GWMHL

Archive for the ‘DEN’ Category

Season Preview: Plante

In BAL, CHA, DEN, EDH, GLP, PIT, SAL, SCA, STE, Uncategorized, WIN on November 26, 2011 at 10:00 pm

The Sawchuk Conference has its powerhouses – and the last five cups. But the Plante is where all the intrigue is.

Apart from a strong Salem squad fresh off a trip to the Gump Cup Finals, the entire conference is full of dark horses – young teams, growing teams, sure, but few that are in flat-out rebuilding mode. That kind of parity makes the conference incredibly tough to call.

In – D Ryan McDonagh, F Nino Niederreiter, G Jacob Markstrom, D Michael Sauer, F Blake Geoffrion, F Teemu Hartikainen, F Brandon Prust
Out – F Evgeni Malkin, F Cal O’Reilly, D Bryan McCabe, F Darroll Powe, D Anton Stralman, F Rob Schremp, F Jamie Langenbrunner

Baltimore made the boldest move of the off-season, unloading Evgeni Malkin for all of Pittsburgh’s draft picks. That meant a pretty big personnel turnover – 7 guys in and 7 out, not counting poor Steven Kampfer, released before he even got a sniff. It’s hard to look as this as anything but a small step backwards in the short term, but any team with Anze Kopitar is poised to compensate for the loss of a player of Malkin’s calibre, and the team still has a strong core in its prime.

In – F Luke Adam, F Matt Halischuk, F Matt Calvert, D Jason Garrison, F BJ Crombeen, F Mike Knuble
Out –  G Michal Neuvirth, F Alexander Frolov, F Benoit Pouliot, F M-A Pouliot, D Kurtis Foster, D Oskars Bartulis

Charleston should be a playoff team, there should be little doubt of that. After a surprising trip to the finals led to two straight years of mediocrity, the Chiefs started rounding back into form when Steven Stamkos hit the scene. Now that they have a marquee scorer, they have a roster with few glaring weaknesses, and with Miikka Kiprusoff and Jonathan Quick splitting duties in goal, they should be one of the Plante’s better teams.

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Bulldogs to Denver; Oregon Heads Down I-5

In DEN, News, SFS on August 1, 2011 at 11:16 am

The Midland Bulldogs are pulling up roots and heading to Denver, team officials have announced. The former ‘Dogs will be reborn as the Denver Spurs beginning in the 2011-2012 season.

In a long-rumored move, the Oregon Rugrats have also found a new home, heading down the coast to become the San Francisco Seals.

Midland and Vancouver Swap Forwards

In DEN, News, Transactions, VAN on July 2, 2011 at 9:28 am

The Midland Bulldogs and Vancouver Night Train have kicked off the summer with a center-for-winger swap.

The move sends pivot Tomas Plekanec to Vancouver, who are looking to recapture the ’09-’10 form of a team that was deep up the middle, for winger David Jones.

The Bulldogs are hoping that Jones, who has played 64 games over three seasons for Vancouver, gives them a top-six goal-scorer to play alongside the likes of Vincent Lecavalier, Danny Briere, Mike Richards, and Matt Duchene. Plekanec, meanwhile, is coming off a disappointing year (21 points in 61 games) but will likely see more icetime behind Jonathan Toews on the Night Train.

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5 Draft Day Near-Rejects Who Made It Big

In DEN, FFS, PIT, Special Features, STE, WIN, WVR on May 21, 2011 at 11:48 am

There’s no art to the late-round draft steal. You take a deep breath and pray… and probably release your pick before he ever plays a game. While quite a few serviceable players have squeaked into the high seventies in the GWMHL Rookie Draft over the years – especially goaltenders – rare is the player taken in the last few picks who makes a real impact.

But here are five taken in the final 10 slots of their respective drafts who defied the odds and made an impact.

5. LW Kyle Calder, 77th overall in 2000 by Staten Island

Winger Calder never lived up to his potential, more or less settling into a 10-15 goal groove for the Staten Island Gems and San Diego Gulls early in his career. But he makes our list for one reason alone: possibly the most surprising single campaign in league history. In 2006-2007, Calder went on a sudden tear, scoring 60 goals and amassing 110 points with the Gulls.

He disappeared just as quickly, chasing his breakthrough with 8 goals total over his next three seasons, then obscurity.

Year   Name                       GP    G    A  PTS  +/-  PIM
01-02  Staten Island Gems         24    0    2    2  -13   10
02-03  Staten Isle Gems           81   14   35   49    0   79
03-04  Staten Island Gems         82   12   13   25   -6   36
04-06  San Diego Gulls            40   13   12   25    4   15
06-07  San Diego Gulls            79   60   50  110   23   52
07-08  San Diego Gulls            69    5   10   15  -12   30
08-09  San Diego Gulls            64    2    5    7  -21   20
09-10  San Diego Gulls            61    1    9   10  -11   18
                  Totals         439  106  127  233  -25  242

4. G Olaf Kolzig, 76th overall in 1994 by Tidewater

Kolzig was taken last overall by Portland in ’94, and he’d be much further up the list if his career numbers – a career goals against average way on the wrong side of 3.00 – weren’t so shaky. But Kolzig was a solid starter in the GWMHL for many seasons, despite playing for some struggling teams. He gets major points for longevity.

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Draft Day Transactions: Malkin in Blockbuster Swap

In BAL, DEL, DEN, News, Transactions, VAN, WVR on October 16, 2010 at 4:38 pm

It wasn’t as busy as some GWMHL draft days, but today’s Rookie Draft was punctuated with one of the biggest blockbusters in recent memory.

No sooner had the Baltimore Crab picked Matt Duchene second overall did they flip him, along with blueliner Kyle Quincey, to the Midland Bulldogs for Evgeni Malkin and Jamie Langenbrunner. Malkin gives the Crab some top-end talent they’d been sorely lacking.

Baltimore made another trade a round later, picking up young Michael Grabner, who’d just been drafted by the Vancouver Night Train, for a 2nd round pick in 2011.

Vancouver also shored up their defense by dealing a 1st round Free Agent pick to Delta for Adam Foote. And Delta continued their rebuild by sending Brian Rafalski to West Virginia in exchange for Andrew Ladd and a 2nd rounder this year, who turned into Jason Demers.