Practice Notes & Other Thoughts 1/8/13

Kale Kerbashian

Alex Penner

 - Alex Penner and Kale Kerbashian were at practice this morning for the game day skate however neither one of them will play in the game tonight.

- I confirmed that Liam Huculak has indeed retired from hockey and is not in consideration for a position with the Americans.

- So far today five more ECHL players for a total of 30 have been recalled by AHL teams.

- Two additional CHL players have been recalled by AHL teams for a total of seven.

- Something to keep in mind is that each NHL team will have more players in camp than will end up on their roster. While training camps will be much smaller than normal because of the short duration there is going to be a recoil of players being sent back down to the AHL, ECHL, & CHL at the end of the NHL training camps. So this week we see lots of ECHL/CHL players being recalled to the AHL. In about ten days you will see some of them coming back.

- In my post this morning I reported Jordie Benn would go to training camp with the Dallas Stars and had a good chance of making the team. I have seen two other articles about projected training camp rosters and both predict he won't even be at camp. Guess we will have to wait and see.

- One of the drawbacks of the upcoming short training camp for the Dallas Stars – and all other NHL teams – will be the lack of exhibition games. Dallas Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk and his staff are looking for an alternative, and they think the Texas Stars can help.
The plan Nieuwendyk is considering is to bring the Texas Stars to Dallas after they wrap up their three games this weekend.  Texas plays in Cedar Park on Friday and Saturday and then in Oklahoma City on Sunday. After that, they don’t play again until Wednesday in Chicago.
“The one thing we are thinking about doing, and I think it will happen, is instead of them going onto Chicago, we’ll bring them into Dallas so we’ll have both teams there for a (joint) practice for one or two days,” Nieuwendyk said.
That would put the Texas Stars in Dallas on Monday and Tuesday, and set up the possibility for some scrimmage situations that would help offset the lack of exhibition games heading into the regular season.

- Is it just me or does it seem like having two Class AA hockey leagues makes things difficult for minor league hockey. At least they used to have an agreement not to steal each others players. They can't even agree on that at this point. I was hopeful the Americans would be joining the ECHL next year but I wonder if anything will happen. I have heard that if the CHL gets down to eight teams it would allow teams to switch to other leagues without violating the terms of their agreements with the CHL.  If I remember correctly the Americans signed a 10 year agreement with the CHL and we are only in our fourth year. Seems like everyone agrees the best thing for hockey would be to have only one Class AA league so I hope it happens.