Saturday, September 15, 2007

Training camp is finally here!

The Wild don't have a preseason game until Tuesday against the Dead Wings, but training camp has started! Technically it started yesterday, but whatever. I was busy/tired yesterday. Apparently Dominic Moore played well yesterday. From what I can tell (there are probably more that I'm not aware of...), the following players are in camp:
Center:
Wes Walz
Eric Belanger
Peter Olvecky
Somebody Fiala (I have never heard of him)
Pavol Demitra
James Sheppard
Serge Payer
Mikko Koivu
Dominic Moore
Steve Kelly

Left Wing:
Brian Rolston
Benoit Pouliot
Matt Kassian
Aaron Voros
Somebody Graham (yet again, I have no idea who this dude is)
Petr Kalus
Roman Voloshenko
Colton Gillies
Ryan Hamilton
Branko Radivojivic
Morten Madsen
Derek Boogaard
Somebody Hirsch

Right Wing:
Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Matt Foy
Cal Clutterbuck
Somebody Gutierrez (Yep, don't know him either, but maybe he is the one from Alaska that my mom was talking about?)
Marian Gaborik
Stephane Veilleux
Joel Ward
Mark Parrish
Danny Irmen
A. Foster ( I want to say it's Aaron, but I'm not sure.)

Defence:
Nick Schultz
Kim Johnsson
Keith Carney
Brent Burns
Shawn Belle
A.J. Thelen (Gross, I thought we were done with him)
Andre Lakos
Paul Albers
Clayton Stoner (YAY! I am pleased to see that he's healthy this season)
Sean Hill
Kurtis Foster
Martin Skoula
Petteri Nummelin
Eric Reitz
John Scott
Somebody Noreau (damn, another one that I don't know.)

Goal:
Josh Harding
Niklas Backstrom

Ok, so now that I feel like a bad fan for not knowing who half of these guys are, I will mention that I think there are only something like two roster spots up for grabs. Wonder who will get them? If I had watched the prospects tournament last week, I would probably have a better clue, but last week was crazy. I suppose I could go through and review what happened, but that's almost more time comsuming than going to the website and looking them up, googling, or asking people. I'm pretty sure we got 4th place in the tournament.
Sounds like Sheppard and Moore are currently in the top positions as far as making the team this year, but Ward might, and people in Minnesota think Irmen might, and they are pulling for him to do so (go GOPHERS!). Matt Foy almost made the team a couple of years back, makes me wonder what happened to him? Pouliot is always mentioned, but I don't think he's ready for the big show yet.
I appologize for not really knowing what's going on, I am still searching for efficient and effective ways to keep tabs on these things from the west coast. Games are easy, prospects are another thing.

4 comments:

mike said...

Shepperd and Kalus will make the team. Harding has a great shot of starting in goal or at least splitting time with Backstrom

Nick in New York said...

Harding will start some games (15-20?) but unless Backstrom gets hurt he's the #1.

Nick in New York said...

say bye-bye to Thelen, Hirsch, Olvecky and Kassian who were all sent to Houston to report to the Aeros camp.

Kirsten said...

Whoo! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Thelen.

I'm hoping Harding starts sometimes, since he is my back up to my back up goaltender.

I've heard good things about a number of prospects, and I don't suspect we will know who makes the team until the very end.