Sam Gagner signs an entry-level contract today and looks like he’ll be around on opening night. If nothing else, he’ll likely get his 9 game try-out and could still be sent down without burning a year on his contract.
Gagner’s deal is “a three-year entry level contract. His NHL compensation is the maximum $875,000 per year, which includes an annual signing bonus of $87,500. It is, of course, a two-way contract with a minor league salary provision of $65,000.”
Bob Mackenzie also thinks Moreau will be the captain but please, this was a no-brainer decision. I called this weeks ago. It’s a great choice and I like it!
Other news has Patrick Thoresen on waivers apparently. I’m a bit surprised about this but with our other young players coming up and playing incredibly well, someone was bound to get shafted. I liked him but his performance during training camp and the pre-season was not strong. I agree to give the kids a shot.
According to TSN: these were the practice lines today (you can obviously scratch Thoresen’s name from that list!
Forwards
Penner – Horcoff – Hemsky; Torres – Stoll – Nilsson; Cogliano – Gagner – Pouliot; Sanderson – Reasoner – Brodziak; Jacques – Thoresen – Stortini
Defence
Greene – Souray, Staios – Pitkanen, Tarnstrom – Gilbert, Smid – Grebeshkov
And one piece of nostalgic news: guess who is the new captain of the Philadelphia Flyers? Yes, our former captain Jason Smith! I miss him already!!
UPDATE: Moreau is the man!! He becomes the Oilers 12th Captain!!!! Interesting, assistant captains will be Hemsky and Horcoff for home games, with Staios and Stoll for away games. I like that!
UPDATE: Smid and Stortini get sent to the minors! Holy hell…..I do not understand the decision to demote Smid. He had a decent camp and easily outplayed Greene. Why the hell is Greene still on this bloody team??? Smid is your future. They threw him to the wolves last year, giving a rookie like him way too many minutes and he didn’t exactly thrive but didn’t perish either. He held his own and now he’s thrown down to the AHL. Good news: Gilbert made the team and will be in the season opener.
Smith got named captain!? Good for him – I can’t wait to see him on Saturday!
I know, I love that he got the captaincy! I miss him!
I don’t like the news about Smid.
Dumb!
Pissed off that Smid got sent down. I don’t blame Greene (even though he still takes dumb penalties worse than a rookie), I blame Grebeshkov and his whinning when he got traded for Bergeron and the only way he was coming to come to North America even for training camp was to have an NHL contract, not a two-way deal and be sent to the minors.
Smid will be back soon thou, once Tarnstrom develops Cory Cross disease from wearing his old number 23. 😛
* that should read “going to come” not “coming to come”.
I really should proof-read better!
Also, there was no doubt that Ethan was going to be named captain. I called it way back in July when Gator was traded.
I can only hope that they are giving Greene minutes so they can trade him. Plleaseeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!