FREE AGENT SHAKE-UP PERIOD
The BTHL continues to
swell with momentum as the new season lies
"just over the hills", and a
buzz stirred with the recent investigation of
Restricted Free Agents. Some
call it a time to gamble, some call it the
time not to get involved, but
whatever it is, it can very well make or break
teams. As a GM that got
involved in recent trading, there are certainly a
bit of chemisty changes on a
few teams, to one extent or the other. For
instance, the Edinburgh
Synthesis have brought in further arsenal in Scott
Stevens and Mike Knuble,
reinforcing an already excellent team with great
management.
The Vegreville Sting
have also had a changing of the gaurd with the
departure of Trevor Linden, and
the arrival of Kristian Huselius, Jaroslav
Svoboda, and Scott Young.
Huselius is coming off a season high personal
best, and was in the IceHawks
top five scoring. Trevor Linden was third on
the team for soring, and brings
an additional leadership quality to the
locker room.
The Chicago Marauders
added another component of the "Nashville
Predator's" look as they
brought David Legwand into the fold. He'll fit in
nicely with players like
Vladimir Orszagh, Scott Walker, and Marian Cisar.
Keep an eye on the BTHL Insider
soon for Chicago GM Jason Rebelato's
upcoming article breaking down
the Power Analysis in the League for the
upcoming season...
The Vancouver IceHawks
have followed through on a few expected moves,
of which no secret was their
effort to control the budget, and in the
process received a facelift as
well. As noted earlier, Trevor Linden will
patrol the left wing, and
penalty kill, and Wes Walz will assume the
(natural) role of checking
centre. The measuring chart for that role will
be difficult to reach, now
vacated by Steve Yzerman, who now heads for true
summer bliss with the Kelowna
Storm. On defence, the big change is the
departure of veteran defenceman,
Scott Stevens, who's physical presence and
'stay at home defence' style
will certainly be missed. -Fans in Edinburgh
will love the dynamic he'll
bring to their games starting very soon. On
the note of shoes hard to fill,
Brad Lukowich will bring his defensive game
to Vancouver, and hopefully
kindle some forgotten chemistry with
ex-defensive partner, Dan
Boyle.
With the end of
Restricted Free Agency offers being January 22nd,
the start of the season can't
be that far off. I, for one, am very excited
about the ride we're in for
this next season in the BTHL. It's possible
there could be even more
changes inbetween teams in the days to come, and I
know there's been a nice
pooling of GM's every night on the BTHL
channel.
The question is, will every
thing go as we think it's going to go?
