Still keeping an eye on that Ken Petkau situation between Chilliwack and Vancouver. Something just smells bad about this whole situation. According to the Vancouver Province's Steve Ewen, Giants players were talking about there being more to the situation back on the day the Bruins announced Petkau had retired. Now, how could any Giants players know that unless some of them know Petkau (no surprise there, almost everyone in the league has friends on other teams) and knew he wasn't planning on retiring at all? Then it turns out Petkau showed up to Bruins camp out of shape and played so poorly to start the year that he was dropped to the 3rd line; it almost makes you think he wanted out, doesn't it? And now Petkau is saying he quit the Bruins because they didn't get him an NHL tryout like they apparently promised him; the Bruins are saying that they tried but no NHL team was interested in him; plus, they point out that since he showed up out of shape, he wasn't very serious about an NHL tryout in the first place. And now, finally, the Giants say that Petkau is eager to play for them. More on this story here, including the revelation that Petkau should probably consider finding a new agent....like one who knows the basic rules about player rights transfers between the CHL and the minor pros.
The league has ruled that Petkau's rights belong to the Giants, but they will not allow him to play for the Giants until the league can talk to Petkau personally about the situation. Got to make sure this is all on the up-and-up and not a planned-behind-the-scenes situation between Petkau and the Giants, or at least Petkau and some Giants players?
To me, I don't understand why the league doesn't get around this kind of thing by allowing teams to keep the rights of retired players without having them count against the 50 player protected list. Teams actually own the rights to more than 50 players at a time, but some of them don't count because the league has a bunch of alternate player lists such as the 60 day injured list, the College list, and the "Special" list for WHL-eligible players in the NHL/AHL, or Imports who never showed up, etc. Why not add another list, a "Retired" list for players who are no longer playing hockey? That way the Bruins could have simply transferred Petkau's rights to that list and he would have been unable to be picked up by the Giants. End of problem.
For what its worth, the Bruins can't be too unhappy about the situation since Petkau's departure enabled them to pick up Brandon Campos from Everett. In five games, Campos has four goals and six points. He is easily making up whatever offence Petkau (who probably would have been good for about 55-60 points on the season if he were motivated to do so) would have provided. Best of all, Campos was free, so they didn't even have to give up anything to get him either.
Rebels overager J.D. Watt has been suspended indefinitely by the WHL for what was apparently a high hit to the head on Blades defenceman Teigan Zahn on Friday night that has left Zahn with a concussion. Watt has already sat out the Rebels games on Saturday and Sunday since the WHL doesn't do business on those days and so suspension decisions have to wait until after the weekend. How goofy is it that a league which plays 462 out of 792 games (that's 58% of its schedule) on Friday and Saturday nights doesn't do business on Saturdays and Sundays? If you get a match penalty on a Friday night, you're suspended until the league gets around to reviewing it on Monday. If it was an unwarranted call, you could have sat out two games for no reason.
Back to the hit though; not having seen it, I can't comment on what happened, but if it was another deliberate hit to the head then I'd like to see the WHL start getting tougher on the offenders. We'll see what the league has to say about it when they hand down their ruling, probably today or tomorrow.
In a nice finish to the Rebels/Blades game though, the entire Blades team - including coach/GM Lorne Molleken - shaved their heads at center ice after the game, to raise money for breast cancer research.
More Regina-Moose Jaw rivalry antics last night. The highlight was Moose Jaw goalie Joey Perricone spearing Pats forward Kirt Hill after Hill had just fought Ryan Stanton and was being escorted to the penalty box by the officials. How stupid do you have to be to spear a guy while he's being escorted by a linesman? There was 9 minutes left in the game and the Warriors lead 4-0; a spearing double-minor could have given the Pats a chance to score a couple quick powerplay goals and it's a different game. Not a veteran move at all.
Are the Oil Kings finally coming down to the level of an expansion team? After 7 points in their first five games, the newcomers have just two points in their last four games and - more tellingly - have been outscored 24-8 in those games. Those are worse than 06-07 Portland GF/GA numbers. Kings goalie Dalyn Flette has given up 8 goals on 23 shots in just over 30 minutes of play in those four games and now owns a 6.98 GAA and .807 sv%. If those numbers don't get better, his stay in the WHL is ticking away quickly.
And lastly, many of us could not understand the Hurricanes' decision to release Yashar Farmanara in favour of Mike Wuchterl at the overage deadline on Thursday. Farmanara wasn't out of the league long though, as the Hurricanes' rival Medicine Hat Tigers picked him up on Friday and had him in the lineup Friday night against - yup, the Hurricanes. He had an assist and was a +2 in the Tigers' 3-2 win over the team that cast him off 24 hours earlier in favour of a third 20 year old 4th-liner. In the rematch on Sunday night, he had a goal in a 4-3 Tigers win. And in-between, he had a goal and an assist and a +1 in a 6-2 Tigers win over the Oil Kings. Not a bad debut weekend: three games, three wins (two over the team that just cut you), with 2g, 2a, and a +3. After just this weekend, he now has twice as many points for the Tigers as Wuchterl, Wiens, and Dietrich combined have for Lethbridge this year. They're a combined two points and -7 in 20 games. We often don't know the whole story behind these moves but on the surface, Hurricanes G.M. Ray Stasiuk's overage choices this year are looking just a little bit.....uh, stupid?
4 comments:
re: Petkau situation - The teams should NOT be able to prevent 20 year olds from playing. The Bruins protestations ring hollow since they have the maximum 3 OAers... and a question - How can the WHL prevent someone, like Petkau, from working? Can they make him play for "free" in the WHL while keeping him from being paid to play professional hockey? And if the WHL player are being paid, are the ones in the US being paid minimum wage for time required to be "at work"?
I don't understand your first point. Nobody stopped Petkau from playing in the WHL. The Bruins only still have three O/As because they acquired another one after releasing Petkau, so I'm not sure the point there either?
So long as this was all on the up-and-up (ie, Petkau had no prearranged deal with the Giants), then it's all kosher and the Bruins will just have to be unhappy. The league just needs to check into the circumstances of Petkau's decision to quit the Bruins.
As for "making" the player play in the WHL, remember that they sign contracts in the WHL and thus they have some obligations to the teams. You cannot simply walk out on a contract without consequences in the real world either. That being said, most WHL teams are not unreasonable about this and if Petkau really did not want to return to the WHL, the Giants would probably grant him his release so that he can play minor pro. Nobody wants a guy who really doesn't want to be there.
If the Bruins were allowed to put their 4th OAer on a retired list, he would have been prevented from playing in the WHL. At least that was my interpretation of what you wrote, but upon re-reading I don't think that's what you meant.
My idea for a retired players list only applies to players who are actually retired. If the player wanted to play, the team would have to take him off the retired list and either put him onto the active list, trade his rights, or release him.
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