Friday notes

Few notes today...

Four prospective WHL overagers - Matt Mackenzie and Brendan Shinnimin of Tri-City, Riley Boychuk of Portland, and Darian Dziurzynski of Saskatoon - have been assigned to their respective NHL teams' AHL affiliates, even though they have not yet signed pro contracts. They will need to sign contracts before the AHL season starts if they are to play in the AHL this season rather than return to the WHL, so fans of their WHL clubs should probably not start to worry too much just yet. But obviously they are impressing the NHL clubs enough that the NHL guys want to get a longer look and see whether they might be ready for the AHL calibre.

Another prospective overager, Kootenay defenceman James Martin, did sign a contract yesterday with the Calgary Flames, whose camp he is attending on a tryout. Obviously he impressed them quite a bit. The Flames also signed another WHLer on a tryout, Red Deer forward Turner Elson. Elson is only 19 though so the Flames promptly returned him to the Rebels for this season. Martin, on the other hand, got assigned to Calgary's AHL affiliate and thus is probably lost to the Ice. This is a blow to the Ice, who were probably counting on having Martin anchoring their blueline when they traded fellow overager Hayden Rintoul in July.

And another overager, Medicine Hat import defenceman Sebastien Owuya, was returned to the WHL from the Winnipeg Jets yesterday. The Tigers, however, have decided to go with defenceman Patrik Parkkonen and forward Adam Rehak as their two imports and so Owuya has been waived. He was unclaimed on WHL waivers so now I guess he just waits to find a place to play. As a "two-spot" player, he is in tough to find a spot in the WHL, where most everyone has a full complement of imports and overagers already. Perhaps the OHL or QMJHL have teams with openings.....

And last bit of news, Vancouver defenceman Zach Hodder has left the Giants and gone home to await a trade. Hodder was Vancouver's first round pick in the 2008 bantam draft but the Giants have a logjam of defencemen on their roster and need to move out a couple. Obviously the decision has been made that Hodder is one of the guys who is going to be moved. He should have some decent value on the trade market.

The season has arrived

It's finally here - the 2011-12 WHL regular season gets underway tonight with the Brandon Wheat Kings paying a visit to the Moose Jaw Warriors. The game, which will also be the first game in Moose Jaw's long-awaited new rink, can be seen (in Canada anyway) on Shaw TV.

10 more teams will start their seasons tomorrow night, while all the rest get underway on Saturday.

By my count, there are currently 13 players still at NHL camps who are expected back in the WHL at some point this year:

Kelowna: Brett Bulmer (Minnesota)
Moose Jaw: Collin Bowman (NY Rangers-AHL), Dylan McIlrath (NY Rangers)

Portland: Riley Boychuk (Buffalo-AHL), Ryan Johansen (Columbus), Joe Morrow (Pittsburgh), Nino Niederreiter (NY Islanders)

Prince Albert: Jonathan Parker (Buffalo-AHL)

Prince George: Brett Connolly (Tampa Bay)

Red Deer: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton)

Spokane: Darren Kramer (Ottawa)

Tri-City: Matt MacKenzie (Buffalo-AHL)

Vancouver: Brendan Gallagher (Montreal)

Note: by "expected back", I mean that the player is either A) 19 or younger, or B) is 20 but has not signed a pro contract. Obviously the true level of "expected back"-ness of a Niederreiter or an Etem or a Johansen is somewhat in question.

Rockets, Pats trade

I think we all suspected a deal like this might happen: Regina has dealt 18 year old defenceman Myles Bell to the Kelowna Rockets for 19 year old defenceman Colton Jobke, a 2012 2nd round bantam pick, and a 2013 5th round bantam pick.

It has not been announced when Bell will join the Rockets, as he recovers from his injuries suffered in an off-season car accident.

UPDATE: the Rockets say Bell will join them immediately and is expected to play this weekend. I was thinking the deal was a little risky for the Rockets since Bell had the injury and didn't attend Pats training camp - not to mention his other issues that he has going on. But if he's ready to play, then at least from the hockey point of view this deal makes sense on both sides. From the other points of view.....there's going to be some strong feelings amongst some fans about seeing him back on the ice.

Overager trade

Trade this morning in the WHL as Prince Albert has sent overage forward Charles Wells to the Portland Winterhawks in exchange for a 2013 4th round bantam pick.

Wells will be a familiar face to U.S. division fans, since he spent the first 3.5 seasons of his career in Seattle before being moved to Prince Albert at the trade deadline this past January.

For the Hawks, the trade gives them three overagers on their roster as Wells joins defenceman William Wrenn and forward Riley Boychuk. The Hawks also have several other 20 year olds away at pro camps who theoretically COULD return (forward Oliver Gabriel and defenceman Taylor Aronson chief among them) but as those players all have pro contracts, it's probably more likely that they turn pro. And the acquisition of Wells would seem to confirm that the Hawks brass believes those players are not coming back either - since if any of them do, the Hawks will now have to trade or cut one.

For the Raiders, the trade gets them down to four overagers - defenceman James Bettauer and forwards Brandon Herrod, Justin Maylan and Jonathan Parker.

Shaw schedule released

Shaw and the WHL released their 2011-12 "WHL on Shaw" TV broadcast schedule this morning. You can see the complete schedule here.

One thing that stands out to me is the variety of teams we are seeing this year. In past years it certainly seemed like we saw certain "big market" teams a lot more than other teams. But this year, every single team in the league is being shown at least once.

The breakdown of the number of times each team in the league is being shown this year:

Vancouver: 6

Edmonton: 5

Kelowna: 5

Kamloops: 4

Lethbridge: 4

Moose Jaw: 4

Saskatoon: 4

Victoria: 4

Brandon: 3

Calgary: 3

Medicine Hat: 3

Prince Albert: 3

Red Deer: 3

Kootenay: 2

Prince George: 2

Regina: 2

Tri-City: 2

Everett: 1

Portland: 1

Seattle: 1

Spokane: 1

Swift Current: 1

Two more trades

Two more trades made this afternoon:

 - Calgary sends 18 year old defenceman Kyle Schmidt to Saskatoon for a 2013 4th round bantam pick

 - Tri-City sends 18 year old forward Max Moline to Lethbridge for a conditional 2012 5th round bantam pick.

The Schmidt deal is Calgary moving out a player from a logjam of 18/19 year old defencemen as there probably wasn't enough ice time to keep everyone happy. Saskatoon had only 6 d-men on their roster and can use the increased depth.

The Moline deal, being a conditional pick, is probably dependant on Moline sticking with the Hurricanes.

Thursday notes

Couple bits and pieces today...

First, there was a trade this morning between Prince Albert and Spokane. The Raiders have sent 18 year old rookie goaltender Luke Lee-Knight and a 2012 5th round bantam pick to the Chiefs, in return for 19 year old defenceman Tyler Vanscourt.

The Chiefs promptly released 19 year old goaltender Jacob Edwards, who was trying out for the backup spot. 18 year old Zach Rakochny also remains in the Spokane net situation behind incumbent Mac Engel, but since the team just gave up a veteran defenceman for Lee-Knight, it seems likely that Rakochny will suffer the same fate as Edwards eventually.

The other bit of news is some more developments with the Steffan Soberg situation in Swift Current. Whereas is was reported earlier in the week that Soberg had returned home to Norway due to "personal problems" and was likely to return, it now appears that Soberg simply doesn't want to play in North America this year and is very unlikely to return. You can find an excellent English translation of comments Soberg made to a Norwegian newspaper on this Swedish hockey blog. It seems pretty clear that he doesn't want to move so far away from home quite yet.

So, the Broncos have a decision to make now. They own Soberg's playing rights, having paid the transfer fee to his previous club. So they are within their rights to force him to come back to the WHL or else sit out. But at the same time, do you want a guy on your team who doesn't want to be there, poisoning the atmosphere?

It's a tough blow to the Broncos, essentially losing the #6 overall import pick without a thing to show for it. But I think in the end they'll have to cut their losses and transfer Soberg back to a European club.

Soberg leaves Broncos

A bit of a blow to the Swift Current Broncos today as it appears that import goaltender Steffan Soberg may not play in the WHL this year after all. According to Shawn Mullin`s blog, Soberg has apparently returned home to Norway to deal with personal matters rather than attend the Washington Capitals rookie camp as expected - and it is not known whether he will return to North America to play this year.

As Mullin says, it`s none of our business what Soberg`s problems are. But his departure does leave the Broncos a little shorthanded in the goaltending department with only 18 year old Austin Smith (who has all of 370 minutes` WHL experience) and 17 year old rookie Steven Myland left in net. The Broncos had been counting on Soberg - who they made the 6th overall pick in the import draft in June - to provide them with a number 1 goaltender this year.

And for what its worth, the Broncos were NOT the Eastern division team I reference below in the Anderson speculation. But I suppose they could be in the running for an experienced goalie now too....

Canes-Pats trade

Lethbridge has acquired overage goaltender Damian Ketlo from the Regina Pats this afternoon for a conditional 2012 5th round bantam pick.

Its an interesting deal since an overage goaltender is not exactly something Lethbridge needed - their incumbert starter, 19 year old Brandon Anderson, is a capable starting goalie in the WHL and is a signed prospect of the Washington Capitals.

It seems fairly safe to say the Hurricanes are not going with an Anderson-Ketlo tandem this year since both those guys will be gone after the year and they would be left with no returning goaltenders. So in my opinion, this deal means that another deal is in the works which will move Anderson to another team. I do believe there`s a certain team in the Eastern division which could be very interested in this deal.

Acquiring Ketlo also means the Hurricanes will have to part ways - eventually - with one of their existing three overagers - forwards Austin Fyten, Cam Braes, and Brody Sutter. So, one of those three will be wearing a different uniform in four weeks`time.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash

Terrible tragedy in the hockey world this morning as a plane carrying the Kontinental Hockey League team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl has crashed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl. 42 people were on the plane and there are only 2 survivors known at this point.

From a WHL perspective, the coach of Lokomotiv is former WHLer and NHLer Brad McCrimmon, who is being reported by Russian news agencies to be among those who died. His brother is Kelly McCrimmon, the owner, president, & general manager of the Brandon Wheat Kings. The McCrimmon family has been a big part of the WHL for over 30 years; take a moment out of your day to send some prayers their way.

Amongst other players on the team that North American fans might know: former NHLers Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins, Alexander Karpovtsev (who was an assistant coach to McCrimmon), Igor Korolev (also an assistant coach), Josef Vasicek, and Karel Rachunek. I don't see any former WHLers (except McCrimmon of course) on the roster but I could be missing a name or two.

This has to rank as one of the worst tragedies in team sport history. Just terrible....

The fighting question

In the wakes of the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak this summer, the "does fighting belong in hockey" debate has started up again. Gregg Drinnan has a column today featuring a letter from a hockey mom who is also a medical professional, expressing concern about the effects of fighting and concussions on players. Veteran sportswriter Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post has a column today as well, in which he takes the position that fighting should be removed from the sport. And Neate Seger of Yahoo Sports Canada has a piece as well (quoting from the Drinnan and Vanstone articles, among others).

My opinion? I don't think fighting needs to be removed from hockey. What does need to be removed, however, are the players for whom fighting is their dominant skill. Every team at every level of hockey (excluding leagues which don't permit fighting obviously) has a player or three on their roster who would not be there if fighting were not permitted. They are usually the most frequent fighters, and if we're concerned about concussions and other injuries which result from fighting, then these are the players who are most vulnerable to those injuries.

I like a good tilt as much as many other fans do. But I like my fights to arise on the spur-of-the-moment from a situation in the game - a questionable hit, running over somebody's goaltender, that sort of thing. And those fights usually involve players who can play the game too - not the guy who has been on the end of the bench for the last ten minutes waiting for such a situation so he can go out and extract some revenge. Those are planned, staged fights, not spur-of-the-moment, reactionary ones. Ditto for the fights off faceoffs, at the start of periods, or at the end of one-sided games which "send a message". Those are planned fights which usually involve players who don't get enough ice time to be affected by any "message" the other team might be trying to send anyway.

So my position is, keep fighting legal, but lose the "enforcers" and the staged fights. How can this be accomplished though, that's the trickier part.....but if there's a will, there's a way.

Your thoughts? (This should be good for some comments....)

Friday notes

Camps are underway for every team now and in fact most teams are already down to 30-some players. Often that number includes a couple 15 year olds - who you know will go home in the next few days since they can't play this year - and maybe a few too many overagers as well (which has to be dealt with by October 10), so if you take those two groups out, for a lot of teams they are probably within 10 cuts of their final roster and maybe even within 5 cuts.

Of course, those are the toughest 5-10 cuts since there often isn't a big difference between the kids who get to stay and begin their WHL careers and the kids who have to try again next year or perhaps give up on the WHL dream.

Preseason helps teams make those cuts - and while the first two preseason games were played earlier this week, the exhibition season really gets hopping this weekend. Between tonight and Monday, there will be 19 preseason games played, featuring 19 of the league's 22 teams. Only Brandon, Kootenay, and Lethbridge don't play this weekend, probably because all three of them started their camps a little later than everyone else.

Two of the league's three preseason tournaments take place this weekend as well - the five team (Everett, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Tri-City) tournament in Everett and the six team (Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Prince George, Red Deer, Swift Current) tournament in Edmonton.

And speaking of preseason and tournaments, there are a number of NHL rookie tournaments which get going in a week or so (all the tournaments seem to run in September 9 - 14 area) which will see dozens of players from the WHL clubs head out for tryouts. Within a day or two after that, the NHL training camps will open and dozens more WHLers will head out to those camps. The vast majority of them will eventually return to the WHL before the first week of October of course, but in their absence that means more ice time in preseason (and perhaps early regular season) games for the young players trying to make the WHL.

No matter what team you cheer for, it's going to be a busy next few weeks here for WHL fans.....