Thursday news

It's Thursday and that means just one measly week 'til the WHL season starts for real. The season opener takes place in Edmonton next Thursday with Edmonton's last team, the Kootenay Ice, coming to town to provide the opposition in the Oil Kings' first-ever game. For fun, here's a trivia question: Who scored the first goal in Edmonton Ice franchise history back on September 20, 1996? I'll even throw in a big hint that should almost give it away: he also scored the first goal in Calgary Hitmen franchise history. Post guesses in the comments section for this post if you think you know who it is. (UPDATE: I thought this was a gimme.....but nobody has gotten it yet??)

Speaking of which, last year Shaw TV showed the season opener from Chilliwack....still no word anywhere on Shaw's WHL schedule for this coming season, including whether they plan to show that game or not. Shaw has become a very good way for fans in Western Canada to watch televised WHL games so hopefully that continues again this season and they'll announce a schedule soon.

Bunch of WHLers returned to the league from NHL camps: Andrew Clark in Brandon, T.J. Galiardi and Bostjan Golicic in Calgary, and Juuso Puustinen in Kamloops. I'll add more names to this paragraph as cuts become known.

Edmonton cut three players yesterday, which gets their roster down to 24, so they are pretty much ready for the season now. Chris Ward lost the backup goalie battle to Dalyn Flette, while the other two cuts are 16 year olds.

Still in Edmonton, defenceman Bretton Stamler enjoyed his time at Oilers camp.

Medicine Hat cuts four players yesterday, including two goaltenders. So the goalie situation is resolved there - it'll be last year's backup Ryan Holfeld along with new Czech import Tomas Vosvrda.

THe Lethbridge Hurricanes may have a brother act this year. Nick Dietrich is on the cusp of making the team and playing with his big brother Jacob.

Kamloops cut two players as well, including one of their four goalies. So it looks like James Priestner has won the backup goalie battle there; the question now is which of Dustin Butler and Justin Leclerc will stick around as the starter.

My money's on Butler being moved, and he is one of probably three overage goalies who will be on the move in the next few weeks. Everett will likely move David Reekie, while Moose Jaw has both Joey Perricone and Kurt Jory and won't keep both. All of these guys are likely good enough for the WHL but looking at the rosters around the league, there really aren't that many spots for any of them to land right now. Best bets for now is that they'll have to wait and see how teams with young and inexperienced tandems do once the games start counting in a week. If everyone remains happy with their goaltending by the overage deadline of October 11, the reality is that all those guys will probably have to finish their junior careers in Jr A instead of the WHL.

UPDATE: Still with overagers, the Rebels have cut overage forward hopeful Ryan Fuller. With that cut, the Rebels have no overagers on the team. Not a single one. That leaves them in the position of being able to scoop up a few who are released on cut-down day, if they are interested. Or they could just go with none and play the kids a lot more this year. The move also leaves the Rebels with 24 players on the roster, including three goalies. Once they get down to two goalies, their roster is probably set. See below for the latest rosters.

Kootenay has some work to do on their young blueline. The Ice should score a boatload of goals this year though which should take some pressure off the defence.

In Regina, goalie prospect Damien Ketlo knows the odds are long against him making the team this year. He probably isn't going to beat out Jeff Bosch for the backup job which leaves him playing Jr A in Prince George this year.

Lorne Molleken is unhappy with the work ethic of the Saskatoon Blades so far. That could spell bad news for some hopefuls.