De Champlain Cut/ Leier Signed: Winterhawks at NHL Camps News and Links

Petan Chasing Down Vancouver's Hunter Shinkaruk

-Adam De Champlain was cut from training camp yesterday, by the Vancouver Canucks, making him the first of 12 Winterhawks heading back to the club. Three of those players;Ty Rattie, Tyler Wotherspoon and Seth Jones are very unlikely to come back to the Hawks.

Leier

-Taylor Leier signed a 3 year entry level deal with the Philadelphia Flyers, then promptly potted the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Garrett Haar and the Washington Capitals rookies. According to this article, Leier is fully recovered from his concussion last season that he received from Saskatoon's Dalton Thrower in the Memorial Cup. He holds no resentment towards Thrower. Don't worry Taylor, Hawks fans will do that for you when Thrower comes to town with his new team: the Vancouver Giants.

-Nic Petan was wowing Winnipeg's coaching staff and Management last week. He had an assist and was plus 1 playing on a line with Kamloops Blazer J.C. Lipon and even got a positive review from the usually close-lipped Jet's G.M. Kevin Cheveldayoff. Cheveldayoff stated: ...when the puck is on his stick, you are always looking for something to happen..." Sounds like Petan has made the adjustment to rookie camp just fine. Now we will wait and see how he does when the Jet's main camp opens.

-Oliver Bjorkstrand scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-2 Columbus victory over the New York Rangers last week. Unfortunately for Bjokrstrand's NHL hopes, two of the Blue Jacket's other top prospects: Boone Jenner and Kerby Rychel both factored on the score sheet as well. Look for Oliver to be sent back fairly soon after main camp begins.

Rattie

-Soon to be former Winterhawk Ty Rattie was skating with Blues Captain David Backes and their leading playoff scorer Alex Steen on a line in yesterday's practice. I would look for the Blues to continue putting Rattie alongside other top Blues players in camp. The main reason he seems like a lock to stick with the Blues this season and not go to the AHL, is his goal scoring ability, which St. Louis lacks and desperately needs. Also, Rattie's defensive back-checking took a huge step forward last season and Coach Ken Hitchcock is a stickler for his forwards to play on both ends.

-Tyler Wotherspoon was apparently his old mostly un-noticeable self at the Youngstars Tournamaent last weekend in Penticton. The Abbotsford Heat(AHL) Coach: Troy Ward who said "...he's so good you don't notice him out there...he's been steady." That's our Tyler, doing the little things with body positioning and stick work that will be sorely missed when he plays, most likely, with Abbotsford this season.

-Derrick Pouliot was apparently not too impressive at the Pittsburgh Penguin's rookie camp, but that could have been the lack of talent around him. Penguin's Assistant G.M. Tom Fitzgerald described Derrick: "He looked like an NHL player playing with rookies..." This comment, among other statements, should mean that Pen's management is very high on Derrick and, at the very least, will want his services until the regular season starts.

-Long read regarding Seth Jones being asked by Nashville Head Coach Barry Trotz to play left Defense and why this writer feels that is not necessarily so that he can play with Shea Weber on the top pairing. Of importance to Hawk's fans is that Jones is healthy, so there is no chance he comes back to Portland this season.

-Ranking of the Nashville Predator's top 10 prospects has Seth Jones at #1 and Brendan Leipsic at #10. Of course it is fairly apparent that the writer of the piece has not seen too much of Leipsic play as he attests most of his point total to Rattie, Petan and the Defense. I would not agree because at time last season, Leipsic was the most dynamic Hawk on the ice (apologies to Ty Rattie).

Overall, it should be exciting to see main training camps progress with 11 Winterhawks still present, as of the writing of this post.