Wheat Kings - PR

In Defence of the Future

After the preseason mega-deal with the Owls, the Kings found themselves loaded at forward with very talented, very young forwards. Although initially the plans had been to give Eric Fehr a season on the farm so as to allow him a chance to further improve and to assuage this depth, an early season injury to Daymond Langkow allowed Fehr a chance to strut his stuff on the big stage, and he did not disappoint. With five points in three games Fehr had solidified himself a roster spot and made Selke candidate Scott Hartnell expendable.

Coupled with the depth on the forward was a scarcity of comparable young defencemen. So given the situation, GM Tyler Young traded away three players who had fallen to the sidelines of the Kings' roster. Inaugrual King member and long time leading defenceman scorer Kenny Johnsson was dispatched with utility forward Danius Zubrus to the Saskatoon Saints in return for defenceman Rosario Rugerri. Then Scott Hartnell was sent to the Saskatoon Blades along with a pick for defenceman Shea Webber.

"With these two deals I feel we've solidified our d-core for the future, plus we've now trimmed down our offensive corp to its future form, more-or-less. Our choice was between Langkow and Hartnell, and in the end we felt we preferred Daymond's leadership and offensive skills over Scott's greater grit and defensive awareness. We love the defencemen we have brought in: Shea Webber is a great all-around d-man, solid defensively but offensively gifted, and he meets our criteria of disciplined play; Rosario Rugerri needs another year on the farm, but our hope is that given some more time to develop he might turn into a Sergei Gonchar-type defenceman and the future pilot of our powerplay."

News&Notes: Eric Fehr is not the only rookie making a premature push to stay on the pro roster. Niklas Bergfors, the Kings' 12th overall pick last draft, was brough up after an injury to Jakub Hulva and has had three points in two games, well actually, he had three points in one game after being given a shot on the #1 line between snipers Keith Tkachuk and Steve Bernier, whereat Bergfors' playmaking skills were on total display.