Edmonton vs Medicine Hat Offers Storylines Galore

-

The second round of the WHL playoffs will be a treat for hockey fans. The top 4 regular season teams in the West all advanced through round one and in the East, the top three are joined by a perennial threat thus setting up four outstanding series. 

On paper, #1 Edmonton against #7 Medicine Hat might not appear to be that intriguing. However, the sidebar storylines in this series provide plenty or reasons why fans should be paying attention. 

Oil Kings trade Lanigan for Groenheyde

~
Just getting wind that the Edmonton Oil Kings have traded struggling netminder Cam Lanigan to the Kamloops Blazers in exchange for 19-year-old back up Jon Groenheyde. Here is the release from the WHL.

Flames Have Eyes for Edmonton Goalie

~
First it was meetings at the NHL Combine, then it was an invite to prospect camp and now the Calgary Flames are taking Cam Lanigan to the Penticton Young Stars Tournament. The Flames have not officially announced the roster of players that they will take to the pre-season prospect event in B.C. but a source has told me that the Edmonton Oil Kings netminder will be along for the ride.

Lanigan Lands Camp Invite

~
There were a lot of surprised people on Saturday when Edmonton Oil Kings netminder Cam Lanigan didn't get picked up in the NHL Entry Draft. The Calgary product was ranked 9th in North America by NHL Central Scouting but did not hear his name called out although several goalies rated lower than he was did get selected.

Some Oiler fans suggested that the Oil Kings netminder might be worth inviting to prospect camp for a closer look. The Pipeline Show has learned that Lanigan has indeed received an invite to a summer camp for a NHL team and that he will indeed be attending it.

Mucha On The Move

The Portland Winterhawks sit 2nd in the WHL's U.S. division and 3rd in the Western Conference overall, and today traded their number one goaltender Kurtis Mucha to the Kamloops Blazers for a 4th round pick. The Hawks are enjoying a rebirth on and off the ice this year, and Mucha was a big reason why as far as I was told, but this deal allows them the ability to add an overage skater. The Hawks only fly through Edmonton once, and when they did I was impressed. Portland Head Coach/G.M. Mike Johnston must have a ton of faith in 19 year old Ian Curtis, who's appeared in 12 games with a 7-3 record, a 3.33 GAA, and a .905 save percentage. Portland also has 17 year old Mac Carruth out of Minnesota to plug in between the pipes, but one has to wonder if either of them are up to the task of carrying the team into the playoffs.

For Kamloops, Mucha gives them a credible last line of defence, which is clearly needed for a team that's given up 122 goals this year, the most of any WHL team. That they only gave up a 4th round pick for the Sherwood Park pipeman doesn't hurt them at all.

This trade is interesting for a few other teams as well. Will Seattle send 20 year old Prab Rai who has 13 goals and 25 points in 24 games to their U.S. division rivals? Recently Guy thought out loud about the Oil Kings dealing Torrie Jung. It's a thought I've heard from a few other people as well. If the price is a mid round pick, is it worth trading the most important position on your team for a 4th round pick? The Oil Kings might be able to get away with it because they have Cam Lanigan waiting in the wings to take over from Jung. But it will be very interesting to compare the Blazers and Winterhawks the rest of the way.

Kings go 3-0 in pre season tourney

The Oil Kings went undefeated in their pre season tournament thanks to a 5-3 win over Medicine Hat Sunday night. Edmonton watched Cam Lanigan and Laurent Brossoit give up just 4 goals in 3 games, while youngsters like Griffin Reinhart, Michael St. Croix and Dylan Wruck scored in the victories. Reinhart the team's first round bantam pick in 2009 is on his way back to midget, but St. Croix and Wruck will stick around and along with veterans like Brett Breitkreuz, Torrie Jung and 2nd year Dman Mark Pysyk will hope to improve on the Kings 8th place finish last season.

You can catch conversations that Guy and I had with Brietkreuz, Wruck, Keegan Lowe as well as Medicine Hat Tigers head coach Willy Desjardins and Buffalo 2008 first round pick Tyler Ennis, this Tuesday on the show. Details on that and the rest of the show here.

Edmonton with face Red Deer next weekend in a pair of road games.

Welcome To The Jung-le

My apologies to Guy Flaming for ripping off his text message last night and using it as a title for this entry, but it's appropriate right now when it comes to the Oil Kings.

Torrie Jung (pictured right while playing with Kelowna last year )didn't have to make a ton of difficult saves, he did make 29 and recorded the shut out, which is way more symbolic to his teammates than making 40 saves and winning 4-2 in my opinion. Jung did make a terrific stretch save on a breakaway last night when the game was 2-0, and that alone gave his mates confidence in him.

The Oil Kings have proven they can score goals, they've lit the lamp 56 times which is second best in the Central Division, and 5th best in the Eastern Conference. What they had lacked was help with the last line of defence. Dalyn Flette was not good, then was injured, and Cam Lannigan will be very good eventually is only 16 years old. Jung doesn't have to record a shut out every night, but he's proved with solid goaltending - he owns a 1.62 GAA, a .947 save percentage and has 2 wins and a shoot out loss in 2 games - this team can be successful.

Playoff spots in the Eastern Conference are there for the picking right now. Even though Edmonton dropped 7 of 8 games before their recent 3 game regulation unbeaten string, they are right now tied for 9th with Lethbridge, only 2 points out of a post season spot. As A.J. Jakubec, Kent Simpson and I discussed on the pre game show of the Oil Kings broadcast heard on the TEAM 1260 last night, if this team gets on a roll with solid goaltending, who knows what could happen.

The other thing I was impressed with last night, was the teams fire. Twice Oil King players jumped in to defend teammates and after a mini line brawl the coaches, in particular Rocky Thompson were fired up. Thompson almost broke down the Plexiglas between the benches to get at Kootenay head coach Mark Holick. We all know about Thompson's reputation on the ice, well so do the players and they had to get fired up about seeing the look in their assistant coaches eyes last night. Any one that has dealt with Thompson in the last few years knows he is an extremely nice man, but it's good to know the fire still burns, if that doesn't get you going as a player, then check your pulse.

Goalie Shopping

What happens when your team has 3 of the league's top 10 scorers, a defence that has played better than expected but your starting goalie has stats that would make a house league coach cringe?

If the Edmonton Oil Kings have any chance of making the WHL playoffs this year they are going to have to address their goaltending ASAP.

Starter Dalyn Flette struggled in the exhibition season and hasn't gotten any better a month into the 2008-09 campaingn and no matter how well the team in front of him has played, the Kings have slumped to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Flette has appeared in 11 games thus far and has a 4.28 goals against average and a .847 save percentage witha 3-7-1 record. Can you say FUGLY?

by comparison, 16-year-old rookie Cam Lanigan has factored into 4 games so far (not including today's game against Calgary) and has managed a 2.78 GAA and .912 sv% with wins in both games he started and a no decision on the one he was pulled in against Medicine Hat.

I don't know what goalies are out there but with the recent trades of Joe Caligiuri (PG), James Priestner (BRN), Torrie Jung (LETH) the pol of available keepers is definitely smaller than it was a couple of weeks ago.

The Regina Pats have been shopping Linden Rowat because they have a wealth of keepers but even though he's readily available, the Pats are asking a lot for the Eastern Conference top goalie in 2007-08.

I had a conversation with someone who follows the Oil Kings very closely, won't name him but he'll know I'm refering to him, who suggested Sherwood Park native Kurtis Mucha of the Portland Winter Hawks would be a good fit. Of course it all depends on what it would cost to get him but certainly a 19-year-old would be a solid bridge from today until Lanigan and Laurent Brossoit are ready to assume to full time duties. Mucha's stats are equally depressing to Flette's but it's believed that the Portland keeper would be much better if not for being mired on the worst team in the league.

Last year the Regina Pats had offered BCHL star netminder Damien Kelto to Edmonton for Robin Figren which didn't go through as the Swede wanted to stay with the Oil Kings. Kelto has a stats line of .928 sv%, 2.21 GAA and is 3-0 in his 3 games.

I wonder if...

EDIT: Oil Kings were hammered 7-2 by the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday. I wasn't there so I can't speak to how Lanigan played. Edmonton has now allowed at least 5 goals against for 7 consecutive games.

Top 5 Tuesdays: WHL Rookies to Watch

This week's edition of the Top 5 takes us back to the WHL and a look at the freshmen of the league. Here now are five rookies we feel deserve to be followed very closely this year.

5. Tommi Kivisto - Red Deer Rebels

The Rebels plucked the Finnish rearguard 6th overall in the 2008 CHL Import Draft. The native of Vaanta Finland is listed at 6'1 and 192 lbs so he's got pretty good size already plus, as a '91 born player, he's someone that Red Deer can probably count on being in their line up for at least a couple of seasons. Thus far in the early season he has 4 assists in 9 games, good for 17th overall in the scoring for defencemen and 14th overall for all WHL rookies. He'll be adding to those totals much more as the year goes on.

4. Cam Lanigan - Edmonton Oil Kings



The 16-year-old back up netminder has won both starts he's had for Edmonton this early season and made a brief appearance in another. Thus far he's got the 4th best save percentage in the WHL (.955) and goals against average as well (1.48) omitting golaies that haven't played in more than one game. The Calgary native has definitely impressed this year, beginnning in training camp, and I have already gone on the record predciting that unless the Oil Kings acquire a more veteran back stop, Lanigan will be the starter by the end of the season. Lanigan isn't eligible for the NHL draft until 2011.

3. Zdenek Okal - Medicine Hat Tigers

The Czech native was grabbed by the Tigers in the second round of the 2008 CHL Import Draft this past June. Listed at 5'9 and 162 lbs, he's not exactly a big guy but the 18-year-old enters the league a couple years older than most rookies so he's made a quicker transition than many of his counterparts. Okal is second in the league for rookie scoring with 10 points through 8 games. We saw him in person at the Oil Kings preseason tournament and on a team without 19 or 20-year-olds, he was a standout for the Tigers. Back home Okal has represented his country at the last two U18 tournaments where he was only 16 and 17-years-old. Okal is eligible for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

2. Mark Pysyk - Edmonton Oil Kings


He's already being touted as a potential top 5 NHL pick in 2010 so it's not out of line to have a second Edmonton player on this list. The Sherwood Park native has been in the spotlight locally ever since winning the coveted Athlete of the Week award on Global TV... there's Millard's free plug for the night. Pysyk is smooth skating, quick passer, calm under pressure and still developing physically. He's got 2 points so far, both assists, but although he's described as a 2-way defeceman I would argue that he leans a bit more towards his own end at this point. He's not flashy at what he does but he's very efficient and his skating... it's hard to believe he won't turn 17 until mid-January.

1. Jordan Weal - Regina Pats

I'm going to be honest - this is a guy I've had my eye on since the Oil Kings inaugural pre-season mini-tournament in 2007. As a matter of fact, I decided that I'd be watching for him before the Pats even took the ice that fall. Why? The roster sheet Regina supplied us with listed Weal at something like 5'6 but showed that he'd scored 42 goals and 90 points in 25 games playing in Wilcox, SK with Notre Dame (see right).

The Pats draftd him 79th overall but he was honestly one of the most exciting players on the ice in that tournament - as a 15-year-old. Last year Weal set a new scoring record in the BC AAA Midget league with an even 100 points and he hasn't missed a step now in the WHL. He's not only the current rookie scoring leader but is just two points shy of the league's top point getters as well. Weal has 11 points in 7 games and picked up Player of the Week honours in week #1 of the season. At 5'8 and 158 lbs, Weal is still growing and if he can add another couple inches and even 20 more pounds, he'll be a solid 1st round contender at the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

(photos courtesy: Andy Devlin of the Edmonton Oil Kings, the WHL, the Notre Dame Hounds)

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.

Top 5 Tuesday

This week on Top 5 Tuesday, we'll explore what we think will be the top 5 stories to watch with the Oil Kings this year. The season begins this Friday as the OK kids host Medicine Hat at Rexall Place. You can win a pair of tickets Tuesday night on The Pipeline Show during Bad Ass Trivia, so without further babbling, here is the TPS Top 5 Tuesday:

5. Where will goals come from? The good news is 4 of Edmonton's top 4 scorers are back from last year. The bad news is, none of then had more than 16 goals or 39 points. You would have to expect Tomas Vincour, who led the way in the points department, will be on top again, and could hit the 75-80 point mark. Fellow Czech forward Robin Soudek will be expected to put up some numbers, as will Brendan Dowd, Craig McCallum (pictured) and Brett Breitkreuz. They will all have to be better, as will some others like Brent Raedeke, and Jeff Lee, who potted 11 points in his final 11 games last season. If lee uses his size down low properly, he might be able to notch 20-25 goals.



4. The Evolution of Mark Pysyk. I first watched Mark Pysyk skate at a practice in Sherwood Park as a bantam, and was amazed at his effortless stride and take over the play ability. The Oil Kings snapped him up 3rd overall. Once his midget season ended, Pysyk joined Edmonton for a 14 game run. He didn't look out of place at all, registering 1 goal 2 assists and 8 penalty minutes. While he was -8, not one player with Edmonton was a plus player. Pysyk at times ran the power play during his 14 game stretch. He'll do more of that this year, and will learn from offensive blueliner Brandon Lockerby along the way. Touted as a high 2010 draft pick, Pysyk should help the Kings transition from their own end this year, whether he skates it out with smooth strides, or passes with precision. The only concern is his youth and the Kings will have to be careful not to put to much pressure on his young shoulders.

3. What impact with Robin Soudek have? Last year as one Robin went, so did the Oil Kings, and Steve Pleau are hoping that happens again, albeit with a new Robin in town. Robin Figren had 31 points in 35 games last year, the Islanders prospect battled through injuries, signed with New York in the off season and will play this year in his native Sweden. Edmonton grabbed Robin Soudek from the Czech Republic in the CHL import draft this summer and when it comes to first impressions, he gets top marks from me. During the team's pre season tournament a game against Regina turned rough. Soudek didn't hide in the corner, rather he engaged in a fight. He was physical all game long, and looks to have a potent shot. What will make the transition off the ice easier for Soudek is having countryman Tomas Vincour around.

2. How will Tomas Vincour handle pressure? It's a big year for the big Czech winger who some think has power forward potential. Her certainly doesn't shy away from driving to the net or battling in the corners. Vincour led the team with 16 goals and 23 assists last year, and really seemed to step up when Robin Figren was out of the line up due to injuries and the world junior tournament. It was similar to what Evgeni Malkin did when Sidney Crosby went down. This year Vincour will be the main target of oppositions, he'll suit up for the Czech Republic at Christmas for the world junior championship in Ottawa and it's his draft year. It will be up to head coach Steve Pleau, and G.M Bob Greene to make sure Vincour keeps a level head and doesn't get weighed down by the pressures of expectations. The Oil Kings have a few other players that are hoping to get drafted this June as well. Robin Soudek-RW, Lougan Proulx-LW, Rhett Rachinsky-LW, Michael Burns-RW, Jesse Pearson-D, Henrik Tervonen-D


1. Who will end up as the #1 Goaltender? Daylyn Flette has been handed the starters job. He saw action in 28 games last year compiling a record of 6-15-2-1, a hefty goals against average of 3.50 and a leaky .890 save per centage. But let's remember he was playing behind a team that struggled mightily in the second half. Can Flette carry the mail as a starter for the first time in his WHL career? I don't think so for the whole season. Luckily Edmonton has a top notch back up, who will eventually be their main man. Cam Lanigan has grown 3 inches since last year's training camp. His lateral movement is terrific and his positioning rarely leaves him having to make a desperation save. Lanigan will start the year as the back up, and the Oil Kings hope they don't have to turn to him to often, and that Flette will take the starters roll and run with it. Unfortunately for them, I think Lanigan will overtake Flette for the starters job at some point this season. And when you look at the pipeline for this team, you see some real strength between the pipes. Patrick Terris was in camp, and will play Junior A this year so as to not ruin any college eligibility he has, but he could be a contender for the Kings crease down the road. And the team drafted Laurent Brossoit this year in the 2nd round, he was the highest rated goalie in the bantam draft. It gives Edmonton a similar situation to what the Red Deer Rebels were in during the 2001 season where they were able to trade Michael Garnett to Saskatoon for Martin Erat, because they had Cam Ward coming down the pipe. With Erats help, Red Deer went onto win The Memorial Cup, and who knows maybe it's a situation the Oil Kings find themselves in down the road.

Oil Kings Update

The Edmonton Oil Kings have completed their 3-day Orientation camp for their 15 and 16 year olds. The camp was held at NAIT arena and featured a couple on ice sessions over the last couple of days.

Two things stood out to me. First, it's stunning how much a kid can grow in 1 year and goalie Cam Lanigan is a prime example. Lanigan will be in the mix to win the back up job with the team this year and after being drafted last season as a good sized 6' goalie he's now 6'3 (I'm told). T.J. Foster (pictured in red below) might have been 5'9 last year but he's got to be 6' now and showed so pretty nifty hands too.

The other thing that was apparent was just how much more skill was on the ice compared to a year ago. 12 months ago there were nothing but, excuse the expression, but league castoffs out there. Let's face it, aside from Robin Figren, Tomas Vincour and maybe a couple of other guys... it wasn't a very skilled line up the Oil Kings had to work with.

From what I saw today, the future looks good. Goaltending two years from now with Lanigan and Laurent Broissoit should be more than solid. Both are big and look comfortable on the ice. It should be a position of strength in 2 years... this year, who knows.

Mark Pysyk (pictured in white) is ranked 5th in for the NHL 2010 draft according to the Hockey News... but that's a long way away. He should be a regular with the big club this year though.

1st round pick Mike St. Croix has skill. He won't play with them this year, maybe a road game in Brandon or something but that's it, but St. Croix will be a name in this town in a couple of years.

Next on the agenda for the Oil Kings is the CHL Import Draft which goes 10 days after the NHL draft... so the calendar says June 30th. After that there is nothing for July. August has the team's rookie camp which leads into main camp, all that happening the last 10 days of the month.

Last year the Oil Kings hosted a 6-team mini-tournament in St. Albert. They are doing it again but it will only be 5 teams, at least so far. Returning from last year will be the Regina Pats, Prince George Cougars, Kamloops Blazers and of course the Oil Kings. New to the mix are the Medicine Hat Tigers. Not coming this time are Swift Current and Kelowna but I'm told a 6th team could get added yet.

That tournament will go over the Labour Day weekend just like last year.