Two more preseason games down. The season is inching closer and closer.
The Stars participated in a weekend set with two Western Conference bunkmates. Friday saw the Stars sharing some ice with a skeleton roster of players wearing Colorado Avalanche sweaters much like the Stars matchup with Tampa Bay. The Stars won this time, but it wasn't pretty. The "Avalanche" were able to generate 35 shots, but the Stars still ended up pulling out a victory.
How, you may ask? Ask,
this guy. Lil Jon was excellent in net on Friday. He stopped just about everything thrown his way without even dropping his Pimp Cup. Impressive.
Saturday was much more of what we're needing to see. The Stars scored 4 in the first and coasted to a 5-2 win with Brent Krahn playing the entire game in his bid to be named the backup goaltender for the season. He faced 21 shots. He allowed two goals, and by most accounts one of them was a fairly weak chance. Overall though he played well.
With half of the exhibition schedule completed the Stars moved to trim the roster significantly. 33 players remain in camp. The Stars have placed 5 players on waivers.
Waived:
Aaron Gagnon
Travis Morin
Francis Wathier
Maxime Fortunus
Brad Lukowich
The surprising waiver move involves Aaron Gagnon. He had a solid AHL campaign last year, and he's been very solid in camp. At 24 he seems to be developing into a solid lower line talent. The idea seems to be that the Stars think he will get through waivers early in camp.
Personally, I don't see the big deal. His career path from Juniors until his AHL campaign last season suggest that he could be a bottom 6 forward, but ultimately he still only contributed 58 points last season. So what could have reasonably been expected of him this year, 25-35 points? You don't need to be in the business of giving away talent, especially young talent, but Gagnon isn't Jamie Benn. He's a serviceable young player, but if we're at the stage where a 4th liner is that big of a loss then doesn't that say a lot more about the rest of the roster than Gagnon himself?
Jonathan Cheechoo has also been let go. He was not under contract with the Stars so he is free to go. Unfortunately he left before I could write about his career. Fortunately for him I was ultimately going to say that he is probably at best a 30-40 point player at his ultimate ceiling with most of his value being gained from defensive play. So, whatever. Let's move on.
The following list of players have been assigned to Texas:
Richard Bachman
Tyler Beskorowany
Two goalies are now in Austin, but a third will join them when the loser of Andrew Raycroft/Brent Krahn is sent out. Even money on Raycroft joining them at this point. I like Krahn.
Jordie Benn
Trevor Ludwig
Guillame Monast
Sean Backman
Ray Sawada
Colton Sceviour
Matt Tassone
Luke Gazdic
Scott McCulloch
Michael Neal
Tristan King
Ondrej Roman
Greg Rallo
Mathieu Tousignant
Also, the Stars have sent Jace Coyle back to Juniors. The roster sits at 33 players with a few weeks to go. Noteable among the remaining players are Scott Glennie, Tomas Vincour, and Philip Larsen.
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More importantly though, I won a book from Yahoo! Sports'
Puck Daddy blog. Why, you may ask, did I win a book? I won the
Higgins Hockey Fantasy Index: 2010-11 for submitting the fantasy team name HasekuSmehlikZhitnik after the infamous sign from the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals.
Unfortunately, Me So Vyborny topped me.
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