The Edmonton Oil Kings scored four unanswered goals to comeback and defeat the visiting Prince Albert Raiders but the mood after the win was far from festive. The club has lost star rookie Griffin Reinhart for the rest of the regular season.
I think by now most people consider Saskatoon Blades rearguard Duncan Siemens to be the best available player out of the WHL at that position when it comes to the 2011 NHL Draft. I'm not going to suggest he's not but surprisingly, a recent exercise in brain picking I performed has led me to believe that the high praise isn't unanimous after all.
The 2011 NHL Entry Draft is now a mere 5 months away. That might seem like a long time but with the local NHL club already 20 points out of a playoff spot (OK, it's only 18), the draft is the next exciting thing on the calendar for Oilers fans. What might make it a little more interesting this year is that there are a number of local WHL players of interest for the big event in June.
Saturday night's meeting between Medicine Hat and Edmonton may have been the best game I've seen all year. On the surface, a Tigers victory for many might have been a foregone conclusion - Medicine Hat has owned the Oil Kings since the local club first returned to the league four Septembers ago. However, the 6-5 shootout had everything you could have hoped to see in a game and will go down as one of the most entertaining nights at Rexall Place in 2010-11.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins didn't get a chance on the world stage in Buffalo, but took advantage of a national audience tonight in the CHL/NHL Home Hardware Top Prospects game.
Last year we provided some in depth previews leading up to the 2010 WHL Bantam Draft. We are planning to do it again this year and today for Top 5 Tuesday decided to give you a sneak peak at some of the players who will be on our lists. This weekend in St. Albert the arena's will be full of WHL scouts for the John Reid Memorial tournament and here are some of the players they will be keeping tabs on. The following info has been taken from several discussions with different WHL scouts.
As the first period of today's milestone game came to a close, the host Spokane Chiefs held a 4-1 lead over the visiting Kootenay Ice. The period was highlighted by slick passing and scoring and was punctuated by a pair of fights. Unfortunately... no one outside of Avista Stadium could see it.
This one got by me earlier this week but 'Sixty Minutes. No Alibis, No Regrets.' reported on Monday that Oilers prospect Troy Hesketh has been dropped by Wisconsin. The recruit was expecting to join the badgers next fall but appears to now be in limbo in terms of his plans for his hockey future.
As heard on last night's edition of The Pipeline Show, Ottawa 67s forward Shane Prince has been added to the roster for the CHL Top Prospects Game next week. Sam Cosentino of Rogers Sportsnet broke the news in our first segment yesterday which you can hear HERE. The game will be broadcast on Sportsnet next week.
It's always much anticipated and then hotly debated but finally NHL Central Scouting's mid-term rankings for the 2011 NHL Draft are out. E.J. McGuire was on the show last weekend and offered up some comments about the, as-then unreleased, ranking, so we knew ahead of time about one surprise - that Portland's Sven Bartschi would be in the top 10. But there are other things that jumped out at me.
It's no longer rumor; the Saskatoon Blades have acquired the 2011 World Junior Championship MVP from the Brandon Wheat Kings for the hefty cost of four 1st and two 2nd round picks.
With the January 10th trade deadline on the horizon, one of the big trade chips in the WHL has changed hands. The Kootenay Ice have acquired Cody Eakin from the Swift Current Broncos for roster player Christian Magnus, 4 prospects and 3 draft picks. Here are the details in the official release.
In an absolutely shocking final game, Russia scored five unanswered third period goals to capture their first U20 gold medal since 2003. Canada held a 3-0 lead heading into the final frame but had no answer for their opponent who raised the level of their play and took it to the favourites.
Continuing with Chapter 3 of his guest blogging series with us is Dylan Willick, forward of the Kamloops Blazers. The native of Prince George, B.C. submitted his first entry to the blog back on November 1st with Part 2 arriving at the end of November. Since then, Willick has added a scoring touch to his strong two-way play and has upped his season total to 21 points.
I'm as proud to be Canadian as anyone else in this country but you have to put national pride aside in order to fairly judge what happened yesterday in Buffalo. I wasn't cheering for either team (although the Canada/Sweden final interests me a bit more) so when I say that the Swedes were screwed, I do so without any bias whatsoever.
I'm overdue for one of these "random thoughts, observations and tidbits" pieces so I'll make good on that now. The following is just a collection of things that I've noticed over the last while from various levels of hockey as well as some opinions on topics of the day.
You wouldn't normally expect a player recently taken in the 3rd round of the NHL draft to be traded so quickly but that's exactly what has happened for one Oiler and it's not the first time. He was just selected in 2009 but Troy Hesketh is now joining his third USHL team in this his rookie season.
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