Tuesday notes

Two things this morning....

First, a trade in the WHL sees the Cougars send 18 year old forward Justin Maylan and a 2010 6th round bantam pick to the Raiders for 19 year old forward James Dombrolowski and a 2010 4th round bantam pick. Seems like a reasonably fair trade both ways, Maylan is a year younger and might be the better player, but the Raiders gave up the higher pick to make up that gap.

This is Maylan's 2nd trade since being a first round pick in the 2006 bantam draft - he was dealt to Prince George by Moose Jaw in the Ty Wishart deal originally. In his comments about the deal, Cougars G.M. Dallas Thompson alluded to some personal difficulties the team had with Maylan too, so perhaps that was a factor in today's trade as well. I think both players will get a chance to play bigger offensive roles with their new teams so it should be a good move for both.

The other note for today is something else I noticed while scanning the import draft list. At #10, the QMJHL's Drummonville Voltigeurs drafted Czech forward Ondrej Palat. What makes this noteworthy is that Palat was drafted last year by Seattle and was part of last year's trade deadline with Chilliwack for the rights to Oscar Moller. Basically the deal was Moller's rights for the rights to Palat (who had not reported to Seattle) and a 4th round bantam pick. If Palat ever reported to Chilliwack, then the Bruins would give back the 4th rounder.

Well, Chilliwack dropped Palat from their protected list a while back, which is why he was available for Drummondville to pick up. And with a high pick too, which means the Voltigeurs obviously think they can get Palat to report.

So what's the point of all this? Well, Palat is supposed to be a pretty talented guy, and God knows the Bruins need more of that kind of thing. So why did they drop him when it looks like he might want to play in North America? Did they want to cement their possession of that oh-so-valuable 4th round pick? I doubt it. Or could it be because Palat was never going to report to a WHL team since they have a reputation for playing by the rules when it comes to transfer fee payments, something that certain teams in other leagues are a little muddier on?