Scout
10-12-2007, 11:07 AM
Courtesy Alan Caldwell:
Friday, October 12, 2007
Friday news
The Raiders lost yet another player yesterday when tough guy defenceman Cody Vann left the team for "personal reasons". I'll take a wild guess and say the "personal reasons" are related to the fact that he has been scratched for five of the first nine games under Bruno Campese after being a lineup regular last year for Peter Anholt.
Vann is the third player to voluntarily decide to leave the Raiders this year. Shane Malone and Cole Penner were the other two. Vann is one of the tougher kids in the league and if the Raiders are interested in trading him, I'm sure somebody out there will be interested.
The Ken Petkau situation will only add fuel to the Giants/Bruins rivalry. Petkau tells the Bruins he is retiring last week and so they release him. Vancouver seizes the opportunity and adds him yesterday (after releasing Mike Wuchterl to make room), hoping he can score 30 goals for them. Turns out the Giants haven't even spoken to Petkau about playing for them but they're hoping they can persuade him. In another twist though, Petkau is currently in Oklahoma City trying out for the Central Hockey League's Blazers, which seems to fly in the face of his statement to the Bruins that he was going to get out of hockey and move on with his life. Even better, the Giants had to call the Central League and request that Petkau not be allowed to try out for the Oklahoma City Blazers, presumably because he wasn't released from the WHL. And then there's the angle which has the Giants doing this as revenge for what the Bruins did a year ago when they claimed Chad Scharff after the Giants were forced to release him at the overage deadline. The Giants subsequently ran into problems with Dustin Slade, cut Slade and tried to reacquire Scharff, but couldn't make a deal with the Bruins. Articles on this many-faceted story here and here.
Speaking of Wuchterl, I'm still puzzled about Lethbridge's decision to release a guy (Yashar Farmanara) who scored 46 points last year in favour of a guy (Wuchterl) who doesn't have that many in his career. I realize that Wuchterl brings things to the team other than scoring prowess, but do the Canes really have enough forward depth that they can use three overage forward spots on three guys with a combined 79 points in 529 career games? Oh, can't forget the 577 PIM from Wiens & Wuchterl. I know they have the big line of Boychuk-King-Fadden which is going to score a hundred goals this year but it's kinda thin on the forward ranks on that team after that and that's where you'd hope that three decent overagers might provide a little secondary scoring. Tough to do that from the penalty box or the bench which is where Wuchterl and Wiens will be a lot. And Dietrich is pointless and a -4 after 8 games this year; did they even release the right guy? I have to think Farmanara will be back in the WHL somewhere by the end of the year, unless of course he doesn't want to be.
Oil Kings G.M. Bob Green faces his old team, Medicine Hat, for the first time tomorrow night. And for the team, it's their first visit to two of the classic old barns in the league, something which has apparently interested the Edmonton media for some reason despite the fact that most of the Oil Kings players have played in Swift Current and Medicine Hat's rinks before with other teams.
Want to get Saskatoon defenceman John Flatters off his game? Make the pre-game meal something with cranberries.
Still with the Blades, they couldn't be happier with the progress of their two 16 year olds this year. Stefan Elliott and Curtis Hamilton should be very good players for several years to come.
If you said before the season that three weeks into the year the league's scoring leader would be Kruise Reddick (who?), then you're looking like a pretty smart person today. But I'm pretty sure nobody predicted that, including Reddick himself.
Prince George rookie Ryan Kowalski isn't just impressing his coaches, he's making his dad proud.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Friday news
The Raiders lost yet another player yesterday when tough guy defenceman Cody Vann left the team for "personal reasons". I'll take a wild guess and say the "personal reasons" are related to the fact that he has been scratched for five of the first nine games under Bruno Campese after being a lineup regular last year for Peter Anholt.
Vann is the third player to voluntarily decide to leave the Raiders this year. Shane Malone and Cole Penner were the other two. Vann is one of the tougher kids in the league and if the Raiders are interested in trading him, I'm sure somebody out there will be interested.
The Ken Petkau situation will only add fuel to the Giants/Bruins rivalry. Petkau tells the Bruins he is retiring last week and so they release him. Vancouver seizes the opportunity and adds him yesterday (after releasing Mike Wuchterl to make room), hoping he can score 30 goals for them. Turns out the Giants haven't even spoken to Petkau about playing for them but they're hoping they can persuade him. In another twist though, Petkau is currently in Oklahoma City trying out for the Central Hockey League's Blazers, which seems to fly in the face of his statement to the Bruins that he was going to get out of hockey and move on with his life. Even better, the Giants had to call the Central League and request that Petkau not be allowed to try out for the Oklahoma City Blazers, presumably because he wasn't released from the WHL. And then there's the angle which has the Giants doing this as revenge for what the Bruins did a year ago when they claimed Chad Scharff after the Giants were forced to release him at the overage deadline. The Giants subsequently ran into problems with Dustin Slade, cut Slade and tried to reacquire Scharff, but couldn't make a deal with the Bruins. Articles on this many-faceted story here and here.
Speaking of Wuchterl, I'm still puzzled about Lethbridge's decision to release a guy (Yashar Farmanara) who scored 46 points last year in favour of a guy (Wuchterl) who doesn't have that many in his career. I realize that Wuchterl brings things to the team other than scoring prowess, but do the Canes really have enough forward depth that they can use three overage forward spots on three guys with a combined 79 points in 529 career games? Oh, can't forget the 577 PIM from Wiens & Wuchterl. I know they have the big line of Boychuk-King-Fadden which is going to score a hundred goals this year but it's kinda thin on the forward ranks on that team after that and that's where you'd hope that three decent overagers might provide a little secondary scoring. Tough to do that from the penalty box or the bench which is where Wuchterl and Wiens will be a lot. And Dietrich is pointless and a -4 after 8 games this year; did they even release the right guy? I have to think Farmanara will be back in the WHL somewhere by the end of the year, unless of course he doesn't want to be.
Oil Kings G.M. Bob Green faces his old team, Medicine Hat, for the first time tomorrow night. And for the team, it's their first visit to two of the classic old barns in the league, something which has apparently interested the Edmonton media for some reason despite the fact that most of the Oil Kings players have played in Swift Current and Medicine Hat's rinks before with other teams.
Want to get Saskatoon defenceman John Flatters off his game? Make the pre-game meal something with cranberries.
Still with the Blades, they couldn't be happier with the progress of their two 16 year olds this year. Stefan Elliott and Curtis Hamilton should be very good players for several years to come.
If you said before the season that three weeks into the year the league's scoring leader would be Kruise Reddick (who?), then you're looking like a pretty smart person today. But I'm pretty sure nobody predicted that, including Reddick himself.
Prince George rookie Ryan Kowalski isn't just impressing his coaches, he's making his dad proud.