What has happened since the last game in Baie Comeau? Nothing. Boys got on a ferry/bus and came home. Apparently since they got home they have been practicing hockey. Who'd 'a thunk it?
Other things are happening in other places - like Stinziani was traded from Cape Breton to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Maxime Renaud was moved from the Bathurst Titan to the Drakkar. Both overagers were aquired for a third round pick. Kinda makes you wonder about what the Moose could do with their slack over-agers. hmmmmmm?????
According to Matthew Wuest the Mooseheads are expected to make a couple of roster moves by the end of this week and before they head out to play Bathurst on Friday. It turns out that 26 sets of balls (plus coaching staff) are just too many balls for one locker room.
Wuest predicts that forwards Matt Stoddard and the recently signed Lester Brown are on the bubble, but that trimming down from 9 defenceman may have to wait until Abeltshauser and Gillard are healthy.
When Wuest made further predictions about who is safe, and who is not, he threw overage defenceman Alexandre Brunet into the mix. This may be because the recent acquisition of Paul Dimitruk from the Moncton Wildcats is supposed to provide experience and stability on the blueline. Of course, when I say 'experience' we all realize that Dimitruk only has one year of Q experience, right? He came into the Wildcats organization as an 18 year old. We have been told that he may be able to rack up points from the blue line but so far the only thing he has been racking up with the Moose is penalty minutes. We are told this despite the fact that in 64 games for the Cats last season he only had 2 goals and three assists. That's 5 points. What is the word that is tossed around again? oh yeah - potential. Whoopee do!
Alex MacDonald also had 5 points in 49 games last season while playing on the last line; except his points were acquired as a 17 year old on a struggling Mooseheads team. What he doesn't have are the penalty minutes that so often get this team into trouble. Some would say that makes him 'soft'. Is there no place on my team for the type of defenceman who is a 'lover not a fighter'.
It's not that I hate Dimitruk, I just don't know him yet. I have a tendency to give new boys the side eye. I don't trust boys.*
But just because Wuest gives an opinion on who will go it does not mean that this is the case. I hate suspense. In today's Chronicle Herald coach Cam Russell leaves us hanging by talking about both trades and demotions:
So Goldilocks may be safe... for now. You know, until I get my hands on him and try to brush his mullet and maybe trim a few of the hairs that caress his neck.Russell said he may look at reassigning some guys to junior A before the end of the week or may even pull the trigger on some trades.
"Right now we’re almost a quarter of the way through the season and I think we’ve brought in a good mix of young guys and veterans," Russell said.
"We’ve given everybody opportunities and some guys have taken advantage of that and made the most of it, and others haven’t. The ones who haven’t are the ones who are on the bubble and we’ll have to make a decision about those guys this week."
Because league rules restrict trades to 20-year-olds and Europeans right now, Russell’s options on that front are limited.
He surely won’t move import players Tomas Knotek or Konrad Abeltshauser at the moment so that leaves overage forwards Linden Bahm and Yuri Cheremetiev and defenceman Alexandre Brunet as his only tradable players.
Russell conceded he’d fielded some inquiries this week for some of those players but wouldn’t say which ones.
Other news links:
Mooseheads in search of balance
C.B. trades Stinziani
Bursting the bubble
Moore's blog - Clarke stepping up
*Though if I did trust boys (specifically Randell, Pelletier, Corbeil, MacDonald, Bernard and Bahm) I would watch them on Breakfast TV, Friday on ATV between 7:00-9:00.
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