Raiders acquire Cole Simpson

[Triton]

Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors completed a Western Hockey League trade, dealing 20 year-old defenceman Cole Simpson to the Prince Albert Raiders in exchange for the Raiders 5th round pick in the 2007 WHL Bantam Draft.
Simpson, from Tisdale, Saskatchewan, has played the past three seasons with the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Warriors. He was acquired by Moose Jaw during the 2004-05 season and has appeared in 183 regular season and 32 playoff games in his career and was part of the Warrior team that captured the WHL Eastern Conference championship in 05-06.
“We are very excited to acquire an experienced veteran WHL defenseman,” commented Donn Clark, Raiders General Manager. “We like our young defenseman and acquiring Cole will give them some leadership. He was a big part of a winning organization last year.”
Simpson is expected to join the Raiders in time for practice tomorrow. His sister, Jill, is playing for the new Midget AAA girls team in Prince Albert starting this fall.

[westbeach55]

not bad pick up we should have decent goaltending and a pretty solid d, but have to see if we can put any pucks in the net

[Triton]

Does that mean Thelen is out?

[westbeach55]

who will be the odd 20 year old out now.

hellyer
thelan
deckert
simpson

[westbeach55]

do they cut hellyer and go for a younger forward group. my thinking is thelan is gone and they got in simpson

[Dwight Schrute]

do they cut hellyer and go for a younger forward group. my thinking is thelan is gone and they got in simpson
thelen has had a excellent prospects camp and a even better prospects tourney. he was player of the game for minny twice. he has more than exceeded minny fans expectations and they are talking about him seriously as their #6 dman this year and the pp qb on their #2 unit (which will be a lot more time than in previous years due to the rule changes.
so looking at the raiders depth on d right now...
#1 may (87)
#2 gauthier (87)
#3 simpson (86)
#4 palazzo (89)
are the obvious top 4
#5 mcdonald (88)(has had a great pre season i saw the first 2 ice breaker games)
#6 Riel thompson (88) (ditto on the mcdonald comment, where did this guy come from ?)
#7 cody vann (89)(rock solid and had a great bout with senseman of the pats)
#8 blaine tendler (90)(his poise and skating as a 16 year old are very good plays a more mature game than palazzo did last year, i will be pissed if he is cut)
#9 Shane malone (89) big decent skater good hitter, hasnt looked out of place deserves to be in the whl.
#10 Sterling labatte (90) has looked good not quite good enough for a regular spot this year as a 16 year old. another year of midget or junior a should be good for him and then he can come in as a 17 year old
#11 kyle aschim (90) gone to midget we'll see next year
#12 brian sydiaha (89) doesnt look to be room not a bad player though

one thing to keep in mind is anholt likes to throw young defenseman on the wing on the 3rd or 4th line for some reason and mcdonald looked good there last year and he could be a good fit there again.