Early yesterday morning I posted information and questions about the Canes' prospect camp, and viola! Later in the afternoon both Luke DeCock and the Hurricanes main site posted information as well! Thanks for reading my mind and for answering my questions! First of all, the actual dates of the camp are from August 14th to the 19th. The ice times for Wednesday and Thursday are the same as I previously listed. The start times were pushed back to 3:30 on Friday and Saturday, but I would still be there at 3. The official team release is right here. Luke DeCock posted the listing of planned attendees on Lord Stanley's Blog. The bad news is that the Canes number one draft pick, Brandon Sutter is not on the list. Brandon will be playing for a junior Canadian team in a tournament against the Russians. Here is the list of planned attendees:
Noah Babin, Notre Dame (CCHA)/Albany (AHL)
Brett Bellemore, Plymouth (OHL)
Casey Borer, St. Cloud State (WCHA)/Albany (AHL)
Drayson Bowman, Spokane (WHL)
Nick Dodge, Clarkson (ECAC)
Pat Dwyer, Albany (AHL)
Mark Flood, Syracuse/Albany (AHL)
Stefano Giliati, Lewiston (QMJHL) â€" free agent
Tim Kunes, Boston College (HE)
Justin McCrae, Saskatoon (WHL)
Jerome Samson, Moncton/Val d'Or (QMJHL)
Chris Terry, Plymouth (OHL)
Between now and camp, I'll dig up information about each prospect and post it here. It should be worth a trip to the RecZone to watch these kids. I'm especially looking forward to watching Babin and Borer skate. They both are probably at the top of the Canes' depth chart for defensemen. That means that one of them is just a pulled groin away from playing in the NHL!
As I predicted, Ducks general manager Brian Burke walked away from the Dustin Penner offer sheet. I can't say I blame him. He's got much bigger fish to fry next year when Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry need new contracts. I'm afraid to think how much money they will want. In my "Don't Cry" post earlier, I mentioned how Burke was doing a bit of public venting, calling Kevin Lowe "desperate" and "gutless". He followed yesterday with another shot, saying how he was taking the draft picks because he expects that they will be high picks. He also said that if he matched the contract, that would make him as stupid as the club who made the original offer! *L* I wonder how long this public grudge will last? I think Lowe grossly overpaid for Penner, but he is desperate to improve his team and he has to do something. Hopefully this doesn't throw next year's RFA salaries all out of whack!
There is new Hurricanes blog out that I'd like to welcome. "Storm Surge" is just starting, so give him a look see when you have the chance! The site is listed under the "Canes Related Blogs" heading on the left sidebar. Also, I recently received an email from yet another site asking to be linked. While this is not a blog or hockey news site, it looks like a great place to shop for hockey equipment. You select the type of equipment you need, and the site does a search and shows the best places and prices available. If you need hockey equipment, you should check out "Hockey Deals"!
Finally, I'd like to thank a Hurricanes.com forum user by the name of "Erwin Cane-Head" who had kind words to say about CanesCountry over on the Canes' forum. Of course the "Gestapo" over there immediately deleted the link, but we appreciate the shout out just the same! Someday CanesCountry and other fan blogs might actually be linked from the Hurricanes official team site. Stranger things have happened! Other NHL teams, like the Canucks have direct links from their official site to fan blogs, so there is a precedent. Maybe someday it won't be "against the rules" to post a link to another site on the Hurricanes forum. We shall overcome Caniacs! TGIF!
Anita Cochran