PR - Wheat Kings

KNOCK ON WOOD: FIRST QUARTER REPORT

After the usual tentative start, the Wheat Kings are starting to play respectable hockey. At game fifteen pre-season expectations had been dashed, but a solid string of games have pulled the Wheaties back to near .500.

Overall the Wheat Kings are performing well to acceptable in most areas. The offence has been solid with the anticipated combination of Steve Bernier and Nik Bergfors giving the Kings their first legitimate second line threat. On the first line, Dimitri Kazionov and Josh Hennessy have been the Kings most consistent players this season - with only a minor injury to Kazionov keeping him out of the point and goal scoring leaders.

With Joel Kwiatkowski out for almost the whole season and Jason Smith missing a two weeks with a minor ACL tear, the Kings defence was seriously overwhelmed throughout much of the first fifteen games. This was further aggrevated by the weak showing of Cam Barker and Karol Rachunek - Barker has been sent to the minors and Rachunek has somewhat improved playing along Mark Stuart. If veterans Slava Suchy and Mike Rathje had not stepped up, the Kings may have had it much worse.

Goaltending has been suspect, but seems to be stabilizing. Thomas Vokoun started the season shaky, giving way to Byron Dafoe who played so-so for a couple games then wretched for the rest. However, Vokoun started to play well before he was promply injured. Jamie Howard was called up and has played some excellent hockey, acting as a catalyst to the Kings recovery. The Kings will have to make a hard decision soon whether to send Howard back to the farm for his promised season of development, or keep him up, again, on the pro somewhat prematurely.

The following players are on the market:

Player PO HD IT SP ST EN DU DI SK PA PC DF SC EX LD OV Ag Salary Y
Mattias Ritola RW R 70 74 71 78 74 90 73 71 72 72 75 44 48 77 20 600,000 2
Byron Dafoe G L 71 82 77 93 87 51 84 66 83 25 25 69 65 76 36 1,500,000 3
Karel Rachunek D R 80 67 80 72 63 87 71 75 66 69 53 44 34 75 28 281,250 1
Byron Bitz C L 56 70 70 56 50 75 73 78 69 70 77 51 47 75 22* 600,000 1

Bitz would be a little more tricky; looking for either a defenceman or RW with good DF for Ritola (if older, I'd want picks or something to equalize the deal)