NHL goes back to work

So that other hockey league that some of us like to watch now and then finally got its act together and figured out how to share several billion dollars without anyone involved possibly needing to get another part-time job to make ends meet in the future.

I know it's not ratified by either side yet but realistically that's probably a fait accompli since Don Fehr and Gary Bettman will be recommending acceptance to their respective sides; so, there will be an NHL season after all, probably commencing January 19 from most reports.

So what does this mean to the WHL? IMO, probably not a whole lot. For the OHL this is going to be more significant as there are a few players in the OHL who are probably going to move up to the NHL, but there are only six players in the entire WHL who are eligible for recall to the NHL this season and honestly, I don't think any of them are going to be sticking in the NHL this year when all is said and done.

Those six players are: David Musil (Edmonton Oil Kings / Edmonton Oilers), Derrick Pouliot (Portland Winterhawks / Pittsburgh Penguins), Victor Rask (Calgary Hitmen / Carolina Hurricanes), Ty Rattie (Portland Winterhawks / St. Louis Blues), Morgan Rielly (Moose Jaw Warriors / Toronto Maple Leafs), and Matej Stransky (Saskatoon Blades / Dallas Stars). I was surprised that Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton Oil Kings / New York Islanders) isn't on the list seeing as how he was the #4 overall pick in the draft and has signed with the Islanders already, but I guess the Islanders didn't submit his name for possible recall back in September when the NHL was collecting names. Ryan Murray (Everett Silvertips / Columbus Blue Jackets) is on the list as well but I haven't counted him since he's not going to play hockey again until May at the earliest.

The only one of those guys who I think has a serious shot at playing the entire year in the NHL this year is Rielly and even that is IMO not very likely to happen. All six of them will probably depart the WHL later this week for NHL training camps but I expect them all to be back within a week or three.

The way I see it, it's a short season in the NHL, meaning there is less time to achieve separation in the standings and so every win and loss will be even more important in making the playoffs than in a usual 82 game season. There's very few games available to be messing around trying to find out if an 18 year old kid is ready to play in the NHL or not. Morgan Rielly may be the best prospect the Maple Leafs have had in a while but on the other hand the Leafs haven't made the NHL playoffs since Morgan Rielly was in Atom hockey. He's an 18 year old defenceman who is going to make 18 year old defenceman mistakes and with the pressure in Toronto to make the playoffs, I don't see the Leafs having the patience to endure that learning curve the way they might in an 82 game season.....like next season, for example. This current season in the NHL is going to be about hitting the ice running and sprinting to the playoffs.

You can make the argument that players from junior are in prime midseason form right now and therefore could be more effective when going up against NHLers who have been sitting around for four months, and that's a good point. But really, I don't think it's going to take the NHL guys that long to get going, not with the kind of physical shape NHL athletes keep themselves in nowadays. So that "midseason shape" advantage might last a few games but overall not very long.

So getting back to the WHL....is this going to have a big effect on the WHL the rest of the way? Probably not. Certainly if Moose Jaw had any plans to trade Morgan Rielly this week, they're now going to find a lot of would-be buyers who are now reluctant to consummate the deal, but since the Warriors have previously said they're not trading Rielly, that may be moot anyway.

The G.M.'s and fans of the five teams affected by the above six players' likely departures to NHL camps will probably have to hold their breath for the next few weeks hoping their guys actually do get returned.....but I don't think they'll have to hold it that long. Should be mostly business as usual in the WHL for the most part as a result.