Wednesday notes

Bunch of stuff today....first, several overager notes from around the league:

Two overage goaltenders, Andrew Hayes of Brandon and Kraymer Barnstable of Red Deer, have seen their tenures with those teams come to an end. Hayes has been "designated for assignment" by Brandon, which is another way of saying they're trying to trade him, while Barnstable has been waived by Red Deer, which means he's free to go wherever he wants.

I would think both of these guys are probably headed for Junior A to finish their careers. Hayes had some good numbers in Brandon but there's a glut of overage goalies in the league already (still 12 O/A goalies on league rosters even without counting Hayes or Barnstable) and a glut of overagers in general. I'm not sure anyone is going to have room for him.

Brandon still has another overage goalie too, Jacob DeSerres, and if the fact that Brandon used Liam Liston and Ty Rimmer in their first two games means anything, it doesn't look very good for DeSerres either. It almost looks like Brandon is trying to get a feel for whether the rookie goalies can handle the load this year which would allow them to not have to use an overage spot on a goaltender.

In other overage news, Portland's Luke Walker signed a 3-year contract with the Colorado Avalanche yesterday, and with that news you can probably take it to the bank that he's not coming back to the WHL. Not too many NHL-signed kids come back as overagers.

And in a slightly surprising move today, the Calgary Hitmen got overage import forward Misha Fisenko back after his minor pro tryout in the CHL didn't work out. Fisenko's addition leaves the Hitmen with five overagers, although Kyle Aschim remains on the injured list so right now they'll only have to make one move before the October 15 deadline. The Hitmen previously only had one import, goaltender Juraj Holly, so Fisenko's addition does not cause them any import problems. After scoring only 3 goals in two games last weekend, they'll probably welcome his offence back.

One other non-overage roster note today, Vancouver Giants rookie forward R.J. Reed has left the team and returned home to play in the AJHL. No reason given for Reed's departure but he did not get much playing time in the first few games of the season so as an 18 year old, perhaps he was unhappy about that situation.