News and notes for today...
Everett has two American rookies this year, and they are both now sold on the WHL as the path to take in their career after some initial hesitation.
The Medicine Hat Tigers probably lost a veteran overage defenceman yesterday when Jordan Bendfeld signed with the NHL's Edmonton Oilers. The WHL site is already referring to him as having "completed his junior career" last year even though he is still eligible to play as an overage this year and until this contract news, he was pretty darn likely to be a Tiger again this year. As it is now though, you have to think he's gone, which leaves the Tigers with only two overagers for this season.
Giants forward prospect Mikael Jung will go up against his big brother, goaltender Torrie Jung of the Rockets this weekend, with a potential job with the Giants on the line. Perhaps big brother could gift little brother a couple goals to help his cause....
Saskatoon is waist-deep in defencemen this year, and some guys who played last year might not have jobs when camp is all done this time around.
Is Brandon Sutter's time with the Rebels over? Maybe, maybe not....but he'll get every opportunity to crack the roster of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes as a 19 year old. Losing him would be a big blow to the Rebels....
Today's Prince George Citizen has Cougars G.M. Dallas Thompson running down the roster of who's left in camp. One of the interesting bits? Thompson has all but given up on landing potential star import Jerome Flaake.
Meanwhile, Edmonton's star import from last year, Tomas Vincour, finally checked in to Oil Kings camp yesterday after playing in a tournament in Europe. Big things are being expected from Vincour this year, his NHL draft year.
And another good, non-WHL-but-slightly-WHL-related, read is here. Seems a bunch of college presidents in the U.S. are unhappy about online NCAA football fantasy game which they claim "exploit college players". As the writer points out, they probably just don't like the competition in the exploitation-of-athletes area.
How does this relate to the WHL? Well, this same NCAA that thinks kids who get $48,000 a year worth of free education (the Notre Dame example) are amateurs thinks WHLers who take $200 a month spending money from their teams are "professionals" and so much as suiting up for one WHL exhibition game will cost you your amateur status forever. Imagine, a school that turns a $40 million profit on the backs of 18-22 year olds being so vindictive against 16 & 17 year old kids who just want to put gas in their cars.
2 comments:
I know Nick P.'s article was just about Maxwell and White, but the 'Tips actually have 4 American rookies this season... 16 year-olds Markus McCrae and Tyler Parker are from Canyon Lake, California, and Livermore, California, respectively.
-- Andy Head
I think Nick's artilce was more about two top 91 American rookies (Maxwell and White) that were taken very high in the USHL Futures Draft(both 2nd rounders) and most likely NCAA bound(I think Maxwell might have even been slated for a spot on the USNTDP) and decided to change paths and go to the WHL. I don't think it was meant to "slight" the other 2 American rookies, just don't think thier situations were relevant to this story.
Jim Dandoi
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