PR - Saints

Saskatoon Saints Deal Spezza

July 15, 2005

With half the season gone, the Saints have decided to "re-launch" their TFHL 15 Season in hopes of reigniting their Championship aspirations. President, CEO, GM Geoffrey Young, who Saints' fans affectionately dubbed "El Duce" after this weeks franchise changing deal, held a press conference to discuss recent changes.

"Spezza is a bum, good riddance!" Coming to the team this week in return for former Rocket Richard winning centre Jason Spezza was fellow 20 year old Christopher Higgins who will now centre a line with 18 year old Devin Setogouchi (14GP, 18pts) and 19 year old Ryan Getzlaf (37GP, 34 pts). "This young trio will only improve each season as my #1 scoring line...I expect each of the forwards to produce over a point a game", says the GM who is anything but humble when discussing the future prospects of his young roster.

Other recent acquisitions included former Saint Roberto Luongo in net who is expected to finish the season in the new Saints colours. Luongo won the Vezina in TFHL 12 with the Wheat Kings. GM Young became unsettled when a Regina sports columnist asked about his acquistion and trading of almost every starting goaltender in the TFHL (sometimes more than once). "Maybe it's freudian; perhaps its my subconscious fear of commitment and failure rooted in my relationship with my father...or maybe you can go play hide and go fuck yourself!"

Other notable acquistions are Eric Staal and Pierre-Marc Bouchard who will be joining Brian McConnell on the Saints 3rd/4th lines. Along with the Sakic, Kostitsyn, Kobasew 2nd scoring line, the Saints hope to regain their previous (albeit brief) status as an elite offensive team over a season ago (i.e Forsberg, Sakic, Spezza, Gaborik combos).

Long Term Plans

Some questions surround the long term future of the Saints franchise with the recent Spezza trade but Young reassures fans that the future has never been so good for this franchise. With Sakic's 15M salary which expires after this season and the expected demotion of Ray Whitney (5.25M) to the farm for next season, the Saints are looking at a Pro salary with 20 players included of just around 12M dollars (with no mentionable RFA's) - this includes all current players minus Sakic, Nylander and Whitney. Whether this means Young will use that open space to sign short term UFA's is unclear, "I'm commited to bringing the best goaltender to this team so that within the next 3 seasons we will be able to have a formidable chance at the Cup for a prolonged period over the next decade with this core of young players. We have on defence, 20 year old Ballard, 19 year old Weber and Rozakov, 20 year old defensive specialist John "el presidente" Adams and Power play specialist David "can't play anything but the powerplay because of that bloody endurance thing" Turon. And there's those forwards guys, ya, those guys, lets just say if Higgins doesn't surpass Spezza's performance then there will be trouble for El Duce.

PR - Blades

BLADES END 5 GAME LOOSING STREAK

The Saskatoon Blades ended their 5 game loosing streak earlier this week, bringing their last ten games standing to 3-7-0. In a rare Press Release, Blades' head coach Lorne Mulligan stated: "We know that we have been building a bad reputation for the franchise this year, but every team has a rebuilding period, and this is ours. Early on we knew that we wouldn't be competing this year, an early Theodore trade is proof of that."

The Blades traded top goalie Jose Theodore early in the season for some young prospects and draft picks. Said GM Brad Greer: "We figured that the Blades couldn't be a cup contending team with the members that we had; with numerous retirements in the works and lacking depth in every department, we decided to trade long time Blades staple Jose Theodore in order to round out the team." When asked to comment on the fact that the top 5 team is now at the bottom of the league, Greer simply replied "Some one's gotta be last." Someone's gotta be last indeed, Brad.

With a two game winning streak under their belt, (one of the Blades best streaks so far this season) and trades for top young bloods and stars like Lance Monych and Scott Hartnell, could the Blades be on their way to their former glory? "We just want to make it to the playoffs," was all Greer had to say. We won't hold our breaths.

PR - Wheat Kings

Midseason Perspective (July 9th)

The Saskatchewan Wheat Kings came out of the All-Star break sitting first in the league, standing strong to repeat as President Trophy winners. The first half of the season saw the Kings continue to maneuvre, and continue to maintain their overall perforance. Significant deals saw Roberto Luongo and Keith Tkachuk leave while the Wheaties continued to bring in young players to round out their team. The Wheat Kings have spent most of the season fluttering around the .700 mark, on par with their performance in the latter fifty games of the previous season. The Kings defy logic, winning games without any significant superstars nor as loaded depth-wise as some other teams. Sure Dmitri Kazionov is one of the preeminent snipers in the league, but so is Alexei Kovalev of the bottom-dwelling Rednex. Only Kaz and the unassuming Steve Bernier have stood in the top 25 scorers for any significant time this season, but neither are necessarily the secret to the Kings success. Nor, a
swell, is the excellent goaltending the Kings have received from Kevin Weekes and Ilya Bryzgalov.

When asked what he thought was the Wheaties secret of success, GM Tyler Young had this to say: "I think it's because we play a true team game. We are not the most talented team in the league, we don't even have the best players on the ice most nights, but what we do have is a group of talented, young players who go out and work their ass off. We've built this team so that heart was the primary quality of our players: these guys play together to win, and it shows in the results."

Despite their regular season success, the Kings can not make any claim to greatness until they perform likewise in the playoffs. To further their chances the Kings have added veterans like Bill Guerin, Pavel Bure, and Brian Leetch to strengthen their depth and add experience. The player though who may have the biggest impact on the Kings playoff chances will be Ilya Bryzgalov, as the number 1a he will be expected to win the big games - something which he, despite his relative youth, has done in the past for the Saskatoon Saints, and something the Kings have long missed in the playoffs.

The Kings pulled-off another deal at the end of the All-Star break, acquiring Masi Marjamaki and Kamil Kreps from the Saskatoon Blades for Konstantin Greshkov and Lance Monych. The deal is expected to help round out the wings, plus from the point of view of management, give the Kings a couple more talented, young players.

In action today against the Pain, the Kings were struck by one of the most devasting injuries in team history to date: Ilya Bryzgalov was injured in play and will reportedly miss the next three weeks of action. Although Kevin Weekes is capable of playing, if he exausts himself or is injured, the Wheat Kings may be seriously comprimised.

PR - Flames

The Atlanta Flames have done a complete 180 degrees. They have entered the ½ way mark of the season boasting a solid 51 points, on pace for 100+ points for the season. This is quite the difference from last year. The Flames sit near the top in the Western Conference and continue to improve. A big shock came the past week when top defenseman Eric Brewer was dealt, along Williams, Hahl and Auld. The Flames were able to secure a 1^st round selection to add to their prospect depth for next year but the main piece was Colby Armstrong. The Flames dealt super sniper Dimitri Kazionov last season and have now realized the scoring potential of such a player. With this in mind, the Flames have had their eye on Armstrong since last season. He has fit in quite well and in his first 3 games, has scored 2 goals, 2 assists and is +3. Auld at one point was the Flames future goaltending but with the addition of Leclaire in the last few weeks, Auld was let go so that he could one day play in the TFHL PRO league. The Flames also decided to get a bit tougher on the blue line with the addition of Brewer, in exchange for Redden. Another surprise is the development of Marek Chvatal in the minor league. GM, Patrick Amantea has been drooling over this guy, watching him slowly improve through the 1^st half of the season. “It is amazing how well this guy can shoot. Not only that, but the guy is a beast when he hits.” With the future addition of Chvatal, the Flames blue line will be a scary place to cross with the likes of Brewer, Stuart, Chvatal all being very big hitters in the league. The Flames look to remain a threat for the last half. Now if only Jose Theodore would find some consistency and the special teams would improve.

PR - Hurricanes

HURRICANES ON A 10 GAME WINNING STREAK

The Calgary Hurricanes have surged from last place in the standings to 5th overall in the conference. They trail 2nd place Clubbers by only 5 points.

"We seem to have found our game again. It is a lot of fun to be around this team right now and I can't tell you how exciting it is." Said Markus Naslund.

Much of the Hurricanes success has been the exceptional play of goaltender Brian Boucher. Boucher is currently 25-9-2, which is second best to only J.S. Giguere who only has one more win and 4 more loses than Boucher. "I am playing with a lot of confidence. I have some strong defensemen in front of me like McCabe, Pronger and Campbell. We have a really
solid backend now." Said the 'Canes goaltender.

The Hurricanes are also looking to chase down a 7 season old record produced by then Zombies. The longest winning streak in TFHL history is 14 games, and the Hurricanes are only 4 games away from tying that record. "Don't say that, you just jinxed it." Said goalie Boucher.


Calgary Sun 2005

PR - Western All-Star Team Announced

Well, for better-or-worse here is the roster I have decided to go with. No doubt there will be some GMs who have qualms with my selections, but in such a deep conference the talent is quite deep and in the end I decided to just go with the pick of the crop for each position.

ROSTER
Alexei Yashin C - Pain
Erik Christensen C - Hawks
Gregory Campbell C - Achaeans
Barry Tallackson LW - Pain
Dmitri Kazionov LW - Wheat Kings
Dan Paille LW – Pain
Jonas Johansson RW - Canucks
Cam Janssen RW – Pain
Jeff O’Neil RW – Renegades
Alexei Shkotov PK - Sioux
Brandon Segal PK - Flames
Niklas Lidstrom D - Ice
Janne Niinimaa D - Raiders
Rob Blake D – Raiders
Sergei Gonchar D – Blades
Derek Morris D - Apocalypse
Matt Jones D - Wheat Kings
Dan Sprang PK - Wheat Kings
Evgeny Nabokov G - Raiders
Martin Biron G – Ice

LINE-UP
Tallackson Yashin Johansson
Kazionov Christensen Janssen
Paille Campbell O’Neill

Lidstrom Niinimaa Nabokov
Gonchar Jones Biron
Blake Morris

PK: Shkotov, Segal, Sprang