More player movement

Few more notes from the last couple days....

Vancouver is now down to one import after 19 year old forward Casper Carning informed the team that he was returning home to Sweden. Carning apparently wasn't fitting in very well with Don Hay's program and as a 19 year old he probably saw the writing on the wall as far as his future in the league when he wasn't able to crack the top couple lines on the Giants.

If the Giants care to replace Carning's import spot, only Swift Current has three imports right now but Tri-City could be another trading partner if the Giants want to wait a few weeks. Russian defenceman Nikita Nesterov is still awaiting the paperwork to join the Americans; once he does the Ams will also have three imports.

And a couple more overage moves too, both involving the Prince George Cougars. Two days ago the Cougars acquired forward/defenceman Sena Acolatse from Saskatoon for a 3rd round bantam pick, which gave the Cougars four overagers and got the Blades down to their required three.

Yesterday, the Cougars landed yet another overager and this one comes from the NCAA ranks. Forward Taylor Stefishen has left Ohio State to join the Cougars lineup, which means the Cougars now have five overagers. You'd have to think that Stefishen and Acolatse are pretty safe bets to take two of the final three spots; the 3rd spot likely comes down to either forward James Dobrowolski or goaltender Morgan Clark, which means it doesn't look very good for forward Parker Stanfield.

Dobrowolski is an alternate captain, which might make his spot a little safer than Clark's, except that the Cougars only have two goalies so they'd have to find another one before they could get rid of Clark. There are still eight teams in the league (Brandon, Chilliwack, Kootenay, Portland, Regina, Saskatoon, Tri-City, and Vancouver) who are carrying more than 2 goalies so there's no shortage of potential trading partners if the Cougars want to go that direction.....depending on how much they want to give up, they may even be able to get a new #1 goalie from one of those teams if they don't think Priestner is that guy.

The pick the Cougars gave up to Swift Current for Morgan Clark was a conditional pick, so they probably get it back if they decide not to keep him - no cost to them in that case.

The overage deadline is 9 days away now (October 14) and there are three teams with five overagers (Brandon, Calgary, Prince George), seven teams with four overagers (Chilliwack, Kelowna, Kootenay, Moose Jaw, Portland, Red Deer, and Tri-City), and three teams with only two overagers and room to add one more (Everett, Kamloops, and Regina).

Kyle Aschim (Calgary) and Brendan Rowinski (Moose Jaw) are injured right now and so the deadline does not apply to them....their teams will have the option of keeping them or moving them when they come off the injured list, whenever that is. Still a minimum of 11 overage players that have to be trimmed from rosters, and at least 8 of them will be out of the WHL in the next 9 days.