Blades Boost Blueliners depth(add 4 D-men)

In a span of 2 days, the Blades added 4 defensemen to their roster.  The big name being Scott Walford.  The 6'2 NHL 3rd round defenseman brings a wealth of experience having played in over 250 WHL games(regular and post season)  He should have no problem settling in as he was a team mate of Current Blades forward Eric Florchuk.  No doubt Walford will slot in as that other top pairing D-man along side Nolan Kneen.  Going to Victoria is Gary Haden, unsigned prospect Riley Gannon, and a 4th round pick, the Blades will also receive a 7th rounder in 2020.

The Blades also announced that they have signed their 2 import D-men in Libor Zabransky and Radek Kucerik.  Zabransky is an interesting case, having played in the WHL already with the Kelowna Rockets and spent half of last season in the USHL.  I don't know what happened in Kelowna, but from the clips ive seen and the fans iv'e talked to it sounds like Zabransky is better than his stats show.

Radek Kucerik is a 6'3 209 lb D-man and still just 17 yrs old(turns 18 in dec)  Reports are that he's a shut down D-man who plays a hard physical game.  Just what you'd want from a big bodied D-man, from the limited clips ive seen he seems to move well for a big man and has no problem blocking shots, reads the play well and makes a good outlet pass(some lengthy ones too)   We'll see how he adjusts to the speed on the WHL game(he should have a small idea of what it's like as i'm sure Zabransky has been giving him a few pointers)  Hoping he can play a top 4 role.

Saskatoon also made a separate deal to acquire Parker Malchuck from Victoria as well.  He's a small 2001 born D-man.  The Deal is for a "conditional" pick, my guess is the condition is on him making the team or not.

My stab at D-pairings for Saskatoon right now

Kneen - Walford (a solid 20 yr old top pairing that can be put into all situations)
Zabransky(19) - Kucerik(18)
Ettinger(19) - De La Gorgendiere(17)
Schneider(16) Kaddoura(18)
Ozar(17) Wright(16)

If Ettinger commits then Kaddourra might be in tough for making the team.  I heard the Blades are high on Schneider and i'm guessing they'll want him in as a rookie.  I can't see Kaddoura wanting to play his 18 yr old season as an 8th defenseman(albeit very capable of a better role)  Alex Ozar(i think) is also WHL ready and "could" earn a spot if Ettinger doesn't report.  Ozar spent last season with the M-AAA Mintos as their bona-fide top D-man, he had an excellent playoffs and was on the ice every other shift.  He was without question the top Minto's player in the post season and led them in playoff scoring(which is impressive considering they have WHL 1st rounders Klassen and Saleski on that squad)

In any event, Blades training camp will be very exciting with lots of players competing for very few spots.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why the hate on Priestner? A timeline of events.

        I get that Saskatoon can be an easy target for shade, a team that traded literally everything to make a run for the Memorial Cup.  While the run fell short, it also left wonderful memories of some of the best Junior hockey iv'e ever seen and possibly the best Blades game iv'e seen live(Blades vs Mooseheads)  Fast forward to the aftermath and there was a BIG mess to clean up.  The Priestner family came in to clean that mess up, it all started the summer of 2013, immediately following the Memorial Cup.         The Priestners come in and say they want a competitive team in 5 years.  That seemed like a tough task at the time, given the fact that their first, 1st round pick was just finishing his 12 year old hockey season at the time.  It was a tall task but i think they did better than expected.  Here is a timeline of what the Priestners did when they arrived. 2013-2014 season:  1st year of the new era. ...
Read more

Training Camp notes

Image
Another training camp in the books.  While i think the team looks great there was a very unfortunate moment when 1st round pick Kyle Crnkovic went into the corner board awkwardly, left the game and didnt return.  The Blades have not issued a statement on Crnkovic yet but it looked like a shoulder injury(which can be very time consuming)  Crnkovic was on fire before the injury scoring 6 goals in 2 games.  The young sniper has his name pegged in the lineup as soon as he returns. Kristian Roykas Marthinsen (19, Norway, NHL 7th round Washington)  Is still getting his feet wet and used to the North American quick style of play(smaller rink)  So far he has shown that he can play physical, decent skater(gotta work on the edges) and an absolute bomb of a 1 timer.  I think he will take a few games to get comfortable with the pace but could make his living as a left handed weapon on the powerplay(giving the Blades another option from RW Paterson)  De La G...
Read more

Mitch loved named Blades head coach

Image
I don't mind this decision.  He has been an assistant for quite some time and is still young enough to connect with the team.  I heard he is a players coach and every one who's worked with him holds him in the highest regard(including Hockey Canada brass)  He will inherit a strong team so lets see what he can do.  It's known that there were many applicants for the job, apparently some guys with past NHL experience too.  Priestner made a great point going with Love, he made a comment along the lines of  "We had some NHL guys applying for this job, but we don't want a coach who has experience that is on his way out(winding down his career)  We wanted to go for a younger coach who is on his way up in the coaching world and get him signed to a multi year deal"  I couldn't agree more, especially considering the Blades already tried the NHL-type coach once  with Bob Woods, who did a great job but got called back to the pros earlier than expected ...
Read more