WHL Stats Leaders
by Jonathan Willis on Oct 9, 2009 6:15 AM MDT
in Prospects
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- Points: Stepan Novotny (14)
- Goals: Stepan Novotny (8)
- GAA: Kurtis Mucha (1.64)
- Save Percentage: Torrie Jung (.942)
If you haven't caught the theme here yet, I'll spell it out: players the Oilers invited to their rookie camp but chose not to sign for free.
As I said a few posts ago: It's early. It's early. It's early.
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Novotny has sort of slowed down. I remember he had 9 points in 3 games and then he has become human again. But I know for a fact that one of Dean Millard and Guy Flaming were rooting for the oilers to sign Novotny
I really liked Novotny’s game against the Canuck rookies, he showed a few different things.
Writer for The Copper & Blue
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 9, 2009 8:17 AM MDT up reply actions
So did Mucha for that matter.
Writer for The Copper & Blue
by Bruce McCurdy on Oct 9, 2009 8:18 AM MDT up reply actions
Maybe the players did not want to sign. Why sign away free agency before one has to? Don’t you lose post-CHL academic scholarships if you sign a pro contract? You could be signing away a Canadian university hockey career on scholarship.
Moreover, because of the 50-contract limit the players probably would have signed AHL deals, which don’t pay well enough for it to be worth the tradeoff.
Overage players of any quality are supposed to dominate the WHL, and it would be a letdown for a guy of Novotny’s skill if he weren’t shooting the lights out. It’s pretty easy to score when you’re bigger and stronger than 80% of your opponents.
by Benjamin Massey on Oct 9, 2009 10:32 AM MDT up reply actions
They may have needed to sign AHL deals but if the Oilers regarded them highly enough maybe not. They wouldn’t have counted toward the 50-man limit this season if they were sent to junior. And who knows? An AHL deal that guarantees you, say, $50,000 per for two years is pretty similar to getting a full ride at a Canadian University (if you save your money) and you still get the chance to see if you’re good enough for pro hockey.
Now, it’s possible nothing like that (or nothing at all) was offered but the Oilers are paying Bryan Pitton and Jordan Bendfeld $50,000 to $60,000 each to play in the ECHL so it’s not as though the money is totally unreasonable.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 9, 2009 11:45 AM MDT up reply actions
If you regard a guy highly, you don’t, as a rule, send him back to junior for an overage season. Particularly not when your farm team could use the help.
(Mucha, as a goaltender, is an exception.)
by Benjamin Massey on Oct 9, 2009 11:56 AM MDT up reply actions
It’s true you wouldn’t normally be sending overagers back to junior. I kind of doubt Novotny would help much on the farm though. He’s not exactly huge and, up until this season, hadn’t lit the WHL on fire offensively. They probably just thought that they had better options in Springfield.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 9, 2009 12:46 PM MDT up reply actions
Correct Me If I'm Wrong...
But isn’t Novotny too young for the farm? He’s younger than Eberle.
A posse ad esse.
Writer for The Copper & Blue and OilersNation.
by Jonathan Willis on Oct 9, 2009 3:51 PM MDT up reply actions
No, I think you’re right. Which means that they could have signed him to an NHL deal and send him back to the WHL for a year while they waited for, say, Bryan Lerg to fall off the 50 contract limit.
by Scott Reynolds on Oct 9, 2009 3:56 PM MDT up reply actions
That’s possible, although the fact they came to camp (along with commons sense) makes me think that most of these kids would take an NHL contract.
Still, it probably won’t be a big deal, but it angers me that guys like Bryan Pitton and Matt Nickerson have NHL deals yet the Oilers couldn’t sign a guy like Novotny (or Dmitri Kostromitin, my pick).
A posse ad esse.
Writer for The Copper & Blue and OilersNation.
by Jonathan Willis on Oct 9, 2009 11:45 AM MDT up reply actions
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