PR - Misconducts

With tomorrow's draft quickly approaching the Miami Misconducts have been very busy the past few weeks. While most of there work was put into scouting players for the draft, they did manage to pull off two trades in past few days. The first trade saw the Misconducts require a player from their glory years . . .well at least a player who was on the team the last time they did serious damage in the league. That player is former rookie of the year Matt Ellison. Ellison will come in and immediately upgrade the teams offense which was downright awful last year. He is expect to play along side Sergei Anshakov on the first line. The center for the first line is unknown at this point, but one guy who could step in fill that role could be the other significant player they brought in this week Mike Peca. Peca doesn't bring the scoring capability of Ellison but what he does bring is a strong defensive presence and he is a great addition to their locker room. Besides the two trades, the Misconducts also released several players in the past week include in the group were Brian Rolston, Maxim Talbot, and Nathan Saunders. None of the players were expect to contribute much to the team this year or in the future and all were moved to make room for the incoming prospects.

The Misconducts will be among the busiest teams tomorrow with 8 picks in the first three rounds and 10 picks in all. Several draft prospects have been seen around town in the last few days meeting with GM Robby Blaze, coach Jacques Lemaire and several other members of the Misconducts management team. Among the prospects to be seen were C David McIntyre, D Andrew Bodnarchuk, RW Robert Nyholm, D Chris Frank, and LW Nick Sucharski. The Misconducts hold 2nd and 14th picks in the first tomorrow and as recently as a couple of hours where still holding predraft meetings. GM Blaze is believed to be enamored with Bodnarchuk and is trying to convince coaches that this is the defense-man that the teams needs. He believes Bodnarchuk can step in right now and play on the first or second defensive pairing. If the GM gets his way both of the first round picks would be defense as he believes the best plan to move forward is to build around last years draft pick and future star Carey Price. In fact he claims the reason he brought in Peca and Ellison was so that their would be no need to reach for a forward in the first round and to take two cornerstone defense-men to anchor the team for years. Coach Lemaire thinks otherwise he believes the best way to reduce the number of shots Price faces is to eliminate the amount of penalties the team takes and to produce more shots. Lemaire and Blaze were seen to have a heat argument early this week concerning draft prospects D Cody Wild and LW Max Warn. Blaze believes both players could be outstanding assets to this organization. However, coach Lemaire has taken both players off of his draft board and has advised management to steer clear of these players as well. Lemaire stated that these players would hurt the team more than would help. He has been lobbying all week for the team to address playmakers up front namely at the center position. He has even gone so far as to say if they pick McIntyre at number 2 and he is a bust that he will coach next year for free.

Whether the Misconducts pick McIntyre or Bodnarchuk remains to be seen, but what we know for sure is that Misconducts will make at least one trade on draft day. Every year it seems like they pull off a trade or two. Whether it's moving up to grab someone they like, trading down to get more picks, acquiring a player for a pick or two, or moving someone from their roster . . .something big or small will happen with the club. Rumored names on the block include D Chad Denny, D Boris Valabik, and D Aaron Rome. If these names indeed are on the Misconducts trading block, it could be a signaling that they will make Bodnarchuk there first round pick and quit possibly will be looking at defense-man like Frank at 14th. Which way the Misconducts go will be settled shortly before 10 AM tomorrow when the team plans to pack things up at their hotel and head down to draft quarters. And around 4 PM Miami time, we will know for sure who calls the shots in this organization GM Blaze . . or Coach Lemaire.