Wednesday notes

Few things this morning....

We're getting down to the tough cuts for most WHL teams now, and as proof of that, a couple more veterans were sent packing yesterday, this time from Kelowna. The Rockets have cut two veteran forwards, 19 year old Codey Ito and 18 year old Sean Aschim. If they can't work a trade to another WHL team, both players are likely destined for the Saskatchewan Junior A ranks.

These cuts are the toughest ones but I think any time rookies come in and push vets out of a job, that is usually a good thing for a team. Usually rookies have to be clearly better than a vet to win the vet's job, so you know your team is probably improving when you see this stuff happening.

Elsewhere, another vet has left his team and requested a trade. That is in Moose Jaw and the player is 18 year old backup goaltender Brandon Glover. Glover is presumably unhappy about the acquisition of overage goalie Thomas Heemskerk, which probably deprives him of a chance to earn the starters job in Moose Jaw this year.

I have to say though, I'm not sure where Glover is going to get a better opportunity than what he already had in Moose Jaw. Yes, he would have had to be the backup in Moose Jaw again this year. But the starter is overage and would definitely be gone next year, which means the starters job next year would have been all Glover's, as long as he performed well as backup this year of course. He could have been the starter there as a 19 year old and again as a 20 year old potentially. A good portion of Moose Jaw's core is 17 & 18 years old, which means that 2011-12 should at least in theory be an even better team than they'll have this year.

If he wants to be a starter this year, I'm kind of struggling to see a place in the league where he'd be clearly better than their current #1. Guess we'll see.