Stealin' - Drayson Bowman Lights up Memorial

by Bob Wage on May 19, 2008 12:51 AM EDT

A player who could be the steal of the 2007 NHL Draft, Drayson Bowman of the Spokane Chiefs, is currently the leading scorer in the Memorial Cup. After scoring a hat-trick and an assist while leading the Chiefs to a win in their opening game against Belleville on Saturday, Bowman came back with a goal and an assist to help his team secure a 2-1 victory against Kitchener on Sunday.

Bowman has been Spokane's leading scorer throughout the year, as well as in the playoffs. He scored 42 goals and had 40 assists in the regular season, 11 goals and 9 assists in the playoffs, and now has 4 goals and 2 assists so far in the Memorial.

The Carolina Hurricanes drafted him in the 3rd round last year. Someone give the scouting staff a raise.

Next up for Spokane is Gatineau on Tuesday night.

In other news, Team Russia beat Team Canada for the gold medal in the IIHF World Championships on Sunday. Canada held a 4-2 lead going into the 3rd period, but the Russians came on strong to tie the game in regulation and scored a powerplay goal in OT to win it. Ilya Kovalchuk had the game winner.

It must have been tough to lose at home for the Canadians, but give the Russians credit. They had a heck of a tournament. For a recap and a few short interviews, (including Cam Ward), check here.

Speaking of Russia, it's been reported that John Grahame signed a contract to play in Russia next year. I'm not sure exactly how those Russian contracts work, but I think the player can opt out, (up to a certain point), if they can sign an NHL contract in the meantime.

Either way, the writing was on the wall that he wouldn't be coming back to Carolina. Best of luck to Johnny.

Uriah Heep

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1) Also heard that Chris Simon signed on to play over in Russia. Maybe they don’t have any anti-stompng rules there?
2) No big loss in Grahame. He was an OK backup, but at a 1.4 mil cap hit was one of the more expensive ones. There shouldn’t be a problem finding a replacement. Its STARTING goalies that will be hard to find this summer.

by fauxrumors on May 19, 2008 12:48 PM EDT reply actions

Ilya Kovalchuk is just plain nasty………i kinda understand the fire that was put under Lavi’s rear…..let him know JR is serious, I felt like hed be back the whole time anyways. but again, Kovalchuk is just plain nasty!!!

by Tyler on May 19, 2008 12:54 PM EDT reply actions

I’m a little worried about the Russian league with all of the new oil money being thrown around over there. I have a concern that this league will continue to water down the NHL and who knows? Maybe one day the Russian league will be more prestigious than the NHL.

Already NHL teams are shying away from drafting young Russians (see the annual Hockey News draft issue for an indepth story on this).

I think the NHL’s entry salary cap rule is around 850,000. Well, the Russian leagues are offering up to $1 million so why would a young phenom turn down that kind of money to stay home? Next, the hottest North American and Euro players are going to go for that $$$.

by Fred on May 20, 2008 2:21 PM EDT reply actions

Don’t look now, but Bowman just had another Goal in game #3 of the Memorial Cup … after 3 games, 5 goals and 2 assists … (and the entire team together has 10 goals over the course of the 3 wins)

by Casey on May 20, 2008 11:57 PM EDT reply actions