Tipped Off
09-01-2006, 08:28 AM
You have to love this quote from the article in Today's Everett Herald...
"I was talking to my agent all summer, we were trying to get traded," Gutierrez said. "I wanted to play in the U.S., it's closer to home. I was trying to get out of Kamloops last year at the trade deadline, but didn't end up getting moved. This summer we were pretty adamant about getting a trade out of there. It's funny because my agent called and said, 'Give me a shortlist of teams,' and I said, 'Put me anywhere in the U.S. other than Seattle.' Two days later I got the call and I was traded here, so it's exciting and it'll be good."
and here's the whole thing:
Gutierrez hoping for fresh start
By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer
EVERETT - Moises Gutierrez was in a rut.
His hockey career had stalled. He'd had more than his fill of living abroad. He needed a fresh start.
And boy did he know it.
"I'd been there too long," Gutierrez said of his time playing for the WHL's Kamloops Blazers. "Four years and I wasn't developing, I was underachieving. I was playing lots, I don't know what it was that was not allowing me to be the player I'm capable of being. For myself I needed to get out of there."
Now Gutierrez is getting that fresh start with the Everett Silvertips, and he's hoping this opportunity will get his career back on track.
Gutierrez, a gigantic right wing, was acquired by the Silvertips during the offseason to fill their vacant overage spot. The 6-foot-4, 227-pound native of Anchorage, Alaska, gives Everett the type of big body up front that was missing from last season's team.
"I think he can do a little bit of everything," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "I think he can make us faster - believe it or not, as big as he is he's one of the fastest guys out there. He adds size and can make us harder to play against from a size standpoint. And for a guy who's 6-foot-4 he's got reasonable skill. So I think he'll add a little bit of every dimension to our team."
Gutierrez came to Everett at the beginning of August for the modest price of a fourth-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft, both because Kamloops had an impending overager crunch, and because he'd made his feelings crystal clear to the Blazers.
"I was talking to my agent all summer, we were trying to get traded," Gutierrez said. "I wanted to play in the U.S., it's closer to home. I was trying to get out of Kamloops last year at the trade deadline, but didn't end up getting moved. This summer we were pretty adamant about getting a trade out of there. It's funny because my agent called and said, 'Give me a shortlist of teams,' and I said, 'Put me anywhere in the U.S. other than Seattle.' Two days later I got the call and I was traded here, so it's exciting and it'll be good."
So Gutierrez is happy to be in Everett and out of Kamloops. But how much will he contribute?
Gutierrez was considered a disappointment in Kamloops. He began his career in promising fashion, contributing as a 16-year-old and 17-year-old. He was selected for the U.S. Under-18 in the summer of 2003 and helped the U.S. win the gold medal at the U-18 World Cup. The NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins deemed him worthy of a sixth-round draft pick in 2004.
But his career didn't take the expected step forward as an 18-year-old and 19-year-old. He scored a modest 29 points each of the past two seasons - nine goals and 20 assists in 68 games in 2004-05; 15 goals and 14 assists in 66 games in 2005-06. And despite a 244 combined penalty minutes the past two seasons, he's not the enforcer type.
But Everett has had success with reclaimation projects in the past. Last season the Tips brought in John Lammers, a player who was deemed an underachiever after three years in Lethbridge. However, he came to Everett and became the Tips' leading scorer and Most Valuable Player, earning an NHL contract with the Dallas Stars.
The Tips are hoping they can do the same with Gutierrez this season.
"We don't know anything about what he went through in Kamloops," Constantine said. "We just know that when we watched him we saw some potential, and now that he's here we really hope we can help his career. A guy like Lammers came here and it seemed to be a nice fresh break for him and he made the most of it. We hope Moises can do the same, that he can come here, get a different perspective than maybe what he's had in the past, and see if he can make the most of that."
It's possible Gutierrez will never suit up for the Silvertips. At the end of last season he played 10 games for Pittsburgh's East Coast Hockey League affiliate in Wheeling, W.Va., and after this weekend's Everett Silvertips Preseason Tournament concludes he heads to Pittsburgh for Penguins training camp. There's an outside chance that he'll earn a contract and play professionally this season.
But if he does return to Everett, he knows what he needs to accomplish.
"I need to have a big year, this being my overage year," Gutierrez said. "If I do end up playing here I really need to have a good year to move on with my career and get to where I want to be."
And Gutierrez is hoping Everett is the place he can make that happen
"I was talking to my agent all summer, we were trying to get traded," Gutierrez said. "I wanted to play in the U.S., it's closer to home. I was trying to get out of Kamloops last year at the trade deadline, but didn't end up getting moved. This summer we were pretty adamant about getting a trade out of there. It's funny because my agent called and said, 'Give me a shortlist of teams,' and I said, 'Put me anywhere in the U.S. other than Seattle.' Two days later I got the call and I was traded here, so it's exciting and it'll be good."
and here's the whole thing:
Gutierrez hoping for fresh start
By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer
EVERETT - Moises Gutierrez was in a rut.
His hockey career had stalled. He'd had more than his fill of living abroad. He needed a fresh start.
And boy did he know it.
"I'd been there too long," Gutierrez said of his time playing for the WHL's Kamloops Blazers. "Four years and I wasn't developing, I was underachieving. I was playing lots, I don't know what it was that was not allowing me to be the player I'm capable of being. For myself I needed to get out of there."
Now Gutierrez is getting that fresh start with the Everett Silvertips, and he's hoping this opportunity will get his career back on track.
Gutierrez, a gigantic right wing, was acquired by the Silvertips during the offseason to fill their vacant overage spot. The 6-foot-4, 227-pound native of Anchorage, Alaska, gives Everett the type of big body up front that was missing from last season's team.
"I think he can do a little bit of everything," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "I think he can make us faster - believe it or not, as big as he is he's one of the fastest guys out there. He adds size and can make us harder to play against from a size standpoint. And for a guy who's 6-foot-4 he's got reasonable skill. So I think he'll add a little bit of every dimension to our team."
Gutierrez came to Everett at the beginning of August for the modest price of a fourth-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft, both because Kamloops had an impending overager crunch, and because he'd made his feelings crystal clear to the Blazers.
"I was talking to my agent all summer, we were trying to get traded," Gutierrez said. "I wanted to play in the U.S., it's closer to home. I was trying to get out of Kamloops last year at the trade deadline, but didn't end up getting moved. This summer we were pretty adamant about getting a trade out of there. It's funny because my agent called and said, 'Give me a shortlist of teams,' and I said, 'Put me anywhere in the U.S. other than Seattle.' Two days later I got the call and I was traded here, so it's exciting and it'll be good."
So Gutierrez is happy to be in Everett and out of Kamloops. But how much will he contribute?
Gutierrez was considered a disappointment in Kamloops. He began his career in promising fashion, contributing as a 16-year-old and 17-year-old. He was selected for the U.S. Under-18 in the summer of 2003 and helped the U.S. win the gold medal at the U-18 World Cup. The NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins deemed him worthy of a sixth-round draft pick in 2004.
But his career didn't take the expected step forward as an 18-year-old and 19-year-old. He scored a modest 29 points each of the past two seasons - nine goals and 20 assists in 68 games in 2004-05; 15 goals and 14 assists in 66 games in 2005-06. And despite a 244 combined penalty minutes the past two seasons, he's not the enforcer type.
But Everett has had success with reclaimation projects in the past. Last season the Tips brought in John Lammers, a player who was deemed an underachiever after three years in Lethbridge. However, he came to Everett and became the Tips' leading scorer and Most Valuable Player, earning an NHL contract with the Dallas Stars.
The Tips are hoping they can do the same with Gutierrez this season.
"We don't know anything about what he went through in Kamloops," Constantine said. "We just know that when we watched him we saw some potential, and now that he's here we really hope we can help his career. A guy like Lammers came here and it seemed to be a nice fresh break for him and he made the most of it. We hope Moises can do the same, that he can come here, get a different perspective than maybe what he's had in the past, and see if he can make the most of that."
It's possible Gutierrez will never suit up for the Silvertips. At the end of last season he played 10 games for Pittsburgh's East Coast Hockey League affiliate in Wheeling, W.Va., and after this weekend's Everett Silvertips Preseason Tournament concludes he heads to Pittsburgh for Penguins training camp. There's an outside chance that he'll earn a contract and play professionally this season.
But if he does return to Everett, he knows what he needs to accomplish.
"I need to have a big year, this being my overage year," Gutierrez said. "If I do end up playing here I really need to have a good year to move on with my career and get to where I want to be."
And Gutierrez is hoping Everett is the place he can make that happen