Saturday Morning Special - July 30th

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We officially wrapped up Season 6 this morning without a lot of fanfare or celebration, we just had a kick ass show instead. I was flying solo today with Deano off to Calgary for a friend's wedding so I had to call in some heavy hitters to carry the load for me. We covered the U18 and U20 Canada camps with a scout and a participant, we touched on the CHL/NCAA border war and then welcomed a pair of players into the studio for the second half of the show.

We began in Calgary where Hockey Canada's U18 tryouts kick off tonight. Ross MacLean from ISS joined me to tell listeners who he was there to see and offered up great insight into the camp roster. Is Griffin Reinhart (captain above) as close to a lock to make the squad as there is at camp? Which goalie has the inside edge and was there one who surprisingly didn't get an invite? Which forwards will lead the way offensively? Ross covered it all for us.

Next up was Chris Peters from The United States of Hockey (see blogroll), a must-read blog that has been commenting on the recent defections to the CHL of formerly college bound players. Chris had some great thoughts on why it's happening, if it's a growing trend and if anything needs to be done by the NCAA.

Segment 3 saw the return to TPS for Portland Winterhawks forward Ty Rattie. The St. Louis Blue Prospect talked about the upcoming U20 camp for Canada and his excitement over possibly getting to represent his country for the first time in his career. Rattie also spoke about his off-season routine, draft day and his first exposure to the St. Louis Blues organization.

As I mentioned yesterday, a pair of local players spent an hour in studio with me to talk about their career choices and how both opted for the NCAA path to pro hockey. Ben Scrivens of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Dillon Simpson of the Edmonton Oilers were great guests and answered a ton of questions ranging from the obvious "why NCAA for you?" to getting their start in the AJHL and if there was pressure on them to play in the CHL. We also learned that one of them ranks The Mighty Ducks as his favorite hockey movie... and no, I'm not making that up.

Scrivens offered up great insight as to why he went to Cornell, does the ECAC deserve the criticism guys like me have continually directed its way, and where does he see himself with the Leafs this year. Simpson talked about going to North Dakota, why it was the right program for him and also his thoughts on the NCHC which he could be a part of as a senior at UND.

We learned a lot from both players and I really appreciated them giving up an hour of their summer for TPS.

If you missed any parts of the show this morning or just want to hear it all again, hit the archive... HERE!

Season 7 of The Pipeline Show begins on Tuesday with the return of Dean Millard and an array of top drawer guests. BE THERE.