Today is overage deadline day - teams must declare their three overagers by 3pm Calgary time and after that there will be a "draft" to allow teams around the league to pick up the players who have been released.
We have one trade already this morning - Calgary has sent overage defenceman Zak Stebner to Tri-Cities for a 2011 3rd round bantam pick. The Americans' next game is on Tuesday when Calgary is in Tri-Cities to play them, so Stebner's first game for the Ams will be against his old team.
That move gets Calgary down to 3 overagers, but bumps Tri-Cities up to five, so the Ams will be making two more moves in the next 3 hours for sure. The only other teams that need to make moves today are Chilliwack (must move one of goaltender Lucas Gore, defencemen Jeff Einhorn and Brandon Manning, or forward Shayne Neigum) and Kootenay (must move one of goaltender Todd Mathews or forwards Steele Boomer, Matt Fraser, and Kevin King.)
UPDATE: Tri-City has gotten down to the limit by releasing forward Mike Brown and goaltender Alex Pechurskiy. They also released 18 year old import defenceman Nikita Kardashev, so at the moment they have zero imports.
Brown and Pechurskiy will be available in the overage draft later this afternoon.....right now only Kamloops is eligible to claim players in that draft so they'll have their pick of who they want.
UPDATE #2: Kootenay has waived goaltender Todd Mathews, and Chilliwack waived forward Shayne Neigum.
Kamloops then claimed Neigum, and that's the end of the day's festivities. Mathews, Mike Brown, and Alex Pechurskiy are free agents now.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
James is going to jail again.....we hope
Good news about a bad situation this morning; the Winnipeg police have finished their investigation into Theoren Fleury's allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of Graham James while playing for the St. James Canadians Jr A team in the mid-80s. As a result of the investigation, a Canada-wide warrant has been issued for James' arrest.
As of 4 months ago, James was known to be living in Guadalajara, Mexico, so I imagine Canada will have to ask Mexico to extradite him if he is to stand trial in Canada on the Fleury charges.
Hopefully the Canadian courts get it right this time. James' 1997 trial was one of the worst travesties of justice I have ever heard about in this country - he pled guilty to 350 counts of sexual assault (which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years) and for that was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. For 350 admitted sexual assaults, he served less than four days in prison for each one.
The article also says that at least three other men have either approached the police in Manitoba and Calgary about James, or are considering doing so. Hopefully this all adds up to James spending a long stretch in the big house when all is said and done.
As of 4 months ago, James was known to be living in Guadalajara, Mexico, so I imagine Canada will have to ask Mexico to extradite him if he is to stand trial in Canada on the Fleury charges.
Hopefully the Canadian courts get it right this time. James' 1997 trial was one of the worst travesties of justice I have ever heard about in this country - he pled guilty to 350 counts of sexual assault (which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years) and for that was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. For 350 admitted sexual assaults, he served less than four days in prison for each one.
The article also says that at least three other men have either approached the police in Manitoba and Calgary about James, or are considering doing so. Hopefully this all adds up to James spending a long stretch in the big house when all is said and done.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Tuesday stuff
The WHL has made its' decision on Tri-City forward Brendan Shinnimin, and the verdict is a 12 game suspension for his dirty hit on Saskatoon's Josh Nicholls. Personally I think the league got it right, this is just about the right length of time IMO. Hopefully this signals a move by the WHL towards longer suspensions for the cheapest, dirtiest plays.
Now, catching up on what has happened over the (Canadian anyway) long weekend....
Regina and Swift Current made two trades on Friday that worked out to actually be one trade: first the Pats traded 19 year old forward Killian Hutt to the Broncos for a 6th round bantam pick. Hours later, the Pats sent that pick back to the Broncos for 18 year old import forward Juraj Roznik. So essentially it was Hutt for Roznik, done as two trades for the same draft pick.
The reason for the two trades? The Pats already had two imports and couldn't acquire Roznik until they moved one out, which they did by sending 19 year old forward Hampus Gustafsson to Brandon for a 2013 6th round pick. This deal happened between the Hutt deal and the Roznik deal and allowed the Roznik deal to take place.
Few more moves were made in the overage department, including two by Brandon. First the Wheat Kings traded overage defenceman Mark Schneider to Regina for 18 year old forward Dominik Favreau, and then the Wheat Kings got down to their final three overagers by waiving goaltender Jake DeSerres.
The acquisition of Schneider by Regina gets the Pats up to three overagers and means the only team in the league not at 3 (or more) right now is Kamloops.
As for DeSerres, he was picked up later in the day by the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL. Not a bad arrangement for DeSerres since Saint John is one of the better teams in that league and he'll get a chance to take another team to the Memorial Cup. It just shows the depth of overagers in the WHL this year though, that a goalie of DeSerres' abilities cannot stick in the WHL. He is better than the goaltenders some WHL teams have right now....just not significantly better enough to make anyone want to also sacrifice one of their other overagers in return.
Two other overagers were released over the weekend as well - Prince George waived goaltender Morgan Clark, and Calgary waived defenceman Kyle Aschim. The Hitmen could have waited with Aschim since he is still rehabbing a shoulder injury and doesn't count against their overager limit until he is ready to play, but he clearly wasn't going to be in their top three and probably doesn't have any trade value in this overage market, so no point in waiting any longer I guess.
Also, overage forward Neal Prokop has rejoined the Tri-City Americans as he rehabs a broken leg he suffered last season. This gives the Ams five overagers now, although Prokop does not count until he's ready to play of course.
Two other veterans reassigned over the weekend too - Everett's D. Jay McGrath and Regina's Tyler Borstmayer, both of them headed to the Saskatchewan Junior A ranks. Not sure if this is the end for McGrath with Everett, but I think Borstmayer may have a chance to get back with the Pats next season if he gets some playing time this year in Jr A.
And lastly, I have to concede that there might not be any season predictions coming from me this year....there is just so much going on for me right now that I barely have time to update the blog at all, let alone time to write any kind of serious predictions. And the longer I wait, the less point there is in doing it at all, right....so I guess I could just do a quick first-to-last order prediction for each division, with no writeups, or I could just do nothing at all.
Now, catching up on what has happened over the (Canadian anyway) long weekend....
Regina and Swift Current made two trades on Friday that worked out to actually be one trade: first the Pats traded 19 year old forward Killian Hutt to the Broncos for a 6th round bantam pick. Hours later, the Pats sent that pick back to the Broncos for 18 year old import forward Juraj Roznik. So essentially it was Hutt for Roznik, done as two trades for the same draft pick.
The reason for the two trades? The Pats already had two imports and couldn't acquire Roznik until they moved one out, which they did by sending 19 year old forward Hampus Gustafsson to Brandon for a 2013 6th round pick. This deal happened between the Hutt deal and the Roznik deal and allowed the Roznik deal to take place.
Few more moves were made in the overage department, including two by Brandon. First the Wheat Kings traded overage defenceman Mark Schneider to Regina for 18 year old forward Dominik Favreau, and then the Wheat Kings got down to their final three overagers by waiving goaltender Jake DeSerres.
The acquisition of Schneider by Regina gets the Pats up to three overagers and means the only team in the league not at 3 (or more) right now is Kamloops.
As for DeSerres, he was picked up later in the day by the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL. Not a bad arrangement for DeSerres since Saint John is one of the better teams in that league and he'll get a chance to take another team to the Memorial Cup. It just shows the depth of overagers in the WHL this year though, that a goalie of DeSerres' abilities cannot stick in the WHL. He is better than the goaltenders some WHL teams have right now....just not significantly better enough to make anyone want to also sacrifice one of their other overagers in return.
Two other overagers were released over the weekend as well - Prince George waived goaltender Morgan Clark, and Calgary waived defenceman Kyle Aschim. The Hitmen could have waited with Aschim since he is still rehabbing a shoulder injury and doesn't count against their overager limit until he is ready to play, but he clearly wasn't going to be in their top three and probably doesn't have any trade value in this overage market, so no point in waiting any longer I guess.
Also, overage forward Neal Prokop has rejoined the Tri-City Americans as he rehabs a broken leg he suffered last season. This gives the Ams five overagers now, although Prokop does not count until he's ready to play of course.
Two other veterans reassigned over the weekend too - Everett's D. Jay McGrath and Regina's Tyler Borstmayer, both of them headed to the Saskatchewan Junior A ranks. Not sure if this is the end for McGrath with Everett, but I think Borstmayer may have a chance to get back with the Pats next season if he gets some playing time this year in Jr A.
And lastly, I have to concede that there might not be any season predictions coming from me this year....there is just so much going on for me right now that I barely have time to update the blog at all, let alone time to write any kind of serious predictions. And the longer I wait, the less point there is in doing it at all, right....so I guess I could just do a quick first-to-last order prediction for each division, with no writeups, or I could just do nothing at all.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Friday notes
Bunch of moves to note yesterday in the league...
Vancouver resolved their 3-goalie logjam by sending 18 year old Derek Tendler to the Swift Current Broncos for a 2011 6th round bantam pick. That leaves the Giants with 19 year old Mark Segal and 17 year old Brendan Jensen as their goalies this year. Tendler's acquisition puts the Broncos into a similar 3-goalie pickle though, as they already had overager Mark Friesen and 17 year old rookie Austin Smith as their goalies. So now what do they do? Friesen's numbers are not very good through his first six starts (1 win, 3.82 GAA, .876 sv%) and there are some good forward and defencemen overage options out there if they want to let go of Friesen and go with a Tendler-Smith goalie tandem. On the other hand, Tendler is on his 3rd team in the last 9 months and is the owner of a career 4.30 GAA and .859 sv% over 13 games, so there's a lot of doubt that he's starting material. That probably means Smith is going down to Jr A and they use a Friesen-Tendler combo. Guess we'll see.
In other goalie news, Saskatoon reassigned 17 year old Adam Iwan, which means they're going with overager Steven Stanford and 19 year old Adam Morrison this year. Should Morrison be signed by the Philadelphia Flyers - who drafted him in the 3rd round in 2009 and gave him a long stay at camp this fall - then the Blades would be looking at having two rookie goaltenders next year. Barring trades of course.
Two overage notes as well, the main one being a trade between Prince George and Everett that sees overage forward Parker Stanfield heading from the Cougars to the Silvertips for a 2012 6th round bantam pick. That move gets the Cougars down to 4 overagers and gets the Silvertips up to the limit of 3. Only Regina and Kamloops still have openings to add an overager now without also having to move one out. Overage deadline is one week from today.
Two other overage notes as Kelowna has waived overage tough guy Tyler Matheson, a move which gets them down to three. I don't think there will be any takers for Matheson, so he is probably headed back to the BCHL to play Junior A. Portland has also released overage forward Liam Darragh, who was trying to get back into the league after previous stints in Chilliwack and Swift Current. Guess that didn't work out and now he is probably headed for the BCHL as well.
And one more deal from Wednesday which I had not mentioned until now; Prince George and Regina swapped 19 year old defencemen in a straight-up deal, the Pats getting Art Bidlevskii and the Cougars getting Cody Carlson. Kind of a deal intended to help both teams address specific needs since the players are quite different - Carlson is a smallish offensive-minded defenceman while Bidlevskii is your tough stay at home type.
One more thing I have to comment on as well; Tri-City forward Brendan Shinnimin has been suspended indefinitely, pending a WHL ruling on his brutal hit from behind on Saskatoon forward Josh Nicholls on Wednesday night. WHL fans with long memories may agree with me that this hit is not very different in appearance from a 1987 hit by Troy Edwards of the Warriors on Brad Hornung of the Pats - forward going to the net, gets a shove from the defender, flies headfirst into the boards behind the net. Except that Nicholls will be OK, while we all know the outcome of the Hornung hit. That is how close many of these serious hits from behind are to becoming tragedies.
I don't think there was any intent to injure on Shinnimin's part; you'd like to think that there is very little actual "intent to injure" anywhere in hockey. But what it was, was reckless and careless and there is far too much of that in the game today, and it's not getting better.
If this were the OHL, based on the punishments they have handed down for serious cheap shots over the last few years, I think Shinnimin would be looking at a suspension in the 10-20 game range for that hit. The WHL, unfortunately, hasn't taken that hard line yet (how long will we have to wait for that to start, I wonder) and so I suspect that what they give Shinnimin will probably be around 5 games, maybe 6 or 7. I would be very surprised if he got more, and not surprised at all (sadly) if he got less. The WHL really needs to start lowering the boom on these reckless plays before somebody else gets seriously hurt....because the players are not getting the message right now.
Vancouver resolved their 3-goalie logjam by sending 18 year old Derek Tendler to the Swift Current Broncos for a 2011 6th round bantam pick. That leaves the Giants with 19 year old Mark Segal and 17 year old Brendan Jensen as their goalies this year. Tendler's acquisition puts the Broncos into a similar 3-goalie pickle though, as they already had overager Mark Friesen and 17 year old rookie Austin Smith as their goalies. So now what do they do? Friesen's numbers are not very good through his first six starts (1 win, 3.82 GAA, .876 sv%) and there are some good forward and defencemen overage options out there if they want to let go of Friesen and go with a Tendler-Smith goalie tandem. On the other hand, Tendler is on his 3rd team in the last 9 months and is the owner of a career 4.30 GAA and .859 sv% over 13 games, so there's a lot of doubt that he's starting material. That probably means Smith is going down to Jr A and they use a Friesen-Tendler combo. Guess we'll see.
In other goalie news, Saskatoon reassigned 17 year old Adam Iwan, which means they're going with overager Steven Stanford and 19 year old Adam Morrison this year. Should Morrison be signed by the Philadelphia Flyers - who drafted him in the 3rd round in 2009 and gave him a long stay at camp this fall - then the Blades would be looking at having two rookie goaltenders next year. Barring trades of course.
Two overage notes as well, the main one being a trade between Prince George and Everett that sees overage forward Parker Stanfield heading from the Cougars to the Silvertips for a 2012 6th round bantam pick. That move gets the Cougars down to 4 overagers and gets the Silvertips up to the limit of 3. Only Regina and Kamloops still have openings to add an overager now without also having to move one out. Overage deadline is one week from today.
Two other overage notes as Kelowna has waived overage tough guy Tyler Matheson, a move which gets them down to three. I don't think there will be any takers for Matheson, so he is probably headed back to the BCHL to play Junior A. Portland has also released overage forward Liam Darragh, who was trying to get back into the league after previous stints in Chilliwack and Swift Current. Guess that didn't work out and now he is probably headed for the BCHL as well.
And one more deal from Wednesday which I had not mentioned until now; Prince George and Regina swapped 19 year old defencemen in a straight-up deal, the Pats getting Art Bidlevskii and the Cougars getting Cody Carlson. Kind of a deal intended to help both teams address specific needs since the players are quite different - Carlson is a smallish offensive-minded defenceman while Bidlevskii is your tough stay at home type.
One more thing I have to comment on as well; Tri-City forward Brendan Shinnimin has been suspended indefinitely, pending a WHL ruling on his brutal hit from behind on Saskatoon forward Josh Nicholls on Wednesday night. WHL fans with long memories may agree with me that this hit is not very different in appearance from a 1987 hit by Troy Edwards of the Warriors on Brad Hornung of the Pats - forward going to the net, gets a shove from the defender, flies headfirst into the boards behind the net. Except that Nicholls will be OK, while we all know the outcome of the Hornung hit. That is how close many of these serious hits from behind are to becoming tragedies.
I don't think there was any intent to injure on Shinnimin's part; you'd like to think that there is very little actual "intent to injure" anywhere in hockey. But what it was, was reckless and careless and there is far too much of that in the game today, and it's not getting better.
If this were the OHL, based on the punishments they have handed down for serious cheap shots over the last few years, I think Shinnimin would be looking at a suspension in the 10-20 game range for that hit. The WHL, unfortunately, hasn't taken that hard line yet (how long will we have to wait for that to start, I wonder) and so I suspect that what they give Shinnimin will probably be around 5 games, maybe 6 or 7. I would be very surprised if he got more, and not surprised at all (sadly) if he got less. The WHL really needs to start lowering the boom on these reckless plays before somebody else gets seriously hurt....because the players are not getting the message right now.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Roster breakdowns
Some food for thought - here's the breakdown of current team rosters across the league, with the total number of players on the roster, the average height (in inches), weight (in pounds) and age of the players, the number of rookies and imports, and the number of players in each age group from 16 to 20.
| Total | Ht | Wt | Age | Rook. | Imp. | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
| Brandon Wheat Kings | 29 | 72.59 | 187.52 | 18.07 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 5 |
| Calgary Hitmen | 27 | 73.41 | 190.59 | 18.22 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| Chilliwack Bruins | 24 | 71.92 | 181.96 | 18.13 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 4 |
| Edmonton Oil Kings | 25 | 72.04 | 185.68 | 17.88 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Everett Silvertips | 25 | 72.16 | 186.44 | 18.08 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 2 |
| Kamloops Blazers | 24 | 72.67 | 189.25 | 18.04 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 2 |
| Kelowna Rockets | 25 | 72.24 | 184.16 | 18.16 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
| Kootenay Ice | 25 | 73.12 | 190.72 | 18.28 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Lethbridge Hurricanes | 24 | 72.50 | 188.25 | 18.17 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 3 |
| Medicine Hat Tigers | 23 | 72.48 | 183.52 | 18.22 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| Moose Jaw Warriors | 24 | 72.58 | 186.88 | 17.92 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| Portland Winterhawks | 26 | 73.58 | 190.38 | 18.12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 4 | 4 |
| Prince Albert Raiders | 24 | 72.08 | 185.96 | 18.17 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 3 |
| Prince George Cougars | 27 | 72.52 | 191.37 | 18.04 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 5 |
| Red Deer Rebels | 26 | 72.88 | 185.46 | 18.00 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
| Regina Pats | 27 | 71.48 | 180.52 | 18.07 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 2 |
| Saskatoon Blades | 25 | 73.00 | 188.16 | 17.76 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Seattle Thunderbirds | 25 | 73.64 | 197.24 | 18.00 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 3 |
| Spokane Chiefs | 26 | 72.35 | 190.88 | 18.08 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| Swift Current Broncos | 26 | 72.50 | 187.00 | 18.12 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 3 |
| Tri-City Americans | 27 | 71.74 | 185.93 | 18.04 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Vancouver Giants | 26 | 72.31 | 185.92 | 18.04 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 3 |
Things we learn from this:
- Seattle is the tallest team in the league at an average of 73.64 inches. Portland (73.58) and Calgary (73.41) are close behind.
- Regina is the shortest team at an average of 71.48 inches. Tri-City (71.74) and Chilliwack (71.92) are the only other teams that average under six feet tall.
- Seattle is also the heaviest team, at 197.2 pounds. It's not even close, as 2nd place is Prince George at 191.37, a good 6 pounds back. That's a huge gap.
- heaviest player in the league is Spokane's Cole Hamblin at 245 pounds, followed by Seattle's Austin Baecker at 242 pounds. Lightest player is Medicine Hat's Garry Valk at 140 pounds. I don't really want to see Valk get hit in the corner by Hamblin.
- oldest team is Kootenay at 18.28 years. Youngest is Saskatoon at 17.76 years. One thing to keep in mind with the average ages though is that teams with more than 3 overagers (like Calgary, who have 5 and come in 2nd oldest overall at 18.22 years) will see their ages drop when they get down to the limit of 3.
- Brandon has 16 rookies (!!!). Kamloops, Kootenay, and Lethbridge only have six.
Two more moves
And two more moves this morning....
First, Red Deer has resolved their overage numbers problem by waiving forward Brad Haber. The writing was probably on the wall for him for a while now since he hadn't dressed for any of Red Deer's first five games.
Second, Lethbridge has traded 19 year old defenceman Brennan Yadlowski to Everett for a 2011 2nd round bantam pick and a 2012 5th round bantam pick. A 2nd AND a 5th round pick would seem a bit high to me for Yadlowski but I guess when you figure he'll play next year as an overager too, it's a reasonable price.
First, Red Deer has resolved their overage numbers problem by waiving forward Brad Haber. The writing was probably on the wall for him for a while now since he hadn't dressed for any of Red Deer's first five games.
Second, Lethbridge has traded 19 year old defenceman Brennan Yadlowski to Everett for a 2011 2nd round bantam pick and a 2012 5th round bantam pick. A 2nd AND a 5th round pick would seem a bit high to me for Yadlowski but I guess when you figure he'll play next year as an overager too, it's a reasonable price.
More player movement
Few more notes from the last couple days....
Vancouver is now down to one import after 19 year old forward Casper Carning informed the team that he was returning home to Sweden. Carning apparently wasn't fitting in very well with Don Hay's program and as a 19 year old he probably saw the writing on the wall as far as his future in the league when he wasn't able to crack the top couple lines on the Giants.
If the Giants care to replace Carning's import spot, only Swift Current has three imports right now but Tri-City could be another trading partner if the Giants want to wait a few weeks. Russian defenceman Nikita Nesterov is still awaiting the paperwork to join the Americans; once he does the Ams will also have three imports.
And a couple more overage moves too, both involving the Prince George Cougars. Two days ago the Cougars acquired forward/defenceman Sena Acolatse from Saskatoon for a 3rd round bantam pick, which gave the Cougars four overagers and got the Blades down to their required three.
Yesterday, the Cougars landed yet another overager and this one comes from the NCAA ranks. Forward Taylor Stefishen has left Ohio State to join the Cougars lineup, which means the Cougars now have five overagers. You'd have to think that Stefishen and Acolatse are pretty safe bets to take two of the final three spots; the 3rd spot likely comes down to either forward James Dobrowolski or goaltender Morgan Clark, which means it doesn't look very good for forward Parker Stanfield.
Dobrowolski is an alternate captain, which might make his spot a little safer than Clark's, except that the Cougars only have two goalies so they'd have to find another one before they could get rid of Clark. There are still eight teams in the league (Brandon, Chilliwack, Kootenay, Portland, Regina, Saskatoon, Tri-City, and Vancouver) who are carrying more than 2 goalies so there's no shortage of potential trading partners if the Cougars want to go that direction.....depending on how much they want to give up, they may even be able to get a new #1 goalie from one of those teams if they don't think Priestner is that guy.
The pick the Cougars gave up to Swift Current for Morgan Clark was a conditional pick, so they probably get it back if they decide not to keep him - no cost to them in that case.
The overage deadline is 9 days away now (October 14) and there are three teams with five overagers (Brandon, Calgary, Prince George), seven teams with four overagers (Chilliwack, Kelowna, Kootenay, Moose Jaw, Portland, Red Deer, and Tri-City), and three teams with only two overagers and room to add one more (Everett, Kamloops, and Regina).
Kyle Aschim (Calgary) and Brendan Rowinski (Moose Jaw) are injured right now and so the deadline does not apply to them....their teams will have the option of keeping them or moving them when they come off the injured list, whenever that is. Still a minimum of 11 overage players that have to be trimmed from rosters, and at least 8 of them will be out of the WHL in the next 9 days.
Vancouver is now down to one import after 19 year old forward Casper Carning informed the team that he was returning home to Sweden. Carning apparently wasn't fitting in very well with Don Hay's program and as a 19 year old he probably saw the writing on the wall as far as his future in the league when he wasn't able to crack the top couple lines on the Giants.
If the Giants care to replace Carning's import spot, only Swift Current has three imports right now but Tri-City could be another trading partner if the Giants want to wait a few weeks. Russian defenceman Nikita Nesterov is still awaiting the paperwork to join the Americans; once he does the Ams will also have three imports.
And a couple more overage moves too, both involving the Prince George Cougars. Two days ago the Cougars acquired forward/defenceman Sena Acolatse from Saskatoon for a 3rd round bantam pick, which gave the Cougars four overagers and got the Blades down to their required three.
Yesterday, the Cougars landed yet another overager and this one comes from the NCAA ranks. Forward Taylor Stefishen has left Ohio State to join the Cougars lineup, which means the Cougars now have five overagers. You'd have to think that Stefishen and Acolatse are pretty safe bets to take two of the final three spots; the 3rd spot likely comes down to either forward James Dobrowolski or goaltender Morgan Clark, which means it doesn't look very good for forward Parker Stanfield.
Dobrowolski is an alternate captain, which might make his spot a little safer than Clark's, except that the Cougars only have two goalies so they'd have to find another one before they could get rid of Clark. There are still eight teams in the league (Brandon, Chilliwack, Kootenay, Portland, Regina, Saskatoon, Tri-City, and Vancouver) who are carrying more than 2 goalies so there's no shortage of potential trading partners if the Cougars want to go that direction.....depending on how much they want to give up, they may even be able to get a new #1 goalie from one of those teams if they don't think Priestner is that guy.
The pick the Cougars gave up to Swift Current for Morgan Clark was a conditional pick, so they probably get it back if they decide not to keep him - no cost to them in that case.
The overage deadline is 9 days away now (October 14) and there are three teams with five overagers (Brandon, Calgary, Prince George), seven teams with four overagers (Chilliwack, Kelowna, Kootenay, Moose Jaw, Portland, Red Deer, and Tri-City), and three teams with only two overagers and room to add one more (Everett, Kamloops, and Regina).
Kyle Aschim (Calgary) and Brendan Rowinski (Moose Jaw) are injured right now and so the deadline does not apply to them....their teams will have the option of keeping them or moving them when they come off the injured list, whenever that is. Still a minimum of 11 overage players that have to be trimmed from rosters, and at least 8 of them will be out of the WHL in the next 9 days.
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