Friday news

UPDATE: Brandon and Medicine Hat swing a trade. Going to the Wheat Kings is veteran forward Matt Lowry, while the Tigers get a 2008 6th round pick from the Wheaties.

Bunch of WHLers returned from the NHL again yesterday: Keith Aulie (Brandon), Ian Duval, Carson McMillan, and Brett Sonne (Calgary), Nick Holden and Matt McCue (Chilliwack), Cody Almond, Tyson Dowzak and Torrie Jung (Kelowna), Jason Reese (Moose Jaw), Tyson Sexsmith (Vancouver), and probably a few others too which I'll add onto this when I find out their names. (UPDATE: the Los Angeles Kings have returned Linden Rowat (Regina), T.J. Fast (Tri-City), Oscar Moller (Chilliwack), Dwight King (Lethbridge), and Bud Holloway (Seattle) back to their WHL teams. Rosters below are updated.)

The Warriors cut two players yesterday and are now at 25, including 3 goalies. Once they decide which overage goalie gets to keep a job, they're pretty much ready to play - although the presence of only six defencemen on their roster would indicate there might be some moves coming (acquiring an overage d-man perhaps?) since teams usually carry at least seven defencemen. The cutting of goalie Kevin Jebson probably means that California goalie Todd Matthews has won the backup job. If so, I believe Matthews would be the first product of that one-time "special American draft" from summer 2006 to actually make a WHL roster. Also, if the Warriors were to decide to go with Joey Perricone as their starter, this would mean that both Warriors goalies were from California. When was the last time a WHL team had two American goaltenders? Probably never.

As Vancouver prepares to wrap up their exhibition season, the news is that one of their remaining prospects, defenceman Stefan Schneider, has been injured.

Kelowna is hopeful that overage defenceman Lyon Messier can add some veteran presence to their blueline. First he has to prove he can play at this level though.

Veteran Pats forward Kirt Hill continues to contribute to the team even though he is currently injured.

J.P. Szaszkiewicz of the Oil Kings is looking forward to being able to play at home in front of friends and family this season after three years in Spokane. The coach is a familiar face to him too.

A look at Rockets overage tough guy James McEwen, who is being looked to for versatility and leadership this season. Not mentioned in the article: McEwen has a good chance of being the Rockets captain this year. Not bad for a guy Seattle cut a year ago.

The Saskatoon Blades are obviously pleased with new Finnish defenceman Jiri Niemi. In fact, they may be considering having him QB their powerplay.

The pressure is on Cougars coach Drew Schoneck now. It's a rebuilding season and he'll have to prove he can have success with a roster not laden with quality veterans like last year's was.

Still with the Cougars, they have added a player - Marcus Watson, an 18 year old forward from California who arrives in P.G. via the QMJHL. Southwest to northeast to northwest, this kid is racking up the frequent flyer miles on this tour of North America.

Tri-City defenceman Mitch McColm plays with an edge to his game. He says he's no heavyweight but he may find himself in that role more often than not this year.

Are you sitting down? Good, because there's an actual article on the Winterhawks in the Portland papers today. It's about goaltender Kurtis Mucha and what he did this summer: hang out on the beach in California. Might as well go someplace where he's unlikely to see a puck, since he saw more than enough last season, eh?

Anyway, also in that article is the unfortunate news that newly-acquired Hawks defenceman Brock Cornish is out for the season. He will require surgery on the shoulder he dislocated last Sunday. This is apparently the 4th dislocation he has suffered to that shoulder, which cannot be a good sign for his career. The Hawks gave up a 3rd round pick to acquire him from Tri-City and unless the surgery is successful enough that he can resume his career next season, the Hawks may never see any return from that pick. This is also a particularily unfortunate injury for the Hawks, given the inexperienced state of their blueline, which was already porous last year and lost three vets in the offseason. They may have picked up Todd Panchyson to replace Cornish but Panchyson is on his 4th WHL team now and hasn't established himself as an everyday player with any of them.

Lastly, still no answers to my trivia question from yesterday: name the player who scored the first goal in Edmonton Ice franchise history. The hint: he also scored the first goal in Calgary Hitmen franchise history. I'll post the answer on the weekend if nobody guesses it before then. Put your guesses in the comments section if you think you know it.

Red Deer has cut another player. They now have only 23 players in camp and that includes one goalie too many still. Methinks they are counting on getting one of their signed overagers back, or else there's some moves brewing here because a 22 player roster doesn't leave much room for injuries.

Meanwhile, Spokane has cut two more players, bringing them down to a roster of 24, also including one goalie too many.

UPDATE: We have a winner on the trivia thing. Portland radio p-b-p voice Andy Kemper knew that it was John Kachur who scored the first goal for both franchises. No surprise there as Andy is one of the most knowledgable guys around about the league. Pretty rare to see one player who scored the first goal for two teams but it happened. And as another neat note to this story, the first goal in Chilliwack Bruins history was scored by Keith Voytechek; he plays for Moose Jaw now so unless he's traded to Edmonton in the next six days, he won't be doing the same for the Oil Kings. But, the first goal ALLOWED in Bruins franchise history was by Alex Archibald, and there's an excellent chance he'll do the same for Edmonton next Thursday.

Non-WHL news; the Buffalo Sabres have made an early entry into the Organization Of The Year contest. Defenceman Teppo Numminen needs more heart surgery, so the Sabres have suspended him for not reporting to training camp in good physical condition. So, they don't have to pay him anymore. The implication is that this is something Numminen could have done something about, which is dubious. Plus he has had two heart surgeries already in his life so obviously the Sabres were aware of his history when they signed him, but yet they signed him anyway AND chose not to insure the contract. No class.