Friday, August 28, 2009

Friday Fillers


  • The Strib's Roman Augustoviz put to rest any rumors to the contrary, but Gopher super-sophomore hockey player Jordan Schroeder will return to the team for the upcoming season. Some blogs in Western Canada had him leaving the Gophers to sign with the Vancouver Canucks and play in the WHL next season to continue his development. However, the Canucks, who drafted Schroeder in the first round of the 2009 NHL Draft, were comfortable with him playing at least one more season in Minnesota. Good news for the Gophers.
  • St. Cloud State goaltender Jase Weslosky was dismissed from the Huskies' hockey team by coach Bob Motzko this week because he was academically ineligible. The 2006 NY Islanders' draft pick played 33 games in each of the past two seasons and sported identical 16-13-2 records during his sophomore and junior seasons. Huskies' beat writer from the St. Cloud Times Kevin Allenspach speculates that Weslosky will transfer to Bemidji State, but he must sit out a year before transferring to another Division I school, and the earliest he could play at BSU would be when they enter the WCHA in 2010-11. In the meantime, junior Dan Dunn and freshman Mike Lee will fight for playing time for Cloud this season. Dunn has played in 18 games for the Huskies his first two seasons, and Lee is a highly-touted freshman who performed well at the US Junior Championship Team's evaluation camp earlier this month. In Weslosky's wake, Islanders Point Blank proprietor Chris Botta posted a text message from a SCSU captain here - ouch!
  • On my Examiner WCHA page, my WCHA team previews will debut the week of Labor Day. We'll do two-three per week leading up to the first weekend of October, which is opening weekend. It's hard to believe we're five weeks away from dropping the puck on another college hockey season.
  • Gopher hoops' beat writer Myron Medcalf from the Star Tribune has a new-look blog which launched this week. It's a lot nicer than the Strib's other writers and apparently will be able to host more of his video links, including his informative "MedCasts" during the season. Check it out.
  • On the site, Medcalf reports that the Gophers are no longer in the running for 2010 national #1 recruit Harrison Barnes. The stud from Ames, IA apparently crossed the Gophers off his list and narrowed his choices to Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, UCLA, and hometown Iowa State. That the Gophers were even considered for the overall #1 this far along (be it a Minnesotan or not) is testament that things have changed in a good way for the Tubby Smith-led Gophers on the recruiting trail.
  • The Ricky Rubio saga continues for the Timberwolves. Jerry Zgoda reports that Rubio is close to signing with Barcelona in the Spanish league for 6 years, with a buyout clause after 2 seasons, meaning that the earliest he can join the Wolves is in 2011. In the article, Basketball Ops President David Kahn denies the rumor, saying that no team has negotiated Rubio's buyout with his current team, DKV Joventut. Zgoda also points out, importantly, that the NBA collective bargaining agreement may change regarding maximum salaries for rookies in two seasons, meaning that Rubio may be losing significant amounts of money by remaining in Europe for 2 more seasons. This is bound to get even more interesting.
  • The Minnesota Wild's third jerseys were leaked via the internet this week before their scheduled unveiling at the State Fair this weekend. The jerseys are boring and awful (similar to the All-Star Game design when it was here a few years ago), just like almost all other third jerseys (see Atlanta, Colorado, Nashville, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, for starters). Notable exceptions are present (see Boston, Buffalo, and NY Islanders). The team looks fine with its current set, and there is little reason to incorporate a third jersey other than to sell more sweaters. Of course, 100% of Wild fans already own jerseys, so where's the market?
  • Also on the Wild, Michael Russo takes a stab at the team's current 2009-10 salary cap situation. Assuming it signs free agent forward Alex Tanguay, a player will almost certainly have to be removed from the current roster.
  • A reminder to check out my Twins page for Examiner.com and follow me on Twitter and Facebook. It should be a busy month of September as the hockey season approaches and the Twins go for another division title.

No comments:

Post a Comment