Calgary, AB – The Western Hockey League completed its 20-year-old cut-down draft on Thursday afternoon.
The Medicine Hat Tigers added 1995-born goaltender Austin Lotz who was released by the Everett Silvertips. The St. Adolphe, MB product has posted a 73-61-7-8 record in four seasons with Everett to go along with a 2.95 goals against average and a .902 career save percentage.
The Spokane Chiefs have added 20-year-old forward Luke Harrison who was released by the Kamloops Blazers. The native of West Kelowna, BC is in his fifth WHL season and has amassed 30 points (17g-13a) in 183 games played.
WHL teams had until 10:00 a.m. MT on Thursday to reduce the number of 20-year-old players on their roster to the maximum of three.
All other 20-year-olds who were available but not selected in the cut-down draft now become free agents.
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What this means
The Tigers placed Cox on the IR. They will have 2 weeks to make a decision on who to keep after Cox comes off the IR.
Picking up an OA is the smart thing to do. They will still have a question on what direction to go after Cox is back from injury. Is Lotz just a couple month rental or can he force himself to be a keeper? If so who else goes? Do the Tigers make trades in other areas that will change the dynamic of the team?
Lotz likely supplants himself temporarily as the #1 starter. Schneider as the backup, Johnson as the 3rd string. If the Tigers cut Johnson its a sign that other moves are imminent, but I think they will hold onto him for now.
Their defensive game is still an issue, but we will see how they perform with a veteran goalie behind them.
I have a big post coming up after this weekend.
I have a big post coming up after this weekend.
15 comments:
Like the move, buys the Tigers time to see what is available and what they want to do. Play a few more games and see what direction this team could go and where the weak links really are.
I was really pulling for Schenider to be starter and I think he is capable of more. Maybe this will take some weight off his shoulders and allow him to get things on track.
I would like to see some changes on defence. I would like to see a new and experienced defence brought in.
Lotz is decent, might bring some stability and allow the players to play a bit more confidently infront of a goalie who will make saves. I still think that whatever 20 yr old goes we need to get a pick and a dman in return. I really wonder if they should not release Platonov. If he is not up to par to play now, I think hanging on to him when we really need help would be an unwise move. We could use a utility and simple dman like Bo Montgomery. He did not cost a lot and was effective.
I would like to see Forrest get a chance to play with Stanton. He has looked real good out there and I think is more aggressive and defensively responsible then Schultz. Schultz seems to lack the aggressive component to his game.
On a non current tiger goalie note. It is sad to see Bunz fall from good goaltending. Looked at his stats from his tryout with Colorado in the ECHL, 6 saves on 8 shots and then pulled. Sad to see this from a guy who had potential. Always thought it was a mistake that he did not play his 20 year old season with the tigers. Hope things turn around for him but it seems that likely that his career is coming to a quick end.
Hopefully Lotz is really good at stopping breakaways. With our current top 6 DMen (which is the worst in the league by a country mile) he will get lots of chances to sharpen his skills.
Here is the Cox vs White Fight video. In the newspaper he said he broke it with a punch to the head so I'm assuming its his left hand.
www.hockeyfights.com/fights/130001
Marshall Skapski's Twitter says he is a prospect of the Victoria Royals?!?! We did not trade him did we? What happened there?
so Cox broke his hand fighting the coach/gm's step son? that seems like some poor decision making.
Will Lotz be in the lineup for this weekend?
Johnson not listed on the roster
About Skapski the Tigers must have dropped him. Interesting move considering their cupboards are lean on the back-end. I wonder who they put on the list to replace? It's probably a good move for him, you want to be on someones radar before the 18 yr old season.
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In regards to Cox on one hand its great to see the leaders showing some spunk, on the other hand you don't really want your top scorers with 3 fights under his belt to be the one fighting. I think him stepping him to fight shows a weakness of grit in their lineup.
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Your right Johnson is not listed on the roster. So their options when Cox is back are
A) Pick up a backup and release Lotz
b) start selling their overage scorers
C) Release Stanton
If they choose option C they will need to make a trade to address their terrible defense, and they are already at that territory now.
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I am expecting some more trades to be made. I am a bit concerned that we may be in for a bumpy ride for the next few seasons.
I believe Skapski was released by the Tigers.
With Johnson not on the roster anymore Lotz will be staying meaning one of Cox, Sanford or Stanton will be leaving. With the state of the defence it most likely won't be Stanton.
My guess is both Cox and Sanford will be leaving.
The defense has gotta stop coughing up the puck in the danger areas. The only reason they didn't loose was because Lotz bailed them out numerous times and kootenay looked terrible.
Forrest coughed the puck up 4-5 times in really bad spots. Schultz had a couple bad ones. Laday is too raw, and his defensive instinct is poor.
Quenneville stature makes it hard for him to defend against the big boys, but he played pretty well tonight. I thought Clouston kept his game simple and played well. Schultz and Forrest need to watch his game and take lessons.
Stanton played half the game he will be a tired boy after saturday's game.
I love the new rink, the parking attendants guiding the flow leaving the rink makes for a quick exit!! I dont like the original 1970 buckling trip hazard red carpet they should have left that at the old Arena LOL. I like Lotz lots very good goalie!!!!!
New D man coming looks like a good trade, I really like the way Owre and Rassell are hustling out there!!!
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