Saints - PR

Saskatoon Saints and Ottawa Praetorian Set for TFHL 15 Season

TFHL 15 ENTRY DRAFT SELECTIONS PART OF YOUNG'S PLAN FOR A SPEZZA LED DYNASTY

At the TFHL 15 Entry Draft on Saturday, the Saskatoon Saints organization had its most active draft since the TFHL 13 Draft in which they chose the core franchise players now visible on the Saints PRO roster: Jason Spezza, Keith Ballard, Chuck Kobasew (formally "Chris Higgins", a name already taken on the Blades roster) as well as many others still developing. The draft saw the Saints selecting ten 18-20 year old players, notably Saskatoon natives, Chris Durand and Saskatoon Blade (WHL) star Devin Setoguchi. As well, GM Geoffrey Young was proud to select cousin Brett Boschman and son of the former captain of the Ottawa Senators Laurie Boschman. Young made several trades at the draft which allowed him to increase and move his picks around. One such acquisition which Young is very much pleased with is his trade and acquisition of Christopher Bourque who Young describes as "one of the top 15 offensive players in this draft" and "the 'sleeper'". Young boasted that this collection of young future stars is comparable to his TFFHL 11 Praetorian farm team which won the TFFHL Cup. He looks forward to allowing the farm to develope these players and within a year or two he explained "we'll add around eight 20 year old players to our Pro roster which will include our current 6 20 year old d-men as well as Spezza, Monych and Kobasew". This is all part of his plan for establishing a dynasty around Spezza which will all be the same age or younger and will develope together over the next 5-10 seasons.

TRADE NEWS

The only concern to the Saints franchise, last year (and every year in both the old and new TFHL in which Young has participated), is his inability to either acquire or retain a #1 goalie in which would allow the Saints to become a Cup contender. "We seem to always have the offence, and compete among the top 5 teams in that category...and I feel that we now have the best collection of young d-men in the TFHL but now we must look to developing a #1 goalie in which can be one of the top 5 as well." Although the acquistion of Martin Brodeur from the Canucks is obviously not a goalie for the future, many Saints fans were very please to see his arrival. Brodeur will hopefully provide veteran goaltending along with providing mentorship to future #1 Ilja Bryzgalov who showed promise in last year's regular season as well as Playoff series win against the arch-rival Hurricanes. Other recent acquistions include veteran star Pavol Demitra amongst others.

SAINTS PRO ROSTER FOR TFHL 15 SEASON

The much anticipated Saints PRO Roster was released today. A tradition which Young seasonally releases but its significance tends to be somewhat farcical - if one was to compare the Season ending roster to the Saints OFFICIAL roster released at the commencement of each season, you'll see nothing too comparible except the team name. Regardless, Young explains that this roster will not likely change as he is quite content with the scoring lines. But rumours are that he will likely still change the wingers on the 'third' (which plays the 4th line as well) as he wishes upgrade the wingers to play with young centre Lance Monych....

Line 1:

Player PO HD IT SP ST EN DU DI SK PA PC DF SC EX LD OV AGE SALARY$ Y/FA

Jason Spezza C R 53 64 57 75 58 75 88 77 86 85 94 33 24 81 20 1,100,000 1R

Pavol Demitra LW L 59 81 69 76 99 78 86 77 79 69 83 72 56 81 31 3,200,000 2U

Jani Rita RW R 75 77 79 55 56 94 78 76 77 79 65 46 54 78 *24 625,000 3R

Dan Sprang D L 48 88 62 50 82 70 65 85 85 98 71 34 31 78 20 620,000 4R
Keith Ballard D R 70 60 74 71 99 72 80 93 65 61 74 42 49 77 *20 187,500 3R

Line 2:

Player PO HD IT SP ST EN DU DI SK PA PC DF SC EX LD OV AGE SALARY$ Y/FA

Joe Sakic C L 76 80 58 87 99 80 84 83 80 75 68 92 92 81 36 15,000,000 1U

Martin Cibak LW L 74 74 76 63 51 91 78 74 72 72 73 50 49 77 *25 281,250 2R

Chuck Kobasew RW R 55 73 74 74 92 54 70 80 76 67 79 43 60 77 *20 187,500 3R

Denis Grebeshkov D R 92 74 71 65 78 75 33 85 77 86 63 29 28 78 20 2,200,000 3R
David Turon D R 45 50 90 41 79 99 74 75 82 58 98 34 42 77 20 600,000 2R

Line 3:

Player PO HD IT SP ST EN DU DI SK PA PC DF SC EX LD OV AGE SALARY$ Y/FA

Lance Monych C R 98 70 95 98 83 84 58 72 61 97 58 30 28 78 20 600,000 1R

Ladislav Nagy LW L 71 78 61 68 90 87 80 66 70 74 77 38 45 76 26 1,050,000 3R

Steven Reinprecht RW L 77 72 66 68 83 93 72 71 72 69 72 43 46 75 29 475,000 1R

Rosario Ruggeri D L 46 60 51 68 96 95 75 69 94 45 86 46 42 75 *20 4,399,999 3R
John Adams D R 63 68 73 82 81 87 76 55 79 83 59 47 38 75 *20 600,000 2R

GOALTENDING:

Martin Brodeur G L 71 89 93 97 97 88 87 72 80 25 25 77 81 81 33 3,000,000 2U
Ilja Bryzgalov G L 80 80 93 60 59 79 79 77 84 NA NA 43 45 75 *25 800,000 1R

SASKUP TOURNAMENT

Another Preseason Tradition is the Saskup Tournament which happens between the Saskatchewan teams and GM's within the TFHL (Saskatoon Ice, Saskatoon Blades, Saskatchewan Wheat Kings and Saskatoon Saints). Here are past results:

SASKUP WINNERS
TFHL 9 Saskatchewan Wheat Kings - Tyler Young
TFHL10 Saskatoon Saints - Geoffrey Young
TFHL11 Saskatoon Sioux - Jasen Berry
TFHL12 No Tournament
TFHL13 No Tournament
TFHL14 Saskatoon Saints - Geoffrey Young
TFHL15 Oh, the suspense...

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TFHL14 Standings
TEAM W - L - T - PTS GF – GA
Saints 2 1 0 4 11 8
Ice 1 1 1 3 8 5
Blades 1 1 1 3 7 6
Wheat Kings 1 2 0 2 6 12