Top 5 Tuesdays: CIS Freshmen Classes

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I know a lot of people don't pay much attention to University hockey in Canada but it's really to bad. I know plenty of NHL teams that regard the CIS as an untapped source for free agents that is only getting better and better every year. As more and more CHL players are choosing CIS instead of the ECHL or Europe, the quality of play is on the rise. The crop of players not longer eligible for Major Junior that is headed to CIS programs this season is another prime example of late bloomers who will continue to attract the attention of the NHL during the Student-Athlete phase of their hockey careers.

A few months ago the San Jose Sharks signed forward Kevin Henderson away from UNB. Joel Ward of Nashville played 4 years of CIS hockey for PEI and has since gone on to AHL success and is now a regular player for the Preds.

There aren't tons of NHL players with CIS backgrounds but there are some out there and the numbers are growing. Here now are the top 5 incoming freshmen classes in CIS hockey for 2009-10.

5. St.FX

The X-Men announced their group back on July 22nd and it includes a few WHL grads including goalie Joey Perricone (pictured) who spent 5 years with the Moose Jaw Warriors. The California native will now head to the East coast for his X-Men uniform.

Also headed to St. FX from the WHL is Swift Current defenceman Spencer McAvoy. The Edmonton product is a good two-way blueliner who chipped in 39 assists and 44 points for the Broncos last season. At 6'3 he's got good size and I always thought he skated well and played with poise on the back end. I liked him as a potential pro camp invite and that may still happen, but if not, then the X-Men get a pretty good rearguard.

St. FX has 4 other Major Junior players coming in: Brennan Wray (Red Deer), Nick Pageau (Belleville), Josh Day (Brampton) and a pair of QMJHL alum in Ryan Sparling (Saint John) and Murdoch MacLellan (Cape Breton).

4. Manitoba

The Canada West Conference as largely been a two-team battle for the last couple of decades but slowly the likes of UBC, Calgary and Manitoba are closing the gap. The incoming Bisons are led by Ian Duval, a Winnipeg product. Duval began his WHL career with Regina before being dealt to Calgary. From there he bounced from the Hitmen to Swift Current and finally to Kelowna, all withing the last season. Duval was a point per game player this year and was an often overlooked part of Kelowna's WHL championship offence.

Another Winnipeg kid who returns home to play CIS is Brandon Lockerby of the Edmonton Oil Kings. The converted forward put together a 35 point campaign playing on the backend for the Oil Kings and should add some offence and speed to the Bisons no matter where they decide to play him in their line up.

3. Alberta

Alberta has been the cream of the crop in Canada West for many years now but they no longer appear to be the program that is attracting the top players out of the WHL. That's not to say who they have secured are bad players, quite the contrary really, but the Golden Bears incoming class doesn't compare to those of the past.

Netminder Travis Yonkman is the headliner and slated to be the starter now that Aaron Sorochan is no longer in the picture. I've heard that the New York Rangers have invite Yonkman to their camp though so his future isn't quite set just yet.

Also join the Bears are five local boys including Sean Ringrose (Medicine Hat), Michael MacAngus (Regina/P.A.), Ian Barteaux (Kootenay), Colin Joe (Saskatoon) and Reade Wolansky (Sacred Heart - NCAA). Ringrose scored 28 goals and had 59 points with the Tigers while Barteaux managed 39 points for Kootenay.

2. Saskatchewan

Almost always seen as the number one challenger to Alberta's CW crown, the Huskies are going to have a pretty darn good team the next few years thanks to the group they have coming in.

10 players are joining the Huskies this year including 8 with a WHL background. Among them are Brendan Dowd, a co-captain and co-leading scorer with the Edmonton Oil Kings last year. Dowd is a Saskatoon kid so he's going back home after his 29-goal season in Edmonton.

Brennan Bosch (pictured) had three consecutive 20-goal years with Medicine Hat and reached the 70-point plateau in 2007-08.

The Calgary Hitmen turned Kyle Bortis into a offensive machine after they acquired him from Swift Current. Bortis had 72 points in 2007-08 and 84 last year with the Hitmen. He scored 37 times two seasons ago so he knows how to find the back of the net.

Andrew Bailey scored 30, 28 and 28 goal campaigns during his final three seasons in Kootenay. The 5'9 forward's point totals are actually quite impressive as he rattled of 79, 87, 83 point years. The Hazlet Saskatchewan native might be one to watch in the green, black and white for the next few years.

Goalie David Reekie arrive from his 38-game stint in the USHL with the Lincoln Stars. Reekie began in the WHL but went south where he compiled a 23-10-4 record and posted a .935 sv% with a 2.01 GAA.

Another key ingredient being added to the Saskatchewan mix is Kyle Ross who is transferring from Regina where he led the Cougars in scoring in each of the last two seasons. It's a nice pick up for the Huskies and a blow to their rivals to the South.

1. New Brunswick

The V-Reds top my list based on quality over quantity. Saskatchewan might have more talent coming in but I think I like UNB's group just a hair more. The official list so far is only 3 names long but they were all captains of the WHL team last season and two also led their club in scoring.

Taylor Procyshen (pictured) finished 16th overall in the league with 81 points, 36 of which were lamplighters. The captain of the Tri-City Americans is an Edmonton product who was on the want list of the Golden Bears so you know this one has to sting for Alberta. Procyshen scored 30 goals or more in each of his last three seasons so the kid clealy has a nose for the net.

Edmonton Oil King Jeff Lee will head East if he can't find a pro contract with his name on it. The Calgary born Lee only played a year and a half in the WHL after leaving the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks. Lee played a couple games for the Springfield Falcons in the AHL late last year after a breakout season with the Oil Kings. His 40 assists were a team high and his 62 points earned him a share of the scoring title with Brenden Dowd.

The third official recruit for the V-Reds is defencemen Ben Wright of the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The former draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets might still get looks from the NHL but will be a huge player for UNB if he does play CIS. Wright was the leader for the 'Canes the last couple of seasons and is considered a pretty solid defensive defenceman.

Rumors are that UNB isn't done and that should he not get a pro contract, Ben Shutron will also end up in a V-Reds uniform. The former 4th round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks played in the last two Memorial Cups with finalist Kitchener in 2008 and CHL champion Windsor in 2009. That would be another great addition to their line up if in fact that comes to fruition.

Eberle Assist In First Game & Oil Kings Reflect On Season

Just watching the Springfield Falcons take on the Worcester Sharks right now on the NHL network. There aren't a ton of reasons to want to watch the struggling Falcons right now, but Jordan Eberle is one. So far so good for the 2008 first rounder of the Oilers as he helped set up Ryan Potulny in the first period. It was Potulny's 31st goal and Eberle's first pro point. Currently it's 1-1 after 1. Eberle took a pass from Ryan Stone in the slot, put it towards the net where Potulny finished at the side of the cage.

Guy and I were down at Rexall place today as the Oil Kings met with the media one final time. I was working for Global Guy was there for TPS and the TEAM 1260. Here are some of my thoughts and here is the link to hear all the one-on-ones from the morning.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Mark Pysyk in 2 years and even next season. The guy played more than 20 minutes a game as a 16 year old, steadied the blue line and ran the power play. Very similar to Dion Phaneuf at that age with Red Deer.

Contrary to popular belief, the Kings did win a playoff game. They beat PA to get into the post season. That, combined with their 4 game lesson from the Hitmen should make the club better prepared for next season.

Remember Brenden Dowd, Jeff Lee and Brandon Lockerby next year if the Kings have a good playoff run. They are this year's 3 - 20 year olds that ended their WHL careers Wednesday night, but helped build a winning tradition in Edmonton this year.

Speaking of 20 year olds, the Kings are hoping they have one in net next season. Torrie Jung told me he expects any contract talks with Tampa to begin after the NHL season. The best case scenario for Edmonton is that Jung signs with the bolts and they return him for his overage season with Edmonton. If the Lightning don't sign him, why not the Oilers. They can keep a watch on him and after next year, Jeff Deslauriers and Devan Dubnyk should be ready to mind the twine with the big club and Jung could slide into the AHL spot.

A number of guys took advantage of increased playing time because of the many injuries suffered by the Kings this year. Kieren Friesen, Tyler Hlookoff, Michael Burns, Henrik Tervonen and even midget call up Travis Ewanyk from St. Albert gained valuable experience.

Rocky Thompson's contract is up after this year, and Steve Pleau is in the option year of his, expect them both to be back behind the bench when the season starts next year.

What to expect next year? Michael St. Croix will be looked to for offence, even though he'll only be 16. His midget team won the Manitoba AAA League playoffs this year, with St. Croix putting up 20 points in 8 games. Watch for him at the Telus Cup this year. Fellow Oil Kings draft pick Devin Ballness had 34 penalty minutes in 10 games with the Eastman Selects during the same post season run. Watch for St. Croix at the Canadian Midget championship starting April 20th in Selkirk, Manitoba. TSN will air the final game on April 26th at 5 PM mountain time.

One on One: Brenden Dowd

He's the team captain, leading goal scorer and top point getter but he's only got 7 more WHL games left in his career.

Brenden Dowd leads the Edmonton Oil Kings into action tonight as the club visits Swift Current for the first stage of a 2-game road trip. Edmonton enters the fray tied for the 8th and final playoff spot with the Prince Albert Raiders who are also in action tonight - in Medicine Hat.

The Pipeline Show caught up with Dowd after Wednesday night's home win over Red Deer, a conversation that you can hear HERE.

Dowd talks about everything from current events with the team, his feelings last year when he was picked up in the expansion draft, what may be in his future and of course whether or not he was going to get the Oil Kings into the post season.

The Saskatoon native leads Edmonton with 26 goals and 59 points and is red hot right now with 16 points in his last 14 games. He was originally property of the Kamloops Blazers before being snapped up by Bob Green in the expansion draft. His NHL rights are up for grabs so the unrestricted free agent is there for the taking but right now he's trying not to look too far ahead.

Dowd's hoping to add at least 4 playoff dates to his remaining WHL career.

(photos courtesy: Edmonton Oil Kings/Andy Devlin)

No Deal!

The WHL trade deadline has come and gone and while there were a smattering of deals today, the Edmonton Oil Kings opted to stand pat and not get involved with the transactions list.

I had an email exchange last night with a prominent WHL media person who suggested to me that he'd heard of one potential deal that was being talked about. I won't mention his name here just in case he'd prefer I didn't, but he'd heard rumors that the Oil Kings and Saskatoon were kicking tires in a trade that would have involed 20-year-old forward Brenden Dowd heading to the Blades in exchange for 18-year-old Travis Toomey.

I had talked earlier in the week to Edmonton Assistant GM Randy Hansch and he suggested that the team was open to possibilities that would make the team better in the present and in the long term. He was pretty insistent that the team wasn't going to move any youth though just for the sake of getting a deal done.

Moving an overager like Dowd would have made sense, even though it would have been a blow to their offence. He can't come back... the team isn't a contender this year... getting something for Dowd at this point does make some sense. However, Dowd does share the team lead in goals this year (15) and is currently fourth in scoring. If the Oil Kings want to make a serious run to simply make the playoffs (forget beyond that) then you probably can't move that player.

I can understand the attraction that Travis Toomey would of had for Bob Green and his staff. Toomey hails from the Edmonton bedroom community of Leduc making him a hometwon product. He's also a gargantuan 6'5 and 200 lbs and if there is one thing the Oil Kings lack it's size - especially up front.

Toomey's only played 21 games this year after missing all of November and December due to injury (I don't recall what the injury was... I'm sure someone can leave it in the comments). He's back playing now though.

In the end, neither Edmonton nor Saskatoon made a deal before the deadline.

The Kootenay Ice made an interesting move today by basically pulling the chute on their season. They dealt their top defenceman in John Negrin (CGY) and a decent forward in Michael Stickland to Swift Current. The Broncos made a bucket load of trades as they try to imprive for the stretch drive.

I'm a bit suprised about what the Ice did simply because they're currently tied for 6th place. Now, I just finished saying that I'd have given a thumbs up to Edmonton moving Dowd but I'm still surprised that Negrin was deemed expendable by Kootenay during the playoff stretch. Perhaps they're simply looking at the top teams in the Conference and deciding that this isn't going to be this year so better to start reloading now. There is some logic in that too but the Ice haven't missed the playoffs since moving to Kootenay and that seems like a harder streak to keep going without Negrin that with.

That might just be me.

The dash to the playoffs can now begin in full force now. It looks like 5 teams vying for 3 spots in the Eastern Conference to me. How about you?

UPDATE: I spoke with GM Bob Green a couple of hours ago. He did confirm that he'd talked to several teams ove rthe last few days but that those discussions didn't progress much at all. When asked about the trade scenario I outlined above he literally laughed. I aksed him he'd had discussions with Saskatoon in regards to Dowd and Toomey and he replied by saying "No... but that's a good one!"

The Oil Kings have loaned netminder Dalyn Flette to the Camrose Kodiaks. The 19-year-old will get the opportunity to play for Boris Rybalka's club as it tries to solidy a playoff spot in the AJHL's Southern Conference.

Don't Look Now...

...but the Edmonton Oil Kings are making a little noise and sit atop the WHL's Central Division.

Now before anyone starts planning the parade route, it's only a couple of weeks into the schedule and they have played more games than all the other teams in their division except for Kootenay. Still, give them credit for what they have done; They just earned 5 of 8 points after playing 4 games in 5 days and now they can boast about having the league's top scorer too.

After losing to Calgary last Wednesday, the Oil Kings came home and snuck out an exciting shootout win over the Red Deer Rebels on Friday night in front of several hundred puking kids (more on that in a minute).

They dropped the second half of the home-at-home with the Rebels on Saturday but stole a point in the O.T. loss. Then on Sunday night, their third game in as many days, they snatched a 2-1 victory from the Ice in Cranbrook.

Brenden Dowd, an undrafted 20-year-old center, now leads the WHL in scoring with 9 points in 6 games - one point ahead of 2009 draft eligible Landon Ferraro of the Rebels.

Winger Brett Breitkreuz is tied in third place (with 11 other players) with 7 points.

Three Oil Kings are tied for third in the league with 5 assists including Dowd, Breitkreuz and defenceman Adrian Van de Mosselear who had a 4-point night earlier this year.

Special teams continue to give the Oil Kings trouble; they rank 19th on the power play with just a 7.4% effective rate while the PK is dead last in the WHL (69.7%).

One thing you know you'll see at an Oil Kings game is a pile of goals - they've score 16 and have allowed 21 both of which are near the tops in each category.

Sunday night saw the debut of 16-year-old netminder Cam Lanigan who both Dean Millard and I agree, will be a solid starter one day in the 'Dub, perhaps sooner rather than later depending on how Dalyn Flette perorms this year.

Czech product Tomas Vincour (right) has 4 point thus far but in the games that I saw, has been fairly average. Robin Soudek, Edmonton's newest import, has been held off of the scoresheet to this point but has an ugly minus-6 on his stats line.

Fan turnout at Rexall Place has been pretty disappointing in my personal opinion. To date the team has announced crowds of 7662 (opening night), 5317 for Calgary the next night and just 3734 for Red Deer's first visit of the year.

That last home game, against the Rebels who are currently in first place, saw the organization get creative and hold an All-You-Can-Eat night for fans aged 12 and under. Basically the premise was that parents, or in my case just dad, would bring their kids to the game and be able to let their off spring pig out on as much as they wanted. Of course parents, or in this case ME, got the risidule left overs so we all got to eat on the house.

The fun promotion was for the first 1000 kids through the door. Unfortunately, the crowd was so sparse that night that I seriously doubt if they hit the 1000 kid mark - they may have but if they did it was probably pretty close.

My biggest complaint about my experiences at Oil Kings games since their inaugural match lasdt year hasn't changed. I still believe that the team is aiming their demographic cannon too low. These days it's teenagers that have all the money - they live at home, have jobs yet pay little if any rent or bills... they should be targeting an age more similar to that of the players on the ice, the 15-20 year olds.

Parents will still come and bring their kids but as of now... that's about all that are coming.

I sat in the seats at the last game as opposed to the press box. To my surprise, my 9 and nearly 4 year old found the music too loud. I was surprised because I felt their music at home was louder but still, something I didn't consider before.

Until the third period when the Oil Kings decided to show up, the most intersting thing to my kids was the bloopers played on the screen during intermissions. Of course once the home team started to play well, they were watching the game.

Now it might seem a bit confusing that my complaint is that there are too many children and yet I myself brought mine. Well I don't normally but I felt the promotion that night was a great opportunity to bring them and not take the hit in the wallet that many parents feel on most nights.

I still think that on a nightly basis they should be quicker on the draw for the in-rink games and annoucements, the 'get ready for another EnMax Power Play' stuff and overall just do more things to get the crowd into it. Someone once told me that they purposely dulled down the music at Oil Kings games so as not to compete with the atmosphere at Oilers games. I find that ironic because I believe it's pretty easy to get the crowd going for the Oilers and so more effort should be put into picking the right music selection for the WHL team.

Less Mini-Pops and Disney soundtracks... more rock!

Anyhow, this has been a long winded venting but overall I think fans should be aware that on the ice, the Oil Kings are doing some good things. Off of it they still need some work but getting more butts into the bulding would be a big help.

Don't get me started on ticket prices; I don't know how many of the $10 game day tickets there actually are but apparently they were all sold out when I took my kids on Friday. The building was two thirds empty so somewhere there is a scalper with about 4000 unused tickets I guess.

Friday night the team is giving mullet wigs to the first 2500 people through the gate. At least they're trying to do something creative and fun... I hope it turns out better than last Friday, especially for the kid that puked a rainbow of yuck all over the main concourse.