D-day continues....sort of

There were no more trades yesterday, so deadline day saw just the eight deals. A little less than usual perhaps, but on the other hand it probably shouldn't be too surprising since a number of the big names were moved in the week or so leading up the deadline.

One of the trades made on Wednesday has already been voided: the Rockets' deal to acquire Brent Ottmann from Prince Albert for a conditional draft pick has been nullified since Ottmann has apparently decided to stay in Junior A rather than report to Kelowna. So, Ottmann's rights revert back to the Raiders and the Rockets keep their draft pick.

Trades weren't the other things happening yesterday; a fair number of players were also released or reassigned by their teams:

• Portland released two forwards: 19 year old import Viktor Sjodin, and 18 year old Matt Betker. I see some Portland fans are unhappy with these moves, but obviously the team wants to give more ice time to younger players with more potential.
  

• Kootenay reassigned 17 year old defenceman Jordan Wilkins to Merritt of the B.C. Junior A league. Wilkins was the Ice's 1st round pick in the 2005 bantam draft and this is the second year in a row he has been reassigned by the team in midseason. I don't think he's a bust (I'm sure he'll be back with the Ice next year) but his career sure isn't working out the way it was projected in May 2005, that's for sure.
  

• Prince George released 19 year old forward Morgan MacLean. MacLean immediately joined the Junior A Prince George Spruce Kings (he didn't even have to move to a different city!) and played for the Spruce Kings last night already. Apparently MacLean's release was for disciplinary reasons, but I'm sure you could also make a case that it was because he's a 19 year old being outplayed by younger players on a rebuilding team.
  

• Prince George also reassigned 19 year old goalie Tommy Tartaglione to the Surrey Eagles of the B.C. Junior A league. Tough break for the happy-go-lucky kid who joined the team as an afterthought but outplayed veteran Real Cyr enough times to earn equal playing time. I wonder if Tartaglione is in the Cougars' plans for next year as an overage? If not, the Cougars will only have newly-acquired Ian Curtis returning in net next year since Cyr will graduate from the league after this season.
  

• Brandon released 19 year old import forward Robert Brandis. To be either a 19 year old or an import, forwards have to have more than two points and a -7 in 28 games or they don't belong in the WHL.
  

• Red Deer assigned 17 year old forward Spencer Edwards to the Cowichan Valley Capitals of the B.C. Junior A league.

• Saskatoon assigned 18 year old forward Jordan Braid to the Kindersley Klippers of the Saskatchewan Junior A league.

• This one hasn't been officially announced by the team, but Regina has reassigned 17 year forward Cody Hanson, probably back to his AAA midget team in Regina. His name has been removed from the team roster on the WHL site.

• Previously mentioned below, Vancouver assigned 18 year old defenceman Justin Palazzo to Junior A as well.

Between Wilkins, Palazzo, and Hanson, that's three former first-round bantam picks who were reassigned out of the league yesterday.

And, one team added a player: Portland added 17 year old forward Colin Reddin, whose route to the WHL has not been without bumps. As a 15 year old, he attended Hawks camp and apparently felt the WHL was the route for him, so he signed a WHL player education agreement with the Hawks at that time, although he did not play any exhibition or regular season games for the team. Sometime after that though, he apparently had a change of heart and decided to pursue the college route instead. Except, by signing that education agreement, he forfeited his college eligibility under NCAA rules. He was appealing to the NCAA to have his eligibility reinstated since he never actually got any education money from the Winter Hawks, but I'm guessing from his decision yesterday that his appeal wasn't getting favourable reviews from the NCAA people.

What more can you say about an organization that punishes kids for harmless decisions they made when they were 15. I thought the definition of being a professional was to have earned or received payment for playing.....since Reddin needed to actually play for the Hawks in order to earn the WHL education money, the fact that he hadn't played for them yet (and thus hadn't earned or received any benefits) should enable him to retain amateur status for NCAA purposes. At least, that's the common sense approach. Common sense and the NCAA are so often strangers when it comes to hockey players though.

Getting back to the trade deadline, one of the surprises for me was that Robin Figren is still an Oil King. Look at the standings: Edmonton is not going to make the playoffs. Figren was an asset who had some pretty decent value, and he's not going to be back next year so they are going to end up with nothing for him - apart from what he does for them in the 2nd half of the season of course. And some of the blame for this is on Figren, since the Oil Kings had apparently traded him to Regina before Figren decided he didn't want to go to Regina. What does it say about a player's competitive nature that he would rather play the last year of his career on a non-playoff team rather than go on a potential championship run with one of the top contenders? I just hope his veto wasn't because Figren would rather get his WHL season over with quickly so that he can join the Islanders' farm team and start making some money as a professional.

Also a bit surprised that Red Deer did not trade goalie James Reimer. They are also not going to make the playoffs, and Reimer is one of the better goalies in the league. I can only assume that either there wasn't much interest in Reimer (which would surprise me), or the Rebels are gambling that Reimer will not sign with the Maple Leafs (who picked him in the 4th round in 2006) this summer and will instead return to the WHL as an overage next year.

For your smile of the day, credit to multiple sources for this.....the Cougars need to play newly-acquired defenceman Cody Hobbs with veteran defenceman Kalvin Sagert. The reason? They'd be Kalvin and Hobbs, of course!

And one last note.....this blog had 1,242 visits yesterday, and close to 800 on each of the three days before that. Considering it normally averages about 420 visits per day, I'd say that kind of traffic indicates I'm not the only one who finds the trade deadline very interesting. :-)