the NHL for a second; the All-Star weekend was once again (in my opinion anyway) something to get over with quickly so we can get back to games that the players care about. The league hypes the All-Star game as some big event showcasing the best players in the sport, but what you get is a weekend of no-hit, no-defence hockey which is in no way a showcase of anything but a bunch of millionaire athletes goofing off. The NFL and NBA have the same problem with their All-Star games.....none of the players care. Maybe the NHL needs to do what baseball does; baseball has the only All-Star game that the players seem to care about and perhaps that is because the winning league in the MLB All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series. I suppose there's still players on teams whose teams are out of playoff contention by the All-Star break who still don't care, but it has to be better than what hockey has right now.
The skills competition is another thing....personally, the only part of the skills competition I care about is the breakaway competition, since none of the other events (obstacle course, accuracy shooting, hardest shot, fastest skater) are applicable to game situations. But breakaways and shootouts, that's part of the game. But for some reason this year they decided to have judges give points for each players' attempt, hoping this might spur some creative moves, similar to the NBA's slam-dunk competition. And we did see some creative stuff, but one big thing was overlooked by the judges, I think: NONE OF THEM SCORED! I mean, I think the only guy who actually scored on any of his attempts was Datysuk and he got the worst score of the competition from the judges for it. I could care less that Alexander Ovechkin can flip the puck in the air and take a baseball swing at it....he missed on the swing (twice!) and the whole point is to put the puck in the net. So how about making whether the player actually scores be part of the judging, eh? At least in the slam-dunk competition, the players actually complete many of their efforts by actually scoring the two points.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Reimer/Reddin
The mystery about why the Red Deer Rebels gave up defenceman Zac Stebner to acquire goaltender David Aime in late November, only to leave Aime in Jr A, may have an explanation now. Rebels #1 goalie James Reimer is out for an extended period of time with a recurring ankle injury that first started bothering him back in November, and the Rebels have recalled Aime.
This might also explain why Reimer wasn't traded at the trade deadline. No contender would want to make a deal for a guy who was hobbled by a persistent injury.
The other bit of news I want to comment on today is this one. Portland announced back on January 10 that 17 year old Colin Reddin had decided to abandon his attempt to have his NCAA eligibility reinstated, and would join the Winter Hawks. Since then, Reddin has been practicing but not playing with the Hawks, because apparently USA Hockey won't give him his release from the National Team Development Program, where he was playing before.
We'll have to see how this shakes out....it's easy to criticize USA Hockey and say they should just let the kid go play where he wants, but I see their point as well, and it has WHL implications. If you let kids jump leagues at their whim, then you could be opening a real big can of worms. If one of their roster players decided he wanted to leave the WHL and play in the USHL instead, would the Hawks just give him his release from the WHL and let him go? Probably depends on the player, but you get the point. We'll see what happens here....
This might also explain why Reimer wasn't traded at the trade deadline. No contender would want to make a deal for a guy who was hobbled by a persistent injury.
The other bit of news I want to comment on today is this one. Portland announced back on January 10 that 17 year old Colin Reddin had decided to abandon his attempt to have his NCAA eligibility reinstated, and would join the Winter Hawks. Since then, Reddin has been practicing but not playing with the Hawks, because apparently USA Hockey won't give him his release from the National Team Development Program, where he was playing before.
We'll have to see how this shakes out....it's easy to criticize USA Hockey and say they should just let the kid go play where he wants, but I see their point as well, and it has WHL implications. If you let kids jump leagues at their whim, then you could be opening a real big can of worms. If one of their roster players decided he wanted to leave the WHL and play in the USHL instead, would the Hawks just give him his release from the WHL and let him go? Probably depends on the player, but you get the point. We'll see what happens here....
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Clinching playoff spots
This one comes from a reader, who pointed out to me that the WHL site is claiming that Tri-City has clinched a playoff spot. And that, as anyone who can do basic math can confirm, is not true. In order to clinch a playoff spot, the answer to the question "If we never earned another point this year, are there 8 other teams that could finish ahead of us?", must be "NO".
In the Western conference, there's two teams that will miss the playoffs, so to clinch a spot, the Ams (who have 69 points right now) would have to have more points than two other teams in the conference could possibly end up with if they won every single remaining game. Portland, in last place, could possibly end up with 68 points - so the Ams have indeed ensured they will finish ahead of Portland. But in 9th place is Prince George, who have a possible maximum of 79 points. So, in theory, Prince George could still finish ahead of Tri-City and thus Tri-City could miss the playoffs.
Obviously that isn't going to happen.....but they haven't mathematically clinched yet either. And it's curious that the WHL site says Tri-City (in 3rd place) has clinched, but the 1st and 2nd place teams (Spokane & Vancouver) in the conference have not. Methinks this is a typo by the league.
For what it's worth, here's the so-called "magic numbers" for each of the teams in the league to clinch a playoff spot. This is the number of wins each team needs - and/or losses by the current 9th place team in the conference - to clinch a playoff spot.
Calgary Hitmen: 10.5 (23 games remaining)
Regina Pats: 11.5 (22 games remaining)
Lethbridge Hurricanes: 14 (25 games remaining)
Kootenay Ice: 14.5 (25 games remaining)
Moose Jaw Warriors: 14.5 (25 games remaining)
Brandon Wheat Kings: 15.5 (26 games remaining)
Medicine Hat Tigers: 16 (24 games remaining)
Swift Current Broncos: 19 (24 games remaining)
Edmonton Oil Kings: 29 (23 games remaining)
Saskatoon Blades: 31.5 (24 games remaining)
Prince Albert Raiders: 31.5 (23 games remaining)
Red Deer Rebels: 34.5 (22 games remaining)
Spokane Chiefs: 5 (25 games remaining)
Vancouver Giants: 5 (24 games remaining)
Tri-City Americans: 5.5 (25 games remaining)
Kelowna Rockets: 8 (23 games remaining)
Everett Silvertips: 12 (23 games remaining)
Seattle Thunderbirds: 15.5 (28 games remaining)
Chilliwack Bruins: 16 (26 games remaining)
Kamloops Blazers: 16.5 (24 games remaining)
Prince George Cougars: 33.5 (25 games remaining)
Portland Winter Hawks: 38 (24 games remaining)
If a team's "magic number" exceeds the number of games they have remaining in the season, then they need help to make the playoffs; ie, winning all their remaining games won't be enough - they need some other teams ahead of them to lose some games as well. So, for example, even if Portland won all their remaining 24 games, they'd still need Kamloops to lose at least 14 of THEIR remaining games in order to catch the Blazers for 8th place and a playoff spot.
In the Western conference, there's two teams that will miss the playoffs, so to clinch a spot, the Ams (who have 69 points right now) would have to have more points than two other teams in the conference could possibly end up with if they won every single remaining game. Portland, in last place, could possibly end up with 68 points - so the Ams have indeed ensured they will finish ahead of Portland. But in 9th place is Prince George, who have a possible maximum of 79 points. So, in theory, Prince George could still finish ahead of Tri-City and thus Tri-City could miss the playoffs.
Obviously that isn't going to happen.....but they haven't mathematically clinched yet either. And it's curious that the WHL site says Tri-City (in 3rd place) has clinched, but the 1st and 2nd place teams (Spokane & Vancouver) in the conference have not. Methinks this is a typo by the league.
For what it's worth, here's the so-called "magic numbers" for each of the teams in the league to clinch a playoff spot. This is the number of wins each team needs - and/or losses by the current 9th place team in the conference - to clinch a playoff spot.
Calgary Hitmen: 10.5 (23 games remaining)
Regina Pats: 11.5 (22 games remaining)
Lethbridge Hurricanes: 14 (25 games remaining)
Kootenay Ice: 14.5 (25 games remaining)
Moose Jaw Warriors: 14.5 (25 games remaining)
Brandon Wheat Kings: 15.5 (26 games remaining)
Medicine Hat Tigers: 16 (24 games remaining)
Swift Current Broncos: 19 (24 games remaining)
Edmonton Oil Kings: 29 (23 games remaining)
Saskatoon Blades: 31.5 (24 games remaining)
Prince Albert Raiders: 31.5 (23 games remaining)
Red Deer Rebels: 34.5 (22 games remaining)
Spokane Chiefs: 5 (25 games remaining)
Vancouver Giants: 5 (24 games remaining)
Tri-City Americans: 5.5 (25 games remaining)
Kelowna Rockets: 8 (23 games remaining)
Everett Silvertips: 12 (23 games remaining)
Seattle Thunderbirds: 15.5 (28 games remaining)
Chilliwack Bruins: 16 (26 games remaining)
Kamloops Blazers: 16.5 (24 games remaining)
Prince George Cougars: 33.5 (25 games remaining)
Portland Winter Hawks: 38 (24 games remaining)
If a team's "magic number" exceeds the number of games they have remaining in the season, then they need help to make the playoffs; ie, winning all their remaining games won't be enough - they need some other teams ahead of them to lose some games as well. So, for example, even if Portland won all their remaining 24 games, they'd still need Kamloops to lose at least 14 of THEIR remaining games in order to catch the Blazers for 8th place and a playoff spot.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Goal of the year?
Jon Toews has company in the NHL's goal of the year race.....Rick Nash of Columbus potted a beauty last night against the Coyotes. Wow.
For comparision, here is Toews' effort against Colorado back in October.
For comparision, here is Toews' effort against Colorado back in October.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Ramage
I see former NHLer Rob Ramage has been sentenced to four years in jail for the drunk-driving accident which killed his friend (and fellow former NHLer) Keith Magnusson.
What I find interesting is that he plans to appeal. Wow.....it seems to me that four years in jail (of which he would probably spend less than 18 months actually behind bars before being paroled) for killing somebody, while driving with as much as four times the legal limit of alcohol in your system, is a pretty light sentence to begin with. Does he honestly feel like the appropriate punishment for this crime is to be forced to tour the country lecturing on the perils of drunk driving?
We all know about the perils of drunk driving already. At least, those of us who don't live under rocks all do. Those of us who choose to ignore those perils and drive drunk anyway need to be punished. So, Ramage belongs in jail, not in high school classrooms. Only four years....take it and run already.
What I find interesting is that he plans to appeal. Wow.....it seems to me that four years in jail (of which he would probably spend less than 18 months actually behind bars before being paroled) for killing somebody, while driving with as much as four times the legal limit of alcohol in your system, is a pretty light sentence to begin with. Does he honestly feel like the appropriate punishment for this crime is to be forced to tour the country lecturing on the perils of drunk driving?
We all know about the perils of drunk driving already. At least, those of us who don't live under rocks all do. Those of us who choose to ignore those perils and drive drunk anyway need to be punished. So, Ramage belongs in jail, not in high school classrooms. Only four years....take it and run already.
Wednesday night
Couple notes from last night's games....
First, the Vancouver at Saskatoon game probably set a new WHL record with a 26-player shootout required to decide the game. Each team used 13 of their 18 skaters before the shootout was over - and in fact, each team only had 17 skaters available for the shootout since they had both had a player ejected earlier in the game.
Most teams seem to have four or five guys who know what they're doing in a shootout, and after that it becomes a crapshoot with a bunch of guys who may or may not have any useable moves....and a lot of average players will tell you that when it comes to shootouts, they sit on the bench and pray the coach doesn't tap their shoulder next, because they know they're not very good at it. Still, how bad do you have to be at shootouts to be the coach's 14th through 17th choices on your team? Last night, the only shooters who didn't get to shoot for the Giants were James Henry, R.J. LaRochelle, Stefan Schneider, and Craig Schira. For the Blades, not shooting were Mike Reich, John Flatters, Mitch Berg, and Kevin Philp. Vancouver's James Wright and Saskatoon's Teigan Zahn were not able to take part since they were thrown out of the game in the 3rd period for fighting.
The NHL's longest shootout was a 15-round affair between the Rangers and Capitals in November 2005, a shootout which the Rangers' Marek Malik won with a really pretty goal. Thanks to the marvel that is YouTube, you can still see the highlights and winning goal of that epic here.
The other incident last night was an ugly one in Spokane, which saw Chiefs captain Chris Bruton punch Everett pest Kyle Beach in the head at the final buzzer. Beach was down for a while and eventually left the ice with a neck brace on, and Bruton got a match penalty for attempt to injure. Under league rules, Bruton is suspended until the league reviews and rules on the incident, which I'm sure will happen today or tomorrow.
Depending on who you talk to, the punch was or was not of the sucker variety. (I've seen the video of it now and in my opinion it is definitely not a sucker punch since Beach was facing Bruton at the time and had just shoved Bruton in the face himself so he would have had some idea something was coming back his way.) But anyway, what really drew my attention are the comments from Chiefs coach Bill Peters after the game. You can read them in Chiefs beat writer Jessica Brown's game story, which she has posted on her Chiefs blog. About Beach's injury, Peters says, "Let’s not kid ourselves, you talk about acting 101. You get knocked down, you get up, that’s hockey.”
OK....we all know Beach has a reputation for embellishing things, and this may or may not be another case of that. The league will review the tape and decide if it is. But, why is Peters saying this kind of thing unless he had some kind of proof that Beach was in fact not hurt. Hate him or not, it's a 17 year old kid who might have been injured to the point of needing a neck brace. If the league reviews the incident and decides to suspend Bruton, I kind of hope Peters joins him in being disciplined. I'm not a fan of either Everett or Spokane but I think talking that way about somebody who has been injured is over the line. If Beach was indeed faking the injury then that's different, but how could Peters have known that for sure right after the game? From what I saw, Beach pretty much got drilled square in the kisser with a real solid (albeit gloved) shot and could definitely have been legitimately hurt.
First, the Vancouver at Saskatoon game probably set a new WHL record with a 26-player shootout required to decide the game. Each team used 13 of their 18 skaters before the shootout was over - and in fact, each team only had 17 skaters available for the shootout since they had both had a player ejected earlier in the game.
Most teams seem to have four or five guys who know what they're doing in a shootout, and after that it becomes a crapshoot with a bunch of guys who may or may not have any useable moves....and a lot of average players will tell you that when it comes to shootouts, they sit on the bench and pray the coach doesn't tap their shoulder next, because they know they're not very good at it. Still, how bad do you have to be at shootouts to be the coach's 14th through 17th choices on your team? Last night, the only shooters who didn't get to shoot for the Giants were James Henry, R.J. LaRochelle, Stefan Schneider, and Craig Schira. For the Blades, not shooting were Mike Reich, John Flatters, Mitch Berg, and Kevin Philp. Vancouver's James Wright and Saskatoon's Teigan Zahn were not able to take part since they were thrown out of the game in the 3rd period for fighting.
The NHL's longest shootout was a 15-round affair between the Rangers and Capitals in November 2005, a shootout which the Rangers' Marek Malik won with a really pretty goal. Thanks to the marvel that is YouTube, you can still see the highlights and winning goal of that epic here.
The other incident last night was an ugly one in Spokane, which saw Chiefs captain Chris Bruton punch Everett pest Kyle Beach in the head at the final buzzer. Beach was down for a while and eventually left the ice with a neck brace on, and Bruton got a match penalty for attempt to injure. Under league rules, Bruton is suspended until the league reviews and rules on the incident, which I'm sure will happen today or tomorrow.
Depending on who you talk to, the punch was or was not of the sucker variety. (I've seen the video of it now and in my opinion it is definitely not a sucker punch since Beach was facing Bruton at the time and had just shoved Bruton in the face himself so he would have had some idea something was coming back his way.) But anyway, what really drew my attention are the comments from Chiefs coach Bill Peters after the game. You can read them in Chiefs beat writer Jessica Brown's game story, which she has posted on her Chiefs blog. About Beach's injury, Peters says, "Let’s not kid ourselves, you talk about acting 101. You get knocked down, you get up, that’s hockey.”
OK....we all know Beach has a reputation for embellishing things, and this may or may not be another case of that. The league will review the tape and decide if it is. But, why is Peters saying this kind of thing unless he had some kind of proof that Beach was in fact not hurt. Hate him or not, it's a 17 year old kid who might have been injured to the point of needing a neck brace. If the league reviews the incident and decides to suspend Bruton, I kind of hope Peters joins him in being disciplined. I'm not a fan of either Everett or Spokane but I think talking that way about somebody who has been injured is over the line. If Beach was indeed faking the injury then that's different, but how could Peters have known that for sure right after the game? From what I saw, Beach pretty much got drilled square in the kisser with a real solid (albeit gloved) shot and could definitely have been legitimately hurt.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
UBC to NCAA?
I've mentioned this before, but now it is official: the NCAA has voted to allow Canadian universities to join NCAA Division II athletic conferences, and the University of British Columbia is expected to be the first to apply. The University of Alberta is also said to be interested.
NCAA Div. II schools are permitted to move up to Division I in one sport, and it would seem obvious and logical that UBC (and U of A, should they also join) would choose that sport to be hockey. It's about the only sport in which they could have a reasonable expectation of having very competitive teams, and thus be a guaranteed moneymaker for the schools. There are probably not enough NCAA Div I - quality basketball or football players in Western Canada to be able to field competitive Div I teams in those sports without having to extensively recruit American athletes to come up north to their schools, which is a far tougher sell than convincing top Canadian hockey players to attend. (Although they could lure any dyslexic football players who confuse UBC with USC....)
Anyway, this is a big issue for the WHL.....for starters, WHL grads are going to lose the ability to play hockey at UBC/UofA if they choose to attend those schools with their WHL scholarship money. The scholarship still covers their tuition at those schools of course, but the players wouldn't be able to play on the hockey teams. I think that's probably going to be a big turn-off for a lot of players as far as attending those schools goes.....and maybe also affect the decisions by some players as to whether to play in the WHL in the first place. Secondly, losing two of the major schools is a big blow to the Canada West conference of the CIS; I believe that would drop them down to just six schools in the hockey competition in that conference. How many more can they lose before it isn't viable to even have a league anymore?
And the biggest issue for the WHL will be recruiting....no longer will Western Canadian kids who want to play NCAA Div I hockey be faced with having to move far from home, to Alaska or Colorado or Michigan or Minnesota. They can stay close to home and go to UBC or UofA, and that's going to make it that much harder for the WHL to lure the kids who are on the fence.
Supposedly UBC could be in the NCAA by next season.....I would suspect they'd have to play as an independent in Div I hockey for the first few years but even so, this means every single current ex-WHLer on this year's UBC Thunderbirds is going to have to find a new school next year if they want to keep playing hockey. The current Thunderbirds who did not play WHL or other levels of pro can (I would think) play on the NCAA team next year, along with any scholarship players the school signs up before then.
The times they are a changin.....we'll have to see in a few years how this affects the WHL.
NCAA Div. II schools are permitted to move up to Division I in one sport, and it would seem obvious and logical that UBC (and U of A, should they also join) would choose that sport to be hockey. It's about the only sport in which they could have a reasonable expectation of having very competitive teams, and thus be a guaranteed moneymaker for the schools. There are probably not enough NCAA Div I - quality basketball or football players in Western Canada to be able to field competitive Div I teams in those sports without having to extensively recruit American athletes to come up north to their schools, which is a far tougher sell than convincing top Canadian hockey players to attend. (Although they could lure any dyslexic football players who confuse UBC with USC....)
Anyway, this is a big issue for the WHL.....for starters, WHL grads are going to lose the ability to play hockey at UBC/UofA if they choose to attend those schools with their WHL scholarship money. The scholarship still covers their tuition at those schools of course, but the players wouldn't be able to play on the hockey teams. I think that's probably going to be a big turn-off for a lot of players as far as attending those schools goes.....and maybe also affect the decisions by some players as to whether to play in the WHL in the first place. Secondly, losing two of the major schools is a big blow to the Canada West conference of the CIS; I believe that would drop them down to just six schools in the hockey competition in that conference. How many more can they lose before it isn't viable to even have a league anymore?
And the biggest issue for the WHL will be recruiting....no longer will Western Canadian kids who want to play NCAA Div I hockey be faced with having to move far from home, to Alaska or Colorado or Michigan or Minnesota. They can stay close to home and go to UBC or UofA, and that's going to make it that much harder for the WHL to lure the kids who are on the fence.
Supposedly UBC could be in the NCAA by next season.....I would suspect they'd have to play as an independent in Div I hockey for the first few years but even so, this means every single current ex-WHLer on this year's UBC Thunderbirds is going to have to find a new school next year if they want to keep playing hockey. The current Thunderbirds who did not play WHL or other levels of pro can (I would think) play on the NCAA team next year, along with any scholarship players the school signs up before then.
The times they are a changin.....we'll have to see in a few years how this affects the WHL.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Donn Clark canned: report
The Prince Albert Daily Herald is reporting that the Raiders have fired G.M. Donn Clark; supposedly it will be confirmed at a press conference this afternoon. Head coach Bruno Campese will assume interim G.M. duties for the rest of the season.
Clark was in the last year of his contract with the Raiders this year, and based on the team's performance during his tenure, it was pretty iffy that he was going to be back next year anyway. Guess this means the team brass would rather have somebody else running the ship for the draft, since the trade deadline is passed.
Clark was in the last year of his contract with the Raiders this year, and based on the team's performance during his tenure, it was pretty iffy that he was going to be back next year anyway. Guess this means the team brass would rather have somebody else running the ship for the draft, since the trade deadline is passed.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Team ages after the deadline
Twice before this year, I have calculated the average age of the players on each team's roster. With all the moves that have been made in the last few weeks, it's time to figure it out again:
Edmonton: Avg Age: 18.227 (1)
Moose Jaw: Avg Age: 18.217 (2)
Calgary: Avg Age: 18.174 (T-3)
Spokane: Avg Age: 18.174 (T-3)
Swift Current: Avg Age: 18.174 (T-3)
Everett: Avg Age: 18.167 (6)
Lethbridge: Avg Age: 18.136 (T-7)
Regina: Avg Age: 18.136 (T-7)
Kootenay: Avg Age: 18.13 (9)
Portland: Avg Age: 18.045 (10)
Vancouver: Avg Age: 18.043 (11)
Brandon: Avg Age: 18 (T-12)
Medicine Hat: Avg Age: 18 (T-12)
Kamloops: Avg Age: 17.913 (T-14)
Tri-City: Avg Age: 17.913 (T-14)
Chilliwack: Avg Age: 17.909 (16)
Seattle: Avg Age: 17.905 (17)
Prince Albert: Avg Age: 17.87 (18)
Kelowna: Avg Age: 17.783 (T-19)
Red Deer: Avg Age: 17.783 (T-19)
Saskatoon: Avg Age: 17.783 (T-19)
Prince George: Avg Age: 17.682 (22)
Edmonton is still the oldest team in the league - proof that being older doesn't mean better. Moose Jaw has jumped up from 9th (when I calculated this on December 12) to 2nd. You'd have to say Kelowna is doing pretty well in the standings, for being the 2nd-youngest (tied for that anyway) team in the league. And Prince George has dropped from 10th (on Dec 12th) down to last. The Cougars have actually dropped their average age by almost half a year from what it was back in November.
Here's how it looked on December 12:
Edmonton: Avg age: 18.227 (1)
Everett: Avg age: 18.174 (2)
Kamloops: Avg age: 18.130 (T-3)
Chilliwack: Avg age: 18.130 (T-3)
Lethbridge: Avg age: 18.130 (T-3)
Swift Current: Avg age: 18.091 (6)
Spokane: Avg age: 18.087 (7)
Calgary: Avg age: 18.080 (8)
Moose Jaw: Avg age: 18.043 (9)
Portland: Avg age: 18.042 (T-10)
Medicine Hat: Avg age: 18.042 (T-10)
Prince George: Avg age: 18.042 (T-10)
Prince Albert: Avg age: 18.040 (13)
Kootenay: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Regina: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Brandon: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Saskatoon: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Red Deer: Avg age: 17.917 (T-18)
Vancouver: Avg age: 17.917 (T-18)
Tri-City: Avg age: 17.87 (20)
Seattle: Avg age: 17.818 (21)
Kelowna: Avg age: 17.792 (22)
And how it looked the first time I did it, back on November 6:
Everett: Avg age: 18.217 (1)
Edmonton: Avg age: 18.19 (2)
Chilliwack: Avg age: 18.125 (T-3)
Prince George: Avg age: 18.125 (T-3)
Swift Current: Avg age: 18.091 (5)
Kamloops: Avg age: 18.087 (T-6)
Spokane: Avg age: 18.087 (T-6)
Regina: Avg age: 18.083 (8)
Calgary: Avg age: 18.08 (T-9)
Portland: Avg age: 18.08 (T-9)
Medicine Hat: Avg age: 18.077 (11)
Lethbridge: Avg age: 18.043 (T-12)
Prince Albert: Avg age: 18.043 (T-12)
Moose Jaw: Avg age: 18.042 (14)
Brandon: Avg age: 18 (15)
Kootenay: Avg age: 17.958 (16)
Saskatoon: Avg age: 17.913 (17)
Tri-City: Avg age: 17.875 (T-18)
Vancouver: Avg age: 17.875 (T-18)
Red Deer: Avg age: 17.826 (T-20)
Seattle: Avg age: 17.826 (T-20)
Kelowna: Avg age: 17.783 (22)
Edmonton: Avg Age: 18.227 (1)
Moose Jaw: Avg Age: 18.217 (2)
Calgary: Avg Age: 18.174 (T-3)
Spokane: Avg Age: 18.174 (T-3)
Swift Current: Avg Age: 18.174 (T-3)
Everett: Avg Age: 18.167 (6)
Lethbridge: Avg Age: 18.136 (T-7)
Regina: Avg Age: 18.136 (T-7)
Kootenay: Avg Age: 18.13 (9)
Portland: Avg Age: 18.045 (10)
Vancouver: Avg Age: 18.043 (11)
Brandon: Avg Age: 18 (T-12)
Medicine Hat: Avg Age: 18 (T-12)
Kamloops: Avg Age: 17.913 (T-14)
Tri-City: Avg Age: 17.913 (T-14)
Chilliwack: Avg Age: 17.909 (16)
Seattle: Avg Age: 17.905 (17)
Prince Albert: Avg Age: 17.87 (18)
Kelowna: Avg Age: 17.783 (T-19)
Red Deer: Avg Age: 17.783 (T-19)
Saskatoon: Avg Age: 17.783 (T-19)
Prince George: Avg Age: 17.682 (22)
Edmonton is still the oldest team in the league - proof that being older doesn't mean better. Moose Jaw has jumped up from 9th (when I calculated this on December 12) to 2nd. You'd have to say Kelowna is doing pretty well in the standings, for being the 2nd-youngest (tied for that anyway) team in the league. And Prince George has dropped from 10th (on Dec 12th) down to last. The Cougars have actually dropped their average age by almost half a year from what it was back in November.
Here's how it looked on December 12:
Edmonton: Avg age: 18.227 (1)
Everett: Avg age: 18.174 (2)
Kamloops: Avg age: 18.130 (T-3)
Chilliwack: Avg age: 18.130 (T-3)
Lethbridge: Avg age: 18.130 (T-3)
Swift Current: Avg age: 18.091 (6)
Spokane: Avg age: 18.087 (7)
Calgary: Avg age: 18.080 (8)
Moose Jaw: Avg age: 18.043 (9)
Portland: Avg age: 18.042 (T-10)
Medicine Hat: Avg age: 18.042 (T-10)
Prince George: Avg age: 18.042 (T-10)
Prince Albert: Avg age: 18.040 (13)
Kootenay: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Regina: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Brandon: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Saskatoon: Avg age: 18.000 (T-14)
Red Deer: Avg age: 17.917 (T-18)
Vancouver: Avg age: 17.917 (T-18)
Tri-City: Avg age: 17.87 (20)
Seattle: Avg age: 17.818 (21)
Kelowna: Avg age: 17.792 (22)
And how it looked the first time I did it, back on November 6:
Everett: Avg age: 18.217 (1)
Edmonton: Avg age: 18.19 (2)
Chilliwack: Avg age: 18.125 (T-3)
Prince George: Avg age: 18.125 (T-3)
Swift Current: Avg age: 18.091 (5)
Kamloops: Avg age: 18.087 (T-6)
Spokane: Avg age: 18.087 (T-6)
Regina: Avg age: 18.083 (8)
Calgary: Avg age: 18.08 (T-9)
Portland: Avg age: 18.08 (T-9)
Medicine Hat: Avg age: 18.077 (11)
Lethbridge: Avg age: 18.043 (T-12)
Prince Albert: Avg age: 18.043 (T-12)
Moose Jaw: Avg age: 18.042 (14)
Brandon: Avg age: 18 (15)
Kootenay: Avg age: 17.958 (16)
Saskatoon: Avg age: 17.913 (17)
Tri-City: Avg age: 17.875 (T-18)
Vancouver: Avg age: 17.875 (T-18)
Red Deer: Avg age: 17.826 (T-20)
Seattle: Avg age: 17.826 (T-20)
Kelowna: Avg age: 17.783 (22)
Friday, January 11, 2008
D-day continues....sort of
There were no more trades yesterday, so deadline day saw just the eight deals. A little less than usual perhaps, but on the other hand it probably shouldn't be too surprising since a number of the big names were moved in the week or so leading up the deadline.
One of the trades made on Wednesday has already been voided: the Rockets' deal to acquire Brent Ottmann from Prince Albert for a conditional draft pick has been nullified since Ottmann has apparently decided to stay in Junior A rather than report to Kelowna. So, Ottmann's rights revert back to the Raiders and the Rockets keep their draft pick.
Trades weren't the other things happening yesterday; a fair number of players were also released or reassigned by their teams:
And, one team added a player: Portland added 17 year old forward Colin Reddin, whose route to the WHL has not been without bumps. As a 15 year old, he attended Hawks camp and apparently felt the WHL was the route for him, so he signed a WHL player education agreement with the Hawks at that time, although he did not play any exhibition or regular season games for the team. Sometime after that though, he apparently had a change of heart and decided to pursue the college route instead. Except, by signing that education agreement, he forfeited his college eligibility under NCAA rules. He was appealing to the NCAA to have his eligibility reinstated since he never actually got any education money from the Winter Hawks, but I'm guessing from his decision yesterday that his appeal wasn't getting favourable reviews from the NCAA people.
What more can you say about an organization that punishes kids for harmless decisions they made when they were 15. I thought the definition of being a professional was to have earned or received payment for playing.....since Reddin needed to actually play for the Hawks in order to earn the WHL education money, the fact that he hadn't played for them yet (and thus hadn't earned or received any benefits) should enable him to retain amateur status for NCAA purposes. At least, that's the common sense approach. Common sense and the NCAA are so often strangers when it comes to hockey players though.
Getting back to the trade deadline, one of the surprises for me was that Robin Figren is still an Oil King. Look at the standings: Edmonton is not going to make the playoffs. Figren was an asset who had some pretty decent value, and he's not going to be back next year so they are going to end up with nothing for him - apart from what he does for them in the 2nd half of the season of course. And some of the blame for this is on Figren, since the Oil Kings had apparently traded him to Regina before Figren decided he didn't want to go to Regina. What does it say about a player's competitive nature that he would rather play the last year of his career on a non-playoff team rather than go on a potential championship run with one of the top contenders? I just hope his veto wasn't because Figren would rather get his WHL season over with quickly so that he can join the Islanders' farm team and start making some money as a professional.
Also a bit surprised that Red Deer did not trade goalie James Reimer. They are also not going to make the playoffs, and Reimer is one of the better goalies in the league. I can only assume that either there wasn't much interest in Reimer (which would surprise me), or the Rebels are gambling that Reimer will not sign with the Maple Leafs (who picked him in the 4th round in 2006) this summer and will instead return to the WHL as an overage next year.
For your smile of the day, credit to multiple sources for this.....the Cougars need to play newly-acquired defenceman Cody Hobbs with veteran defenceman Kalvin Sagert. The reason? They'd be Kalvin and Hobbs, of course!
And one last note.....this blog had 1,242 visits yesterday, and close to 800 on each of the three days before that. Considering it normally averages about 420 visits per day, I'd say that kind of traffic indicates I'm not the only one who finds the trade deadline very interesting. :-)
One of the trades made on Wednesday has already been voided: the Rockets' deal to acquire Brent Ottmann from Prince Albert for a conditional draft pick has been nullified since Ottmann has apparently decided to stay in Junior A rather than report to Kelowna. So, Ottmann's rights revert back to the Raiders and the Rockets keep their draft pick.
Trades weren't the other things happening yesterday; a fair number of players were also released or reassigned by their teams:
- Portland released two forwards: 19 year old import Viktor Sjodin, and 18 year old Matt Betker. I see some Portland fans are unhappy with these moves, but obviously the team wants to give more ice time to younger players with more potential.
- Kootenay reassigned 17 year old defenceman Jordan Wilkins to Merritt of the B.C. Junior A league. Wilkins was the Ice's 1st round pick in the 2005 bantam draft and this is the second year in a row he has been reassigned by the team in midseason. I don't think he's a bust (I'm sure he'll be back with the Ice next year) but his career sure isn't working out the way it was projected in May 2005, that's for sure.
- Prince George released 19 year old forward Morgan MacLean. MacLean immediately joined the Junior A Prince George Spruce Kings (he didn't even have to move to a different city!) and played for the Spruce Kings last night already. Apparently MacLean's release was for disciplinary reasons, but I'm sure you could also make a case that it was because he's a 19 year old being outplayed by younger players on a rebuilding team.
- Prince George also reassigned 19 year old goalie Tommy Tartaglione to the Surrey Eagles of the B.C. Junior A league. Tough break for the happy-go-lucky kid who joined the team as an afterthought but outplayed veteran Real Cyr enough times to earn equal playing time. I wonder if Tartaglione is in the Cougars' plans for next year as an overage? If not, the Cougars will only have newly-acquired Ian Curtis returning in net next year since Cyr will graduate from the league after this season.
- Brandon released 19 year old import forward Robert Brandis. To be either a 19 year old or an import, forwards have to have more than two points and a -7 in 28 games or they don't belong in the WHL.
- Red Deer assigned 17 year old forward Spencer Edwards to the Cowichan Valley Capitals of the B.C. Junior A league.
- Saskatoon assigned 18 year old forward Jordan Braid to the Kindersley Klippers of the Saskatchewan Junior A league.
- This one hasn't been officially announced by the team, but Regina has reassigned 17 year forward Cody Hanson, probably back to his AAA midget team in Regina. His name has been removed from the team roster on the WHL site.
- Previously mentioned below, Vancouver assigned 18 year old defenceman Justin Palazzo to Junior A as well.
And, one team added a player: Portland added 17 year old forward Colin Reddin, whose route to the WHL has not been without bumps. As a 15 year old, he attended Hawks camp and apparently felt the WHL was the route for him, so he signed a WHL player education agreement with the Hawks at that time, although he did not play any exhibition or regular season games for the team. Sometime after that though, he apparently had a change of heart and decided to pursue the college route instead. Except, by signing that education agreement, he forfeited his college eligibility under NCAA rules. He was appealing to the NCAA to have his eligibility reinstated since he never actually got any education money from the Winter Hawks, but I'm guessing from his decision yesterday that his appeal wasn't getting favourable reviews from the NCAA people.
What more can you say about an organization that punishes kids for harmless decisions they made when they were 15. I thought the definition of being a professional was to have earned or received payment for playing.....since Reddin needed to actually play for the Hawks in order to earn the WHL education money, the fact that he hadn't played for them yet (and thus hadn't earned or received any benefits) should enable him to retain amateur status for NCAA purposes. At least, that's the common sense approach. Common sense and the NCAA are so often strangers when it comes to hockey players though.
Getting back to the trade deadline, one of the surprises for me was that Robin Figren is still an Oil King. Look at the standings: Edmonton is not going to make the playoffs. Figren was an asset who had some pretty decent value, and he's not going to be back next year so they are going to end up with nothing for him - apart from what he does for them in the 2nd half of the season of course. And some of the blame for this is on Figren, since the Oil Kings had apparently traded him to Regina before Figren decided he didn't want to go to Regina. What does it say about a player's competitive nature that he would rather play the last year of his career on a non-playoff team rather than go on a potential championship run with one of the top contenders? I just hope his veto wasn't because Figren would rather get his WHL season over with quickly so that he can join the Islanders' farm team and start making some money as a professional.
Also a bit surprised that Red Deer did not trade goalie James Reimer. They are also not going to make the playoffs, and Reimer is one of the better goalies in the league. I can only assume that either there wasn't much interest in Reimer (which would surprise me), or the Rebels are gambling that Reimer will not sign with the Maple Leafs (who picked him in the 4th round in 2006) this summer and will instead return to the WHL as an overage next year.
For your smile of the day, credit to multiple sources for this.....the Cougars need to play newly-acquired defenceman Cody Hobbs with veteran defenceman Kalvin Sagert. The reason? They'd be Kalvin and Hobbs, of course!
And one last note.....this blog had 1,242 visits yesterday, and close to 800 on each of the three days before that. Considering it normally averages about 420 visits per day, I'd say that kind of traffic indicates I'm not the only one who finds the trade deadline very interesting. :-)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Deadline deals
First deal of the day is in: Calgary sends 19 year old defenceman Eric Frere to Kootenay for a 2008 5th round pick.
Not sure why the Hitmen would move out a good depth player, unless they are making room on the 25 man roster for some other acquisition today.
Second and third deals are in now.....both involving the Broncos. First, they send 17 year old goaltender Ian Curtis to Prince George, in return for 19 year old defenceman Jesse Dudas and 15 year old forward Catlin Foley. Foley was P.G.'s 6th round pick in 2007. Dudas is a quality pickup for the Broncos, if they can get him to stay healthy. The guy has played only 133 games over 3.5 years in the WHL due to injuries. In trading Curtis - who was the first goalie picked in the 2005 bantam draft - the Broncos give up on what was at one time their goalie of the future.
Acquiring Curtis also gives Prince George three goaltenders on their roster (overage Real Cyr and 19 year old Tommy Tartaglione are the others), so look for another deal there by the end of the day, I would think.
Anyway, to replace Curtis in their net, the Broncos have acquired 18 year old goalie Mark Guggenberger from Portland for a conditional 2009 draft pick. Guggenberger only played a few games for the Hawks this year before he was sent home for disciplinary reasons; is this really the guy the Broncos want to hang their playoff hopes on if starter Travis Yonkman goes down?
As a side note, Broncos p-b-p guy Jon Keen was hinting on his blog that there was interest in a "big name" from the Western conference. Maybe Guggenberger (12 letters) was that "big" name? :-)
Fourth deal now....Cougars send a 2008 7th round pick to Chilliwack for 18 year old defenceman Cody Hobbs.
Fifth deal.....Vancouver sends 17 year old forward Phil Gervais to Portland for a 2009 5th round pick. Gervais was acquired from Swift Current earlier this year but obviously hasn't worked out in Vancouver.
The Giants also reassigned 18 year old defenceman Justin Palazzo to Junior A.
Sixth deal....and holy crap. Medicine Hat sends 19 year old d-man Trevor Glass to Spokane for a 2008 3rd round pick and a 2010 2nd round pick. An average defenceman like Trevor Glass is worth TWO high picks like that? The world has gone mad!
I note Tiger G.M. Willie Desjardins says he has "mixed emotions" about trading Glass but feels a new organization is best for the player. I think that's code for "I didn't want to trade him but I soiled myself when they offered the 2nd rounder".
3:15pm Calgary time now, so the deadline passed about 15 minutes ago. We should be hearing shortly some of the last-minute moves...
Deal #7: Chilliwack trades 19 year old defenceman Matt McCue to Brandon for a 2009 4th round pick. That is two defencemen the Bruins have moved out today. Something tells me Nick Holden isn't going anywhere.
Deal #8: Red Deer trades overage forward Brennan Sonne up the highway to their rivals in Edmonton for a 2009 7th round pick. Neither of these teams is going to make the playoffs so I'm not sure why Edmonton is adding overagers instead of playing kids, but oh well.
5:30pm Calgary time now.....two and a half hours after deadline. If there were any more deals, we should probably have heard about them by now. So, it's starting to look like there might not be anymore....
Not sure why the Hitmen would move out a good depth player, unless they are making room on the 25 man roster for some other acquisition today.
Second and third deals are in now.....both involving the Broncos. First, they send 17 year old goaltender Ian Curtis to Prince George, in return for 19 year old defenceman Jesse Dudas and 15 year old forward Catlin Foley. Foley was P.G.'s 6th round pick in 2007. Dudas is a quality pickup for the Broncos, if they can get him to stay healthy. The guy has played only 133 games over 3.5 years in the WHL due to injuries. In trading Curtis - who was the first goalie picked in the 2005 bantam draft - the Broncos give up on what was at one time their goalie of the future.
Acquiring Curtis also gives Prince George three goaltenders on their roster (overage Real Cyr and 19 year old Tommy Tartaglione are the others), so look for another deal there by the end of the day, I would think.
Anyway, to replace Curtis in their net, the Broncos have acquired 18 year old goalie Mark Guggenberger from Portland for a conditional 2009 draft pick. Guggenberger only played a few games for the Hawks this year before he was sent home for disciplinary reasons; is this really the guy the Broncos want to hang their playoff hopes on if starter Travis Yonkman goes down?
As a side note, Broncos p-b-p guy Jon Keen was hinting on his blog that there was interest in a "big name" from the Western conference. Maybe Guggenberger (12 letters) was that "big" name? :-)
Fourth deal now....Cougars send a 2008 7th round pick to Chilliwack for 18 year old defenceman Cody Hobbs.
Fifth deal.....Vancouver sends 17 year old forward Phil Gervais to Portland for a 2009 5th round pick. Gervais was acquired from Swift Current earlier this year but obviously hasn't worked out in Vancouver.
The Giants also reassigned 18 year old defenceman Justin Palazzo to Junior A.
Sixth deal....and holy crap. Medicine Hat sends 19 year old d-man Trevor Glass to Spokane for a 2008 3rd round pick and a 2010 2nd round pick. An average defenceman like Trevor Glass is worth TWO high picks like that? The world has gone mad!
I note Tiger G.M. Willie Desjardins says he has "mixed emotions" about trading Glass but feels a new organization is best for the player. I think that's code for "I didn't want to trade him but I soiled myself when they offered the 2nd rounder".
3:15pm Calgary time now, so the deadline passed about 15 minutes ago. We should be hearing shortly some of the last-minute moves...
Deal #7: Chilliwack trades 19 year old defenceman Matt McCue to Brandon for a 2009 4th round pick. That is two defencemen the Bruins have moved out today. Something tells me Nick Holden isn't going anywhere.
Deal #8: Red Deer trades overage forward Brennan Sonne up the highway to their rivals in Edmonton for a 2009 7th round pick. Neither of these teams is going to make the playoffs so I'm not sure why Edmonton is adding overagers instead of playing kids, but oh well.
5:30pm Calgary time now.....two and a half hours after deadline. If there were any more deals, we should probably have heard about them by now. So, it's starting to look like there might not be anymore....
2008 trade list
A list of what every team has traded and acquired so far since January 1:
(italics indicates a player who is/was not on the roster for that team)
Brandon:
Acquired: Matt McCue (D-19)
Traded: 2009 4th round pick
Calgary:
Acquired: Brock Nixon (F-20), 2008 5th round pick, 2008 6th round pick
Traded: Eric Frere (D-19), Devon Kalinski (F-17), 2008 2nd round pick
Chilliwack:
Acquired: Matt Strong (D-17), 2008 7th round pick, 2009 4th round pick
Traded: Cody Hobbs (D-18), Colby Kulhanek (F-18), Matt McCue (D-19)
Edmonton:
Acquired: Brennan Sonne (F-20), 2008 3rd round pick
Traded: Bretton Stamler (D-20), 2009 7th round pick
Everett:
- no moves -
Kamloops:
Acquired: Spencer Fraipont (D-19), Devon Kalinski (F-17), Nick Ross (D-18), 2008 2nd round pick, 2008 4th round pick
Traded: Victor Bartley (D-19), Ryan Bender (D-20), Brock Nixon (F-20), 2008 6th round pick
Kelowna:
- no moves -
Kootenay:
Acquired: Eric Frere (D-19), Zach Sim (D-19)
Traded: 2008 5th round pick, 2008 5th round pick
Lethbridge:
Acquired: Jeff May (D-20)
Traded: Robbie Ciolfi (F-16), Brent Martin (F-15), Zach Sim (D-19), 2008 2nd round pick
Medicine Hat:
Acquired: 2008 3rd round pick, 2010 2nd round pick
Traded: Trevor Glass (D-19)
Moose Jaw:
Acquired: Evan Fuller (F-19), Ty Wishart (D-19), 2008 3rd round pick
Traded: Justin Maylan (F-16), Brad Riege (F-18), 2008 1st round pick
Portland:
Acquired: Phil Gervais (F-17), conditional 2009 draft pick
Traded: Mark Guggenberger (G-18), 2009 5th round pick
Prince Albert:
Acquired: Robbie Ciolfi (F-16), Jared Jagow (F-19), Brent Martin (F-15), 2008 2nd round pick, 2008 3rd round pick, 2008 5th round pick
Traded: Ryan DePape (F-19), Jeff May (D-20), Zach Sim (D-19)
Prince George:
Acquired: Ian Curtis (G-17), Cody Hobbs (D-18), Justin Maylan (F-16), Brad Riege (F-18), 2008 1st round pick
Traded: Jesse Dudas (D-19), Catlin Foley (F-15),Evan Fuller (F-19), Ty Wishart (D-19), 2008 3rd round pick, 2008 7th round pick
Red Deer:
Acquired: Cody Gross (F-18), Colby Kulhanek (F-18), Brett Miller (F-16), Troy Ofukany (F-20), Juraj Valach (D-18), 2009 7th round pick
Traded: Scott Doucet (F-19), Dallas Jackson (D-18), Brennan Sonne (F-20), Matt Strong (D-17), J.D. Watt (F-20)
Regina:
Acquired: Victor Bartley (D-19), Ryan Bender (D-20), Ryan DePape (F-19), Scott Doucet (F-19), Dallas Jackson (D-18), J.D. Watt (F-20)
Traded: Spencer Fraipont (D-19), Cody Gross (F-18), Jared Jagow (F-19),Brett Miller (F-16), Troy Ofukany (F-20), Nick Ross (D-18), Juraj Valach (D-18), 2008 3rd round pick, 2008 4th round pick
Saskatoon:
Acquired: Burke Gallimore (F-16), Chris Langkow (F-18), conditional 2009 3rd round pick
Traded: Justin McCrae (F-19)
Seattle:
- no moves -
Spokane:
Acquired: Trevor Glass (D-19), Justin McCrae (F-19)
Traded: Burke Gallimore (F-16), Chris Langkow (F-18), 2008 3rd round pick, 2010 2nd round pick, conditional 2009 3rd round pick
Swift Current:
Acquired: Jesse Dudas (D-19), Catlin Foley (F-15), Mark Guggenberger (G-18), Bretton Stamler (D-20), future considerations
Traded: Ian Curtis (G-17), R.J. LaRochelle (D-20), 2008 3rd round pick, conditional 2009 draft pick
Tri-City:
Acquired: Nolan Toigo (D-18)
Traded: conditional 2009 6th round pick
Vancouver:
Acquired: R.J. LaRochelle (D-20), 2009 5th round pick, conditional 2009 6th round pick
Traded: Phil Gervais (F-17), Nolan Toigo (D-18), future considerations
(italics indicates a player who is/was not on the roster for that team)
Brandon:
Acquired: Matt McCue (D-19)
Traded: 2009 4th round pick
Calgary:
Acquired: Brock Nixon (F-20), 2008 5th round pick, 2008 6th round pick
Traded: Eric Frere (D-19), Devon Kalinski (F-17), 2008 2nd round pick
Chilliwack:
Acquired: Matt Strong (D-17), 2008 7th round pick, 2009 4th round pick
Traded: Cody Hobbs (D-18), Colby Kulhanek (F-18), Matt McCue (D-19)
Edmonton:
Acquired: Brennan Sonne (F-20), 2008 3rd round pick
Traded: Bretton Stamler (D-20), 2009 7th round pick
Everett:
- no moves -
Kamloops:
Acquired: Spencer Fraipont (D-19), Devon Kalinski (F-17), Nick Ross (D-18), 2008 2nd round pick, 2008 4th round pick
Traded: Victor Bartley (D-19), Ryan Bender (D-20), Brock Nixon (F-20), 2008 6th round pick
Kelowna:
- no moves -
Kootenay:
Acquired: Eric Frere (D-19), Zach Sim (D-19)
Traded: 2008 5th round pick, 2008 5th round pick
Lethbridge:
Acquired: Jeff May (D-20)
Traded: Robbie Ciolfi (F-16), Brent Martin (F-15), Zach Sim (D-19), 2008 2nd round pick
Medicine Hat:
Acquired: 2008 3rd round pick, 2010 2nd round pick
Traded: Trevor Glass (D-19)
Moose Jaw:
Acquired: Evan Fuller (F-19), Ty Wishart (D-19), 2008 3rd round pick
Traded: Justin Maylan (F-16), Brad Riege (F-18), 2008 1st round pick
Portland:
Acquired: Phil Gervais (F-17), conditional 2009 draft pick
Traded: Mark Guggenberger (G-18), 2009 5th round pick
Prince Albert:
Acquired: Robbie Ciolfi (F-16), Jared Jagow (F-19), Brent Martin (F-15), 2008 2nd round pick, 2008 3rd round pick, 2008 5th round pick
Traded: Ryan DePape (F-19), Jeff May (D-20), Zach Sim (D-19)
Prince George:
Acquired: Ian Curtis (G-17), Cody Hobbs (D-18), Justin Maylan (F-16), Brad Riege (F-18), 2008 1st round pick
Traded: Jesse Dudas (D-19), Catlin Foley (F-15),Evan Fuller (F-19), Ty Wishart (D-19), 2008 3rd round pick, 2008 7th round pick
Red Deer:
Acquired: Cody Gross (F-18), Colby Kulhanek (F-18), Brett Miller (F-16), Troy Ofukany (F-20), Juraj Valach (D-18), 2009 7th round pick
Traded: Scott Doucet (F-19), Dallas Jackson (D-18), Brennan Sonne (F-20), Matt Strong (D-17), J.D. Watt (F-20)
Regina:
Acquired: Victor Bartley (D-19), Ryan Bender (D-20), Ryan DePape (F-19), Scott Doucet (F-19), Dallas Jackson (D-18), J.D. Watt (F-20)
Traded: Spencer Fraipont (D-19), Cody Gross (F-18), Jared Jagow (F-19),Brett Miller (F-16), Troy Ofukany (F-20), Nick Ross (D-18), Juraj Valach (D-18), 2008 3rd round pick, 2008 4th round pick
Saskatoon:
Acquired: Burke Gallimore (F-16), Chris Langkow (F-18), conditional 2009 3rd round pick
Traded: Justin McCrae (F-19)
Seattle:
- no moves -
Spokane:
Acquired: Trevor Glass (D-19), Justin McCrae (F-19)
Traded: Burke Gallimore (F-16), Chris Langkow (F-18), 2008 3rd round pick, 2010 2nd round pick, conditional 2009 3rd round pick
Swift Current:
Acquired: Jesse Dudas (D-19), Catlin Foley (F-15), Mark Guggenberger (G-18), Bretton Stamler (D-20), future considerations
Traded: Ian Curtis (G-17), R.J. LaRochelle (D-20), 2008 3rd round pick, conditional 2009 draft pick
Tri-City:
Acquired: Nolan Toigo (D-18)
Traded: conditional 2009 6th round pick
Vancouver:
Acquired: R.J. LaRochelle (D-20), 2009 5th round pick, conditional 2009 6th round pick
Traded: Phil Gervais (F-17), Nolan Toigo (D-18), future considerations
D-Day is here
It's Deadline Day; 3pm Mountain time is the cutoff. I'll post today's deals as they are announced or leak out; if history is any indication, the league will try to keep a lid on things so that they can claim some glory by announcing ALL the deals in one press release sometime after 3pm. In fact, going by past years, it will be sometime after 5pm MST before they get around to it. No thanks....fortunately some teams still announce their own deals when they happen.
Bunch o' trades yesterday....
Swift Current acquires overage defenceman Bretton Stamler from Edmonton for a 2008 3rd round bantam pick. To open up an overage spot for him, they then trade overage defenceman R.J. LaRochelle to Vancouver for future considerations. I would suspect the future considerations in this deal are based on how many games LaRochelle - who is recovering from a concussion and has a history of them - is able to play for Vancouver.
I'm a bit surprised that Vancouver took LaRochelle, considering that they were apparently in the Jeff May talks right up until the end when they were beaten out by Lethbridge. When healthy, LaRochelle is a quality defenceman but I would think a contender would not want to take the chance on his injury problems. Heck, that's why Swift Current swapped LaRochelle out for Stamler in the first place. There were other quality (and healthy) overage d-men out there that the Giants could have still pursued, such as Matt Swaby in Edmonton and Nick Holden in Chilliwack. Although, I suppose the devil will be building snowmen on his front lawn in July before the Giants and Bruins make a trade, after all that has gone on between those two teams in the last year.
In other moves, Kootenay picked up a depth player on their blueline with the acquisition of 19 year old Zach Sim from Prince Albert for a 2008 5th round pick. And that was just one of four trades made by the Raiders yesterday; besides the Sim and May deals, they also sent 19 year old forward Brent Ottmann to Kelowna for a conditional 2009 draft pick - Ottmann was sent home by the Raiders early in the season so this is a chance for him to get back into the league with a different team. I would guess the pick depends on whether Ottmann plays for Kelowna this year and/or whether he plays as an overage next year. And the 4th trade saw the Raiders send 19 year old forward Ryan DePape to Regina for 19 year old forward Jared Jagow and a 2008 3rd round pick. That's the 3rd time that same 3rd round pick has been traded in the last ten days.....the Pats sent it to Red Deer in the Watt deal, got it back in the Ofukany/Jackson deal, and now send it to Prince Albert.
One other rumoured deal, the Robin Figren to Regina deal, is apparently off. The Regina Leader-Post is reporting that Figren has refused to go to Regina, for reasons unspecified. Perhaps he is hoping that his old team, Calgary, will pick him up today instead. Otherwise, he is destined to finish his WHL career on a non-playoff team now.
Whole bunch of G.M.'s quoted in their local papers today with the standard deadline day boilerplate: no, we don't expect to make moves. We like our team, should be a quiet day, blabbity blabbity blah. Don't be fooled. Every year all the G.M.'s say this, and every year there's 10-15 trades made on deadline day.
One more note - there at currently three (that I know of) WHL players who are awaiting trades to get them back into the league: Matt Hallick (Brandon), Tayler Jordan (Portland), and Josh Schappert (Seattle). Hallick and Jordan have been out of the league all year and have been playing with other teams this year (Hallick with the AJHL's Brooks Bandits; Jordan with the Saskatchewan AAA midget league's Tisdale Trojans) but we'll see if any of them get moved at the deadline today. Schappert for sure has proven he can play in this league.....the other two are marginal/unproven WHLers but maybe somebody's interested.
Bunch o' trades yesterday....
Swift Current acquires overage defenceman Bretton Stamler from Edmonton for a 2008 3rd round bantam pick. To open up an overage spot for him, they then trade overage defenceman R.J. LaRochelle to Vancouver for future considerations. I would suspect the future considerations in this deal are based on how many games LaRochelle - who is recovering from a concussion and has a history of them - is able to play for Vancouver.
I'm a bit surprised that Vancouver took LaRochelle, considering that they were apparently in the Jeff May talks right up until the end when they were beaten out by Lethbridge. When healthy, LaRochelle is a quality defenceman but I would think a contender would not want to take the chance on his injury problems. Heck, that's why Swift Current swapped LaRochelle out for Stamler in the first place. There were other quality (and healthy) overage d-men out there that the Giants could have still pursued, such as Matt Swaby in Edmonton and Nick Holden in Chilliwack. Although, I suppose the devil will be building snowmen on his front lawn in July before the Giants and Bruins make a trade, after all that has gone on between those two teams in the last year.
In other moves, Kootenay picked up a depth player on their blueline with the acquisition of 19 year old Zach Sim from Prince Albert for a 2008 5th round pick. And that was just one of four trades made by the Raiders yesterday; besides the Sim and May deals, they also sent 19 year old forward Brent Ottmann to Kelowna for a conditional 2009 draft pick - Ottmann was sent home by the Raiders early in the season so this is a chance for him to get back into the league with a different team. I would guess the pick depends on whether Ottmann plays for Kelowna this year and/or whether he plays as an overage next year. And the 4th trade saw the Raiders send 19 year old forward Ryan DePape to Regina for 19 year old forward Jared Jagow and a 2008 3rd round pick. That's the 3rd time that same 3rd round pick has been traded in the last ten days.....the Pats sent it to Red Deer in the Watt deal, got it back in the Ofukany/Jackson deal, and now send it to Prince Albert.
One other rumoured deal, the Robin Figren to Regina deal, is apparently off. The Regina Leader-Post is reporting that Figren has refused to go to Regina, for reasons unspecified. Perhaps he is hoping that his old team, Calgary, will pick him up today instead. Otherwise, he is destined to finish his WHL career on a non-playoff team now.
Whole bunch of G.M.'s quoted in their local papers today with the standard deadline day boilerplate: no, we don't expect to make moves. We like our team, should be a quiet day, blabbity blabbity blah. Don't be fooled. Every year all the G.M.'s say this, and every year there's 10-15 trades made on deadline day.
One more note - there at currently three (that I know of) WHL players who are awaiting trades to get them back into the league: Matt Hallick (Brandon), Tayler Jordan (Portland), and Josh Schappert (Seattle). Hallick and Jordan have been out of the league all year and have been playing with other teams this year (Hallick with the AJHL's Brooks Bandits; Jordan with the Saskatchewan AAA midget league's Tisdale Trojans) but we'll see if any of them get moved at the deadline today. Schappert for sure has proven he can play in this league.....the other two are marginal/unproven WHLers but maybe somebody's interested.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
May to Lethbridge
As expected, Raiders defenceman Jeff May has been traded to Lethbridge this morning. Quite a steep price was paid for him too by the Hurricanes: their 2008 2nd round bantam pick, plus two forward prospects - Robbie Ciolfi (16) and Brent Martin (15). Martin was Lethbridge's 3rd round pick in 2007, while Ciolfi is a listed player from the Lethbridge AAA midgets. Both these guys are point-a-game scorers this year in the Alberta AAA midget league.
Supposedly Martin was a first-round talent who slipped to the 3rd round last May because he was waffling on playing in the WHL vs NCAA. That may or may not still be the case, I don't know. Excellent prospect either way though.
So, basically three pretty good prospects for a half-season of a rent-a-player like Jeff May. May is a very good all-situation defenceman who is going to really help shore up the Lethbridge blueline. But that is a big price.....if this is any indication of what the contenders are willing to pay for help, then things are going to get really expensive (and interesting) by deadline. Just over 24 hours to go now.
Supposedly Martin was a first-round talent who slipped to the 3rd round last May because he was waffling on playing in the WHL vs NCAA. That may or may not still be the case, I don't know. Excellent prospect either way though.
So, basically three pretty good prospects for a half-season of a rent-a-player like Jeff May. May is a very good all-situation defenceman who is going to really help shore up the Lethbridge blueline. But that is a big price.....if this is any indication of what the contenders are willing to pay for help, then things are going to get really expensive (and interesting) by deadline. Just over 24 hours to go now.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Conspicuous scratches?
Looking at the rosters of a few teams in action tonight, there were some very noteworthy healthy scratches. In Edmonton, neither Robin Figren nor Matt Swaby were dressed for the Oil Kings, while in Swift Current, the visiting Raiders sat out Jeff May and Ryan McDonald.
There may be perfectly legitimate non-trade related reasons why these players did not play tonight, but it's also not uncommon for teams to scratch players who are on the verge of being traded. Don't be surprised to see Jeff May on his way to Lethbridge tomorrow.....and maybe Swaby might be the guy a team like Vancouver is looking for? And of course Figren is supposedly off to Regina any time now.
One minor deal tonight, Tri-City picks up former Vancouver defenceman Nolan Toigo for a conditional 6th round pick. The Ams do not intend to bring Toigo in to join the team right now but will keep him on their affiliate player list in case of injuries, etc. He'll remain in Jr A in B.C., where he has been since leaving the Giants earlier this year.
There may be perfectly legitimate non-trade related reasons why these players did not play tonight, but it's also not uncommon for teams to scratch players who are on the verge of being traded. Don't be surprised to see Jeff May on his way to Lethbridge tomorrow.....and maybe Swaby might be the guy a team like Vancouver is looking for? And of course Figren is supposedly off to Regina any time now.
One minor deal tonight, Tri-City picks up former Vancouver defenceman Nolan Toigo for a conditional 6th round pick. The Ams do not intend to bring Toigo in to join the team right now but will keep him on their affiliate player list in case of injuries, etc. He'll remain in Jr A in B.C., where he has been since leaving the Giants earlier this year.
Tuesday notes
My prediction of Lethbridge shoring up their blueline with a trade for Ty Wishart blew up quickly, but it looks like the Hurricanes may now be able to go after a quality overage d-man. Overage forward Luke Wiens may be out for the season now after injuring his shoulder last week, which means that the Canes may opt to release Wiens and acquire somebody else to fill his overage spot. Overage defencemen who may be on the market include Bretton Stamler and Matt Swaby (Edmonton), Nick Holden (Chilliwack), Mark Louis (Red Deer), Jeff May and Ryan White (Prince Albert), John Flatters (Saskatoon), and Mike Gauthier (Kamloops).
Lethbridge G.M. Ray Stasiuk does say (in the linked article) that he feels he needs to address the team's blueline situation, so we should probably expect at least one more deal from him before the deadline. In fact, he said he'd like to get his trades done by today.
The Kelowna Rockets may be in the same situation with injured overage forward James McEwen. He is recovering from a severed tendon in his arm and will be out at least another eight to ten weeks. That puts the timeline for his return at around early to mid March - right before the playoffs basically. So, the Rockets need to make a decision this week on whether to take the chance that McEwen will indeed be ready to play, or whether they should release him and pick up another 20 year old this week. Tough, tough call.....on the one hand, he's their captain and you don't want to end a kid's junior career prematurely like that if you don't have to. But on the other hand, if he doesn't recover on schedule (and cut tendons are tricky things to 100% recover from sometimes), he might not be able to play again this year anyway - in which case the team would be hurt by having to play with just two overagers the rest of the season and playoffs when they could have had three.
Anyway, we should look for a couple more deals today for sure....there's the Lethbridge thing I mentioned above, and supposedly Robin Figren is on his way to Regina once he approves a deal which will see the Oil Kings get a prospect and a mid-round draft pick from the Pats. Figren returned to Edmonton from the World Juniors late last night, so presumably the team will run the trade past him this morning. The team has scheduled time at 10:00am this morning for media to talk to Figren about the World Juniors but maybe that will turn into a photo op of him cleaning out his Oil Kings locker.
Lethbridge G.M. Ray Stasiuk does say (in the linked article) that he feels he needs to address the team's blueline situation, so we should probably expect at least one more deal from him before the deadline. In fact, he said he'd like to get his trades done by today.
The Kelowna Rockets may be in the same situation with injured overage forward James McEwen. He is recovering from a severed tendon in his arm and will be out at least another eight to ten weeks. That puts the timeline for his return at around early to mid March - right before the playoffs basically. So, the Rockets need to make a decision this week on whether to take the chance that McEwen will indeed be ready to play, or whether they should release him and pick up another 20 year old this week. Tough, tough call.....on the one hand, he's their captain and you don't want to end a kid's junior career prematurely like that if you don't have to. But on the other hand, if he doesn't recover on schedule (and cut tendons are tricky things to 100% recover from sometimes), he might not be able to play again this year anyway - in which case the team would be hurt by having to play with just two overagers the rest of the season and playoffs when they could have had three.
Anyway, we should look for a couple more deals today for sure....there's the Lethbridge thing I mentioned above, and supposedly Robin Figren is on his way to Regina once he approves a deal which will see the Oil Kings get a prospect and a mid-round draft pick from the Pats. Figren returned to Edmonton from the World Juniors late last night, so presumably the team will run the trade past him this morning. The team has scheduled time at 10:00am this morning for media to talk to Figren about the World Juniors but maybe that will turn into a photo op of him cleaning out his Oil Kings locker.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Chiefs/Blades deal, Ams get Meidl
Another deal.....this one has Spokane acquiring 19 year old forward (and team captain) Justin McCrae from Saskatoon for 18 year old forward Chris Langkow, 16 year old forward prospect Burke Gallimore, and a conditional 2009 3rd round pick. I would imagine the pick goes to Saskatoon if McCrae plays in the league next year as an overager.
Seems like a lot for the Chiefs to give up for a forward who has never been a point-a-game player in his career. He is a complete all-zone player and obvious team leader but is probably a 2nd line type player on a team like Spokane. On the other hand though, McCrae is the kind of player you win championships with. On the other side of the deal, Gallimore is one of the leading scorers in the Alberta midget league this year and could be a good one for the Blades for a few years.
And in another news item, Tri-City has officially acquired former Seattle forward Radek Meidl. This is not a trade though as they picked him up after Seattle released him last summer. Meidl joins the Ams now after competing in the World Juniors and spending the first half of the season playing in his home country.
Seems like a lot for the Chiefs to give up for a forward who has never been a point-a-game player in his career. He is a complete all-zone player and obvious team leader but is probably a 2nd line type player on a team like Spokane. On the other hand though, McCrae is the kind of player you win championships with. On the other side of the deal, Gallimore is one of the leading scorers in the Alberta midget league this year and could be a good one for the Blades for a few years.
And in another news item, Tri-City has officially acquired former Seattle forward Radek Meidl. This is not a trade though as they picked him up after Seattle released him last summer. Meidl joins the Ams now after competing in the World Juniors and spending the first half of the season playing in his home country.
Wishart dealt
Sure didn't take very long for me to be proven wrong on my prediction of Ty Wishart to Lethbridge. He is off to Moose Jaw.
Going with him is another 19 year old from the Cougars - forward Evan Fuller - and a 2008 3rd round pick. In return, the Cougars get forwards Justin Maylan (16) and Brad Reige (18) from the Warriors, plus the Warriors' 2008 first round bantam pick.
In other words, the Cougars just got nowhere near as much for Wishart as they were rumoured to be asking just a few days ago. They got the first round pick but had to sweeten the pot with Evan Fuller and their own 3rd rounder. Maylan was Moose Jaw's 2006 first round pick though so I guess you could argue the Cougars actually got two first rounders.
So, the biggest fish is gone now and this should set the dominoes falling in all the deals where G.M.s were waiting for a Wishart trade to set the market price for players.
Surprised to see the Warriors (7th place in the East) making such a big move.....wonder what effect this will have on other teams in the East.....
In another, much less significant move, Red Deer has sent 17 year old defenceman Matt Strong to Chilliwack for 18 year old forward Colby Kulhanek.
Going with him is another 19 year old from the Cougars - forward Evan Fuller - and a 2008 3rd round pick. In return, the Cougars get forwards Justin Maylan (16) and Brad Reige (18) from the Warriors, plus the Warriors' 2008 first round bantam pick.
In other words, the Cougars just got nowhere near as much for Wishart as they were rumoured to be asking just a few days ago. They got the first round pick but had to sweeten the pot with Evan Fuller and their own 3rd rounder. Maylan was Moose Jaw's 2006 first round pick though so I guess you could argue the Cougars actually got two first rounders.
So, the biggest fish is gone now and this should set the dominoes falling in all the deals where G.M.s were waiting for a Wishart trade to set the market price for players.
Surprised to see the Warriors (7th place in the East) making such a big move.....wonder what effect this will have on other teams in the East.....
In another, much less significant move, Red Deer has sent 17 year old defenceman Matt Strong to Chilliwack for 18 year old forward Colby Kulhanek.
Okposo, deadline
Team USA World Juniors forward Kyle Okposo has left the NCAA and signed a contract with the NHL's New York Islanders, who picked him in the first round of the 2006 draft. But, Okposo will not be coming to the WHL, where the Everett Silvertips own his rights - he has been assigned by the Islanders to the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The trade deadline is now just over three days away (3pm Mountain time on Thursday) and there have been no moves in the last two days, since the three trades Saturday morning. I would guess this is the calm before the storm though and we'll probably see the usual 10-15 trades on Thursday.
Some random blabbering about the deadline.....Regina has been the most active so far and are obviously positioning themselves to take a run in the Eastern conference. It remains to be seen what effect the Pats' moves will have on other Eastern front-runners such as Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Kootenay, Brandon, Moose Jaw, and Swift Current. Calgary has already made one significant move in picking up Brock Nixon. They still have an import spot open, as does Regina, so look for the possibility of one of those teams to acquire a guy like Robin Figren from Edmonton or Juuso Puustinen from Kamloops.
I don't expect to see a lot of moves out of Brandon or Medicine Hat. Both those teams are doing quite well in what is really a rebuilding year for them and I think rather than sell off some of their young players for a quick fix, I think we'll see those teams try to go as far as they can this year with their younger players and build up experience for next year.
Lethbridge is definitely a team to watch.....how do they answer the moves made by two of their biggest competitors in the East? Just my opinion but I think they are very thin on the blueline and really need another top-pairing guy back there to take some of the pressure off Ben Wright. This is where I'd look for Ty Wishart of the Cougars to end up....I know the rumoured price (1st round pick and one or two prospects) for Wishart is ridiculously high right now but unless there is a big bidding war for him this week, the price should come down to something the Hurricanes can swallow by Thursday. You have to believe the Cougars are going to trade the guy; they're not going to the playoffs and so getting anything for him is an improvement on next year's team. I also think the Hurricanes probably have the worst goaltending of any of the top eight in the East - neither one of their goalies is above .900 in the save percentage department - and so this might be another area they need to address this week. Leland Irving and James Reimer are probably available.
The trade deadline is now just over three days away (3pm Mountain time on Thursday) and there have been no moves in the last two days, since the three trades Saturday morning. I would guess this is the calm before the storm though and we'll probably see the usual 10-15 trades on Thursday.
Some random blabbering about the deadline.....Regina has been the most active so far and are obviously positioning themselves to take a run in the Eastern conference. It remains to be seen what effect the Pats' moves will have on other Eastern front-runners such as Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Kootenay, Brandon, Moose Jaw, and Swift Current. Calgary has already made one significant move in picking up Brock Nixon. They still have an import spot open, as does Regina, so look for the possibility of one of those teams to acquire a guy like Robin Figren from Edmonton or Juuso Puustinen from Kamloops.
I don't expect to see a lot of moves out of Brandon or Medicine Hat. Both those teams are doing quite well in what is really a rebuilding year for them and I think rather than sell off some of their young players for a quick fix, I think we'll see those teams try to go as far as they can this year with their younger players and build up experience for next year.
Lethbridge is definitely a team to watch.....how do they answer the moves made by two of their biggest competitors in the East? Just my opinion but I think they are very thin on the blueline and really need another top-pairing guy back there to take some of the pressure off Ben Wright. This is where I'd look for Ty Wishart of the Cougars to end up....I know the rumoured price (1st round pick and one or two prospects) for Wishart is ridiculously high right now but unless there is a big bidding war for him this week, the price should come down to something the Hurricanes can swallow by Thursday. You have to believe the Cougars are going to trade the guy; they're not going to the playoffs and so getting anything for him is an improvement on next year's team. I also think the Hurricanes probably have the worst goaltending of any of the top eight in the East - neither one of their goalies is above .900 in the save percentage department - and so this might be another area they need to address this week. Leland Irving and James Reimer are probably available.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
And so it begins
Three trades this morning, kicking off what should be an interesting runup to Thursday's trade deadline. Amongst the deals, Kamloops identified themselves as sellers this morning by trading two overagers and a 19 year old in return for a 17, an 18, and a 19 year old.
First, Kamloops sends defenceman Ryan Bender (20) and Victor Bartley (19) to Regina for defencemen Nick Ross (18) and Spencer Fraipont (19) and a 2008 4th round pick.
Then, they send forward Brock Nixon (20) and a 2008 6th round pick to the Calgary Hitmen for forward Devon Kalinski (17) and a 2008 2nd round pick. Calgary had an open overage spot and so are able to add Nixon without having to move another overage.
In the third deal, Regina opened up an overage spot for Bender by sending forward Troy Ofukany (20), defenceman Juraj Valach (18), and a 2008 4th round pick to Red Deer for defenceman Dallas Jackson (18) and a 2008 3rd round pick. (The two picks involved are going back to their original teams after being involved in the J.D. Watt trade last week.)
I don't know about the two Pats trades.....for starters, that's a ridiculous trade for Jackson. I know they had to open a spot for Bender but Valach and Ofukany for Jackson is a definite loss for the Pats. It's Dallas Jackson, a 3rd pairing guy for them, not an all-star. Getting their 3rd round pick back can't be that big a deal; Regina's 3rd rounder and Red Deer's 4th rounder are not going to be that far apart in this year's draft. And the other trade; getting Bender and Bartley addresses a Pats need (grit), but at what cost? They moved out the best player in the deal - Ross - and with the loss of Ross, they've given up a top offensive defenceman today without getting a comparable talent in return.
I don't think the Pats have hurt themselves any but I'm not sure they are any better either.
The Calgary/Kamloops trade is a more obvious one: a contender stocking up by acquiring a veteran star for a decent prospect and a good draft pick. Nixon will help Calgary's top line and powerplay, and they had prospect depth to spare in moving Kalinski, who should play another three years for the Blazers after this.
First, Kamloops sends defenceman Ryan Bender (20) and Victor Bartley (19) to Regina for defencemen Nick Ross (18) and Spencer Fraipont (19) and a 2008 4th round pick.
Then, they send forward Brock Nixon (20) and a 2008 6th round pick to the Calgary Hitmen for forward Devon Kalinski (17) and a 2008 2nd round pick. Calgary had an open overage spot and so are able to add Nixon without having to move another overage.
In the third deal, Regina opened up an overage spot for Bender by sending forward Troy Ofukany (20), defenceman Juraj Valach (18), and a 2008 4th round pick to Red Deer for defenceman Dallas Jackson (18) and a 2008 3rd round pick. (The two picks involved are going back to their original teams after being involved in the J.D. Watt trade last week.)
I don't know about the two Pats trades.....for starters, that's a ridiculous trade for Jackson. I know they had to open a spot for Bender but Valach and Ofukany for Jackson is a definite loss for the Pats. It's Dallas Jackson, a 3rd pairing guy for them, not an all-star. Getting their 3rd round pick back can't be that big a deal; Regina's 3rd rounder and Red Deer's 4th rounder are not going to be that far apart in this year's draft. And the other trade; getting Bender and Bartley addresses a Pats need (grit), but at what cost? They moved out the best player in the deal - Ross - and with the loss of Ross, they've given up a top offensive defenceman today without getting a comparable talent in return.
I don't think the Pats have hurt themselves any but I'm not sure they are any better either.
The Calgary/Kamloops trade is a more obvious one: a contender stocking up by acquiring a veteran star for a decent prospect and a good draft pick. Nixon will help Calgary's top line and powerplay, and they had prospect depth to spare in moving Kalinski, who should play another three years for the Blazers after this.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Friday notes
Just a collection of stuff....
Seattle forward Josh Schappert remained at home in Winnipeg after the Christmas break, saying he would like to be traded from the Thunderbirds. In a twist on the story though, his twin brother Jeremy did report back to the T-Birds......so Josh has a problem with the team or city that his twin brother does not. Wonder if he'd like to play for Tri-City.....after all, they have every other Winnipeg-born player in the WHL on their team. Or it seems that way anyway.
The two western teams at the World U-17 Challenge in London, Ontario will meet today in the bronze medal game. Team Pacific (B.C./Alberta players) lost to Team USA in one semifinal yesterday while Team Western (Saskatchewan/Manitoba players) lost to Team Ontario in the other one. Chase Schaber (Hitmen), Evander Kane (Giants), and Justin Maylan (Warriors) are leading Pacific in scoring with six points each in five games, while Brayden Schenn (Wheat Kings) and Jimmy Bubnick (Blazers) are atop the Western scoring with ten points each in five games. Complete tournament results and stats can be found here.
Rebels coach Brian Sutter was calling out some of his players after their New Years Day loss to Brandon. Tomas Polak, Cass Mappin, Colin Archer, Brennan Sonne, Mark Louis, Luke Egener, and Cody Esposito were some of the names who got some public Sutter-style tough love in that article, including an early entry for year's best quote for this zinger about Esposito: "You can't be built like Tarzan and play like Jane".
From the not-for-the-really-squeamish department; Pats forward Tim Kraus was on the receiving end of a gruesome injury last Sunday when a slapshot from teammate Juraj Valach hit him in the ear. The ear "blew apart" (assistant coach Terry Perkins' words) and the arena doctor couldn't fix him up, sending him straight to the hospital instead. Today, Pats broadcaster Rod Pedersen has a picture of Kraus's ear on his blog. One word: Ugly.
Everett has a new player, scooping up 18 year old defenceman Tyler Kieffer from the USHL, with an assist in his recruitment going to former Silvertip goalie David Reekie. If Kieffer turns out to be any good, losing Reekie for nothing to the OHL/USHL might turn out to be not so bad a trade for the Tips after all, eh?
Another word about Kieffer though.....is it just me, or has this been a banner year for the WHL as far as persuading players with NCAA scholarships to come to the 'dub instead? Besides Kieffer, there has been T.J. Galiardi and Keith Seabrook (Hitmen), Casey Pierro-Zabotel and Garry Nunn (Vancouver), Jeff Lee (Edmonton), Jamie Benn (Kelowna), Sean Ringrose (Medicine Hat) and Jim O'Brien (Seattle).
At the World Juniors, a bit of a surprise as Switzerland will join Denmark as the two countries which will be relegated to the B-pool next year. After 13 years in the A-pool - including a bronze medal in 1998 - the Swiss will not play with the big boys next year in Ottawa after losing a relegation round game to Slovakia yesterday. I know some of us had come to think of Switzerland as one of the cream of the crop among the 2nd-tier hockey countries, but really, apart from that 1998 World Jr bronze - and a 4th-place finish at the World Championships that same year - they really haven't done anything since. They finished 4th again in 2002 but otherwise have been in the 8th/9th spots almost every year. Just good enough to avoid relegation (until now anyway) but not good enough to beat the big seven countries of Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and USA.
Oh, and there's some semifinal thingy at the World Juniors today too.....Canada vs USA. Either of them any good?
Seattle forward Josh Schappert remained at home in Winnipeg after the Christmas break, saying he would like to be traded from the Thunderbirds. In a twist on the story though, his twin brother Jeremy did report back to the T-Birds......so Josh has a problem with the team or city that his twin brother does not. Wonder if he'd like to play for Tri-City.....after all, they have every other Winnipeg-born player in the WHL on their team. Or it seems that way anyway.
The two western teams at the World U-17 Challenge in London, Ontario will meet today in the bronze medal game. Team Pacific (B.C./Alberta players) lost to Team USA in one semifinal yesterday while Team Western (Saskatchewan/Manitoba players) lost to Team Ontario in the other one. Chase Schaber (Hitmen), Evander Kane (Giants), and Justin Maylan (Warriors) are leading Pacific in scoring with six points each in five games, while Brayden Schenn (Wheat Kings) and Jimmy Bubnick (Blazers) are atop the Western scoring with ten points each in five games. Complete tournament results and stats can be found here.
Rebels coach Brian Sutter was calling out some of his players after their New Years Day loss to Brandon. Tomas Polak, Cass Mappin, Colin Archer, Brennan Sonne, Mark Louis, Luke Egener, and Cody Esposito were some of the names who got some public Sutter-style tough love in that article, including an early entry for year's best quote for this zinger about Esposito: "You can't be built like Tarzan and play like Jane".
From the not-for-the-really-squeamish department; Pats forward Tim Kraus was on the receiving end of a gruesome injury last Sunday when a slapshot from teammate Juraj Valach hit him in the ear. The ear "blew apart" (assistant coach Terry Perkins' words) and the arena doctor couldn't fix him up, sending him straight to the hospital instead. Today, Pats broadcaster Rod Pedersen has a picture of Kraus's ear on his blog. One word: Ugly.
Everett has a new player, scooping up 18 year old defenceman Tyler Kieffer from the USHL, with an assist in his recruitment going to former Silvertip goalie David Reekie. If Kieffer turns out to be any good, losing Reekie for nothing to the OHL/USHL might turn out to be not so bad a trade for the Tips after all, eh?
Another word about Kieffer though.....is it just me, or has this been a banner year for the WHL as far as persuading players with NCAA scholarships to come to the 'dub instead? Besides Kieffer, there has been T.J. Galiardi and Keith Seabrook (Hitmen), Casey Pierro-Zabotel and Garry Nunn (Vancouver), Jeff Lee (Edmonton), Jamie Benn (Kelowna), Sean Ringrose (Medicine Hat) and Jim O'Brien (Seattle).
At the World Juniors, a bit of a surprise as Switzerland will join Denmark as the two countries which will be relegated to the B-pool next year. After 13 years in the A-pool - including a bronze medal in 1998 - the Swiss will not play with the big boys next year in Ottawa after losing a relegation round game to Slovakia yesterday. I know some of us had come to think of Switzerland as one of the cream of the crop among the 2nd-tier hockey countries, but really, apart from that 1998 World Jr bronze - and a 4th-place finish at the World Championships that same year - they really haven't done anything since. They finished 4th again in 2002 but otherwise have been in the 8th/9th spots almost every year. Just good enough to avoid relegation (until now anyway) but not good enough to beat the big seven countries of Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and USA.
Oh, and there's some semifinal thingy at the World Juniors today too.....Canada vs USA. Either of them any good?
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Countdown to deadline
The first shot of the trade wars has been fired, by the Regina Pats as they have acquired overage forward J.D. Watt and 19 year old forward Scott Doucet from Red Deer. It comes at a high price though as the Pats had to give up 16 year old forward Brett Miller - their 2006 1st round bantam choice - plus 18 year old forward Cody Gross and a 2009 3rd round pick. They also get a 2009 4th round pick back from the Rebels in the deal.
Miller did not make the Pats roster this year and he is one of only a couple of the 2006 first rounders not in the league this year - although his failure to make the team was probably due to an appendectomy in the offseason which prevented him from being in top shape at training camp. Only time will tell but this seems like a very stiff price for the Pats to pay for Watt and Doucet. If this is any indication of the prices being asked by this year's sellers, then some of the buyers are going to have to think long and hard about what they need to upgrade.
Who are this year's sellers? Well, looking at the standings, you'd have to think it is going to be very difficult for Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Red Deer, Prince George, and Portland to make the playoffs this year. They are all at least 12 points out of a playoff spot right now with the season more than half over. So, I would think all of them are probably (or should be!) willing to deal veterans for younger players or draft picks. If you aren't going to make the playoffs anyway, what is the point in keeping players who won't be on your team next year if somebody else is willing to give you something for them?
Edmonton: should be some interest in veteran defencemen like Bretton Stamler, Matt Swaby, and Cameron Cepek as well as import forward Robin Figren - who's one of the leading scorers at the World Juniors right now. None of those three will be back next year anyway.
Portland: biggest question is who Portland is willing to deal since they don't have a lot of players who won't be back next year. Import forward Viktor Sjodin is an obvious one but I don't imagine there's a big market for him either. Overage forwards Dietrich, Undershute, and Voytechek and backup goalie Jordan White are about the only other players on this team who are not likely to return next year.
Prince Albert: overage defencemen Jeff May and Ryan White might attract some interest from teams looking to shore up or add depth to their bluelines. Biggest attraction in P.A. though is the collection of good 19 year old forwards: Bernhardt, Robertson, DePape, LeBlanc, and McDonald. They can't keep all these guys as overagers next year even though they're all likely to be back. Might as well trade one or two of them now if they can get a good price.
Prince George: '88 d-man Ty Wishart is the big fish here. Might someone also be interested in another 19 year old d-man, Jesse Dudas? Good player when healthy but he never is healthy. Overage forward/captain Greg Gardner might get some interest too?
Red Deer: probably already made their biggest move, unless they are willing to think about dealing Brandon Sutter. Doubtful they'd do that though unless they were pretty sure he's going to stick in the NHL next year at 19. I still think 19 year old goalie James Reimer is on the block or else why have they acquired David Aime and Darcy Kuemper in the last few weeks?
Saskatoon: biggest fish is probably forward Ondrej Fiala, except that his two-spot status as an overage import makes him a little harder to move and thus a little less return due to fewer suitors for him out there. Interestingly though, one big potential suitor (Calgary) has both an import and an overage spot open. And like the Rebels with Sutter, the Blades will also have to think about whether Colton Gillies has a good chance to stick in the NHL as a 19 year old next year.....his NHL team (Minnesota) has a history of keeping teenagers.
Miller did not make the Pats roster this year and he is one of only a couple of the 2006 first rounders not in the league this year - although his failure to make the team was probably due to an appendectomy in the offseason which prevented him from being in top shape at training camp. Only time will tell but this seems like a very stiff price for the Pats to pay for Watt and Doucet. If this is any indication of the prices being asked by this year's sellers, then some of the buyers are going to have to think long and hard about what they need to upgrade.
Who are this year's sellers? Well, looking at the standings, you'd have to think it is going to be very difficult for Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Red Deer, Prince George, and Portland to make the playoffs this year. They are all at least 12 points out of a playoff spot right now with the season more than half over. So, I would think all of them are probably (or should be!) willing to deal veterans for younger players or draft picks. If you aren't going to make the playoffs anyway, what is the point in keeping players who won't be on your team next year if somebody else is willing to give you something for them?
Edmonton: should be some interest in veteran defencemen like Bretton Stamler, Matt Swaby, and Cameron Cepek as well as import forward Robin Figren - who's one of the leading scorers at the World Juniors right now. None of those three will be back next year anyway.
Portland: biggest question is who Portland is willing to deal since they don't have a lot of players who won't be back next year. Import forward Viktor Sjodin is an obvious one but I don't imagine there's a big market for him either. Overage forwards Dietrich, Undershute, and Voytechek and backup goalie Jordan White are about the only other players on this team who are not likely to return next year.
Prince Albert: overage defencemen Jeff May and Ryan White might attract some interest from teams looking to shore up or add depth to their bluelines. Biggest attraction in P.A. though is the collection of good 19 year old forwards: Bernhardt, Robertson, DePape, LeBlanc, and McDonald. They can't keep all these guys as overagers next year even though they're all likely to be back. Might as well trade one or two of them now if they can get a good price.
Prince George: '88 d-man Ty Wishart is the big fish here. Might someone also be interested in another 19 year old d-man, Jesse Dudas? Good player when healthy but he never is healthy. Overage forward/captain Greg Gardner might get some interest too?
Red Deer: probably already made their biggest move, unless they are willing to think about dealing Brandon Sutter. Doubtful they'd do that though unless they were pretty sure he's going to stick in the NHL next year at 19. I still think 19 year old goalie James Reimer is on the block or else why have they acquired David Aime and Darcy Kuemper in the last few weeks?
Saskatoon: biggest fish is probably forward Ondrej Fiala, except that his two-spot status as an overage import makes him a little harder to move and thus a little less return due to fewer suitors for him out there. Interestingly though, one big potential suitor (Calgary) has both an import and an overage spot open. And like the Rebels with Sutter, the Blades will also have to think about whether Colton Gillies has a good chance to stick in the NHL as a 19 year old next year.....his NHL team (Minnesota) has a history of keeping teenagers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)