Apparently all the speculation about whether trading Chris Driedger meant the Tri-City Americans were going to use an overage spot on goalie Drew Owsley is now moot.
The Ams have dealt Owsley and a conditional 2013 7th round bantam pick to the Prince George Cougars in exchange for 19 year old goaltender Ty Rimmer, a 2012 3rd round bantam pick, and a 2013 5th round bantam pick.
I would speculate that the condition on the 2013 7th rounder is that Prince George only gets it if Rimmer plays as an overager in 2012-13.
This deal actually opens up a few avenues of discussion while clarifying others.
First, does the deal mean the Americans plan to give 16 year old Eric Comrie the quote-unquote starter's role and hand him the majority of the starts? Rimmer was the starter for the Cougars last year but he is not a Drew Owsley calibre starting goaltender. Is Rimmer now an Am just to provide a veteran to fall back on if Comrie has some struggles?
Two, with Owsley out of the picture, the Ams can now keep three of their other four high-quality overage candidates: Shinnimin, Hughesman, Wilgosh, and Mackenzie. Seems to me like one of the forwards would be the odd man out there, but that is a great-looking overage trio anyway you slice.
Three, this is the end of the line for overage goalie James Priestner in Prince George. Owsley is coming in to be the starter there and presumably the Cougars would add a rookie backup, probably one of 17 year olds Devin Fordyce and Tyler Santos.
5 comments:
Ams still have five overagers--you forgot Brock Sutherland (D)
Indeed they do. I didn't mention him though because in my mind he probably isn't one of the candidates for the three spots.
He'll be somewhere in the league but he's not going to beat out two of Shinnimin-Hughesman-Wilgosh-Mackenzie for a spot.
you're right, he probably isn't, especially if MacKenzie is back :)
I can't see any chance that Mckenzie is back as an overager. Hasn't he already signed with Buffalo? He was a fairly high pick, and he's a solid player. Seems like an obvious AHL guy to me.
Mackenzie has not signed with the Sabres. They have one more year to sign him yet too, which always increases the chances that a player will get sent back to junior.
I would think much depends on Buffalo's contract situation. NHL teams can only have 50 players under contract and if the Sabres are at that number or very close, then it's easier to send him back and not have to worry about him for another years.
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