News and Notes

The rosters are slowly trickling in from around western Canada for bantam teams. As mentioned in an earlier post, most of the south portion of the ambhl have posted rosters and now a few of the North teams are as well. Something that really jumps out are the number of 1997 born or first year bantams on the North teams this year. Either that explains the lack of depth in the 96 age group or the power of the 97 age group in the North. I think I'll stick with the latter! Of note, the Lloydminster Heat who are usually near the bottom are starting to have some of the kids who dominated the peewee ranks for a couple years jump to bantam now. Andrew Koep, who we have rated as a first round talent for the 2012 WHL bantam draft is on the roster and his defensive team-mate Kale Clague. What is so special about Clague? Well, he is a 5'10 140lb 1998 born who should be still playing peewee hockey, but the kid is exceptional and will be one of the better puck moving defenseman depsite being just 12 yrs old playing mostly 14 yr olds! Clague though will have to wait 2-3 weeks to play due to an injured foot he hurt in football on Monday.

Also of note from the North is CAC's roster that features four 1997 born players who have all had great peewee hockey success. Dylan Stewart, Brayden Burke, Andrew Marshall and defenseman Justin Greer are the four who will try to make CAC competitive but CAC is still likely a year away from perhaps making some noise in the north.

In Saskatoon, the Greater Saskatoon Hockey league draft is taking place for the peewee and bantam age groups. Stay tuned for some roster analysis when they are complete. Also of note in the GSHL is that one of the top offensive players and first round talent Kolten Olynek has injured his shoulder and will miss between 3 and 5 weeks.

Getting back to the AMBHL for a moment, It sounds as though St. Albert bruiser Zach Gonek could be suspended for up to 8 games due to his shenanigans during an exhibition game in which he snapped as one source put it. Hopefully Gonek can control his emotions and put all that great talent to use in what could be a first round talent.