PR - Wheat Kings

WHEAT KINGS GET NASTY

After being indisposed for a week, GM Tyler Young returned to find that his club had fallen from fourth to eleventh in the West.

"Needless to say, it was something of a shock - worse yet, I was able to watch it happen, I just couldn't do anything about it," Mr. Young commented.

When asked why he was indisposed Mr. Young shrugged and told reporters, "No comment," leading the intrepid investigators to assume a variety of possibilities: abduction? work for a secret government agency? trip to the Caribbean? or perhabs some sort of therapy?

Upon his return, with trading deadline impending, the GM wasted no time in finding a deal to shake-up his team.

"The team certainly has not been playing well since we dealt Mark Stuart for Chuck Kobasew, despite the fact that Chuckie has probably been our best player during that time. Sure we've had a horrible streak of injuries, and yes the loss of Stuart did take something from the defence, but I think more than that, we just stopped playing like we were - I guess we started thinking we were a finesse team or something, but more than that, a lot of guys just stopped playing period."

Enter Trader-Ty and Dealmeister Rob: the Kings dispatched long-time Wheatie Byron Bitz and their two high 3rd rounders in the upcoming draft to the Misconducts in return for Boris Valabik and Ryan Whitney.

"We needed to get much bigger on D, and we needed to get a lot meaner," Coach-GM Young stated, "these guys do that in spades. Byron was a good prospect and we hope he does well, but we'd given him nearly three years to develop into a pro player and it had become evident that he wasn't going to do it with us."

"In the end we dealt Stuey for the top 6 forward we've needed for years and had always hoped Bitz would turn into, and then dealt Bitz for a couple of Stuey like d-men. This should work out some day to our benefit, but right now, after this last catastrophic collapse, we face a tough battle to get back into the playoffs."

PLAYERS AVAILABLE: After the acquisition of Whitney and Valabik, the Wheat Kings put Mike Rathje and Sandis Ozolinsh on waivers - available to any willing taker looking for a defensive addition going into the playoffs.

Player PO HD IT SP ST EN DU DI SK PA PC DF SC EX LD OV Ag Salary Y
Sandis Ozolinsh D L 64 72 79 79 99 70 77 77 73 50 59 87 91 75 36 4,000,000 1
Mike Rathje D L 69 63 93 73 59 69 60 61 58 73 60 68 71 74 34 3,100,000 2