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With Bochenski and Konopka on waivers, in hopes that they clear and head to Norfolk, and Smaby headed directly to the Admirals, here's the squad headed to Europe tonight, with some insight from me:
Forwards: Evgeny Artyukhin, Ryan Craig, Chris Gratton, Adam Hall, Jeff Halpern (injured), Jussi Jokinen, David Koci, Vincent Lecavalier (injured), Ryan Malone, Michel Ouellet, Vinny Prospal, Mark Recchi, Gary Roberts, Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, Nick Tarnasky (injured), Radim Vrbata, Jason Ward
Halpern's out until January at least, Lecavalier will be back shortly (if not for the opener) and Tarnasky's looking at a couple of weeks. Add two forwards to this bunch and four of these gents will likely find themselves on the move to get down to a manageable 13 healthy forwards. Koci, Ouellet, Tarnasky and Ward stick out to me ...
Defensemen: Matt Carle, Andrew Hutchinson, Mike Lundin, Andrej Meszaros, Vladimir Mihalik, Janne Niskala, Shane O'Brien, Paul Ranger (injured)
Here, methinks, it's simple. Ranger comes back and Mihalik heads to Norfolk. They'll continue to carry seven, with Hutchinson playing the extra role.
Goaltenders: Olaf Kolzig, Karri Ramo, Mike Smith
Ramo will be the man in the AHL this year.
Remember, folks ... my projections are all assuming there are no trades made with roster players coming back to Tampa. It's possible, but I'm not into speculating about that sort of thing, so we'll take that as it comes ...
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Update: You know, sub David Koci for Konopka as one of those staying with the club and carry Karri Ramo (which I knew was possible) and I had this roster pegged to the 'T' earlier today!
(Pats self on the back ...) :)
JJ
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After the Rangers game tonight, executive vice president of hockey operations Brian Lawton announced that Brandon Bochenski, Zenon Konopka and Matt Smaby have been reassigned to Norfolk of the American Hockey League ...
More analysis before bed tonight ...
JJ
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