The Rockets say they made the deal because of uncertainty about the health of Mark Guggenberger has left them short on goalies with only Adam Brown available to play. I wonder what that means for the status of Patrick Fairclough, who last I heard was still in camp with them. Either they don't think he's WHL-calibre or he hasn't committed to the WHL yet.
The other deal sees Edmonton trade overage forward Craig McCallum to Prince Albert, also for a conditional draft pick. The deal gets the Oil Kings down to four overagers while increasing the Raiders' overage count to four. From the Raiders point of view, this can't be good news for overage goalie Garret Zemlak. With the Raiders seemingly set to use 17 year old Jake Edwards as their backup, Zemlak was dueling 19 year old Steve Stanford for the starting job. You have to think that bringing in McCallum may have just sealed Zemlak's fate.
4 comments:
do you know what the conditions to the conditional picks are?
Stanford's erratic performance in the 08-09 season, when he was considered to be the starter, may have sealed his fate. Zemlak was in net for the last few games of the season and was brilliant. I here what you are saying about OA situation, but I'm thinking Stanford still has to earn this job back.
It is possible....who do you figure is the odd man out in the Raiders overage situation then? They probably didn't trade for McCallum just to cut him, so Kozyra? They probably have enough experienced guys on defence with Rowley, Deck, and Button to be able to part with Kozyra, I'd think?
Might also depend on what kind of value they can get for Stanford in a trade? Probably not too much value in a 19 year old goalie who hasn't proven himself as a reliable #1 though.
Really, the only other option, right? Kozyra brought in last year to fill a role, which may be over with great young d - aasman, especially hyrniuk. Whatever happens will be interesting. On your original point, Stanford CAN play and it may be his year. We'll see
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