Drayson Bowman did it again. Last night, the Spokane Chiefs beat the Gatineau Olympiques by a score of 3 to 1 in Memorial Cup play, and leading scorer Drayson Bowman lit the lamp one more time for the Chiefs. The red-hot Carolina prospect now has 7 points in 3 games so far in the tournament.
The Chiefs have yet to lose a Memorial Cup game and have already qualified for the tournament finals on Sunday.
It's almost a shame that the Canes are so loaded at the forward position right now. In year's past, the organization would have been more than ready to welcome a prolific scorer like this with open arms, but at this point he would really have to shock and awe the coaching staff at training camp in order to crack this roster.
---------
Yesterday, it was announced that ex-Hurricanes defenseman Aaron Ward re-signed with the Boston Bruins. "Wardo" had a very good year for the Bruins and played in their top pairing with Zdeno Chara. Terms of the deal were not yet disclosed, but it was a multi-year contract.
Some fans would have been happy to see Ward return to Carolina, but if he indeed demanded a multi-year deal as rumored, (at his age of 35), he certainly wouldn't have helped the Canes to get any younger.
How about a return of Mike Commodore instead?
---------
James Mirtle, a journalist blogger who we follow closely here, recently posted a detailed story about the possibility of a new Super Russian/European league. A rich billionaire oilman is behind the idea. The concern is that the new league could possibly entice high quality NHL players away from North America and eventually water down the talent in this league.
This reminds me of a similar threat during the lockout. Some other hot-shot over in Europe was going to start a new Euro super league which supposedly would suck the NHL dry of talent. But after the lockout was over, the new league never materialized and over 95% of the NHL'ers that were playing in Europe came back to the NHL.
While some Europeans will always choose to play near home, regardless of the money, it would surprise me to see a great number of North American born players leave home to play in Europe, unless the money was off the charts. The threat of this new league doesn't concern me......yet.
-----------
Yahoo Sports has stepped up to the plate and hired a full-time hockey blogger. Will other professional online sports organizations be far behind? Mr. Greg Wyshynski, who has formerly blogged for AOL's Fanhouse, Deadspin, and The Fourth Period, landed the new gig.
The blog has been extremely active so far and Wyshynski makes several updates a day. This is great news for hockey fans and bloggers alike. The name of the blog is "Puck Daddy" and it is now listed in the Canes Country blogroll on the left sidebar. Mirtle features an in-depth Q and A here.
Good luck "Puck Daddy", we'll be watching.