My reaction
I have little to add to what Wazz posted earlier. It's confusing. Yes, the Ams need defensive depth. I imagine it all depends on the health/rehab of Neal Prokop. And as long as Prokes is still on long-term injured reserve, they can carry 4 20-year-olds. If/when Neal is ready to go--then I guess we'll see what happens. That's about all you can do. I will say that when a guy is on his 5th team of his junior career, that makes me nervous.
Can't say I'm surprised the Americans released Kardashev, hasn't played a minute since pre-season. Guenther sent down, that will be better for his development than sitting in the stands. But I think he'll be back, he has good size and from what I saw of him, potential.
as for the goalie situation, only one thing to say:
2 comments:
I think what it came down to was Tory looking at the roster and saying, OK, we've got tons of veteran forwards with talent, but only two D-men with significant WHL ice time under their belts (Schmidt and Sutherland), two more second-year guys (Dow and Yuen) and two rookies (Grist and Humphries). Yes, Mike Brown had a good preseason and start to the season, but he could be let go without being missed too greatly -- what with all the talent on the four lines. Pechurskiy, well at the start of the year, I think people hoped to get a strong D-man and a pick for him, but obviously the market wasn't there for him. Stebner brings a veteran presence to the blue line with Memorial Cup experience. That gives the Ams seven defensemen to rotate on a game-by-game basis. Guenther needed to be sent down -- he was not going to see much ice time, and his development would have been stunted if he'd stayed with the team.
I am really going to miss Mike Brown. That musta been a terrible decision to make. I don't envy Bob Tory's position at all!
I'm glad Bob didn't put all his eggs in the Prokop basket, at least until we get to see Neal play. [Prokop can have all the eggs in my basket, tho.] [No, I don't know what that means, exactly.]
PERFECT GRAPHIC! I saw that graphic when the CEO of Cheeseburger Media was on the news last night (he was in town for an appearance at Powells Books) and thought of the Ams too!
Really gonna miss Mike Brown. The end.
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