Some small snippets from my Twitter feed that I haven't had the time to pull into a formal post, so I decided to get them here to get some more exposure.
Former Nanook Kyle Greentree has inked a two-way two year deal with the Washington Capitals/Hershey Bears after leading the Chicago Blackhawks AHL affiliate Rockford Ice Hogs in goal scoring with 25 goals in 64 games has made is way over to Washington, whose system may be a better fit for Greentree to get some ice time in the big time.
Jordan Hendry is also a free agent (not sure about restrictions, trying to dig), however no signings have been reported. If I had to guess, I would think that some of the teams struggling defensively towards the end of this past season, only one I can think of right now that would be a good fit is the St. Louis Blues, would pick him up as a good second-liner candidate. Chicago just has a lot of depth defensively, but with Sopel gone now, the 'Hawks have good reason to keep him, but nobody has said anything yet. I do think he is an under-rated player that doesn't get a lot of attention that he should, but that's how it goes sometimes. Granted though, I'm slightly biased. Word on the street is he's going to be back in Fairbanks here fairly soon. I'm going to try to figure out how to socially engineer my way into an interview.
Nanook Senior-to-be Ryan Hohl has made his way to the Detroit Red Wings free agent prospect camp at Joe Louis Arena, getting his name heard with quotes such as "Ryan Hohl's fast and has absolutely beautiful hands. He's roofing the puck past Mrazek and Mountain easily and efficiently." (MLive.com). Sounds like he's definitely making a name for himself. However, if he impresses too much, I wonder about the probability of his return for next season. He has definitely improved from his first two years in Fairbanks. Although his production has dropped, earning 5 points off of 5 assists this season in 32 games played, his play has become much more effective. This past year was the fewest amount of penalty minutes he has taken in his career with the 'Nooks, and it shows in his positioning. Granted, this past season, ice time certainly came at a premium, but Ryan definitely made it count with his positioning and checking abilities. And although he is somewhat infamous for taking some penalties, hes one of the best at drawing penalties from the other team... Anyhow, he has a great shot, I'm sure that's one of the main reasons he was the first shooter in nearly all of the shootouts this season. I'm glad he's out there at the camp, if for nothing else to see what he can do and play with other prospects and draft picks for arguably the best team in the NHL in the Detroit Red Wings.
While trying to dig for some video footage I found a while ago (which, has seemed to vanish) for Cody Kunyk, I did stumble on this old audio recording of an interview with The Pipeline Show that I should have found a long time ago. If you don't know about it already, TPS (Blog) and their guys put out a bunch of information en masse of up and coming players all over North America. These guys put up a lot of stuff with a daily radio show that I try to follow, but can't generally keep up with all the time. That said, these guys did an interview with Cody Kunyk (MP3) this past December talking about his potential, progression, and coming to Alaska. In the interview, he talked about the recruiting process, and by what he said it (again) speaks to our coaching staff finding these gems of players early before they really take off, and from Cody's words they didn't back down either. Kunyk had said he had some bites from Northeastern that didn't seem to pan out, but this being from last December, I wonder how many NCAA teams hit themselves in the head once they found out Canada's Junior A Player of the Year is already wearing a Nanook sweater.
Kunyk is one of quite a few recruits who are going to be showing their faces on the Nanook roster this coming season. I've been saying for ages now that I am going to get write-ups of these other guys posted for over a month now, and I've failed to deliver! Fortunately, there are another 3 months to procrastinate before next season starts...
