You smell that? Fall is in the air and that means hockey. The players have reported and Cyclone’s training camp has begun. We’ll be getting our first look at the Squad on Sunday, but in the meantime here’s a look at those the ‘Clones have in attendance:
Forwards (13): Mathieu Aubin, Byron Elliott, Alex Penner, Mike Embach, Alex Bourret, Dan Eves, Jordan Ethier, Cory McGillis, Jared Gomes, Blake Gallagher, Matt Sisca, Mike Pelech, Koba Jass
Defense (10): Andrew Hotham, David MacDonald, Mike Liambas, Maury Edwards, Chris Reed, Justin Sawyer, Kenny Bradford, Mike MacIntyre, Mike Noyes, Daniel Spivak
Goalies (2): Brett Bennett, Stephan Cesar
Kenny Bradford, Mike MacIntyre, Mike Noyes, Daniel Spivak, Jordan Ethier, Cory McGillis, Brett Bennett, and Stephan Cesar are all on try-out agreements. The rest of them are under contract with the ‘Clones. Odds are the opening night roster won’t be the same as the list you see above but it’s always nice to know where the Team is starting. We’ll be checking out camp starting Sunday and weigh in mid week with our thoughts on how things are shaping up.
Training camp rosters for the rest of the ECHL can be found here.
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The AHL opens camp this weekend as well. The San Antonio Rampage have 20 forwards, 11 defensemen and 4 goalies in camp. There are some familiar names in camp with Coach Weber and it would surprise us to see 1 or 2 of them make their way back to the Queen City along with a few new faces. Odds are we’ll see a goalie from the Rampage as well, but don’t get your hopes up, it’s not going to Jacob Markstrom.
Things are a little lighter up in Milwaukee where the Admirals have 27 in camp (15 forwards, 9 defensemen, and 3 goalies). We aren’t expecting too much help at forward from the Admirals based on this list, but we think a defenseman or 2 will float our way with the names Foss or Aronson topping the list. The Ads are likely to send us a goalie as well and we’re looking forward to seeing wither of their Euro prospects, but let’s be honest we really want to see Zoltan Hetenyi, because let’s face it, his name is ZOLTAN.
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Here’s one last little bit of League news for you. The ECHL Board of Governors approved two proposals recently. Firstly, the Kelly Cup playoffs will take on a new format. Things will remain the same for the Eastern Conference but out West 8 of the 9 teams get in with the Division winners taking the 1st and 2nd seeding. While we think it’s still a bit lopsided to only have to beat out 1 other team to get in we like this better than the old system in which the best regular season team got a 1st round bye. Additionally, all playoff rounds will be best of 7, so no more arguing whether 2-3 format where the higher seed starts on the road is fair or not.
Also, the 3-day and 7-day injured reserve has been replaced by a reserve list. The reserve can have up to 2 players on it at any one time. There is no minimum duration for the list. We think this will give coaches greater roster flexibility than ever before. The rules governing the 21-day injured reserve remain unchanged.
CYCWORDS 