Toronto Marlies announce opening day roster, October broadcast schedule (update: lineup for Sat.)

The Price is Right will sell anywhere – hockey, not so much.

Back in the 70s. The current Aeros were an expansion team in the IHL in 1994, and then came over to the AHL in 2001 when the IHL folded. Seems to be little written about the WHL Aeros.  This is not a hockey town. Biggest recreational sports appear to be Soccer and Baseball/Softball/T-ball. Biggest sports interest is College Football & NFL.

The only benefit to a lock out is the additional coverage of the prospects and Marlies. I’ll be moving down to T.O. November 1st and look forward to catching a bunch of Marlies games.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the defensive depth in the prospect pool is very exciting and its hard to imagine a team with a better group of defensive prospects… Between the guys who have high potential who have practically made it/have very high potential to make it soon: Gardiner (made it already), Ranger, Blacker, Holzer all have the potential to be in an NHL lineup very soon.

Adding Rielly, Finn, and Percy to this is unreal. Few years could look like:

Phaneuf - Rielly
Gardiner – Blacker
Finn – Percy
Holzer

Three highly offensize players in Phaneuf, Rielly, and Gardiner, and three players known to be defensively responsible with a slight offensive touch in Blacker, Finn and Percy, and Holzer as shut down. All character guys with three as Captains right now (Phaneuf, Finn, Percy), and one as alternate (Rielly)

Obviously young, lacking veteran leadership and things will not pan out exactly like this, but wow there is a lot of potential with these defensemen. Throw in a Seth Jones or Ryan Pulock from this upcoming draft and it would be scary good with potential. (Although I feel we really need a blue chip forward prospect badly). Maybe Burkie could work some magic and land us two decent 1st round picks somehow hah.

Wouldn’t he have to be 18 in June by draft day to have been drafted?

Well, I don’t know how likely that is. But seeing that we drafted higher after the last lockout and we had made the playoffs, I’m thinking your paranoia is a little unfounded.

Hey – what happened to Komi?  You have to have one player with no offensive flair.

From all that I’ve read they had a decent thing going.  I think Columbus is symptomatic of a lot of the weaker teams and that’s why you see teams like Carolina and Minny spending big bucks to ice a competitive team . It really their only hope of becoming profitable and I doubt any type of revenue sharing will change that. You have to fill the rink if your going to make money in the NHL unless of course they find that pot of gold with a big TV contract.

Stronger the opposition, the better the evaluation of our talent. Gives Burkie a much better insight as to who/how to draft IMO.

Bboy: Its odd about Minny. That is a real hotbed of hockey from high-school up.

Ok found it:

All players who will be 18 years old before September 14 and not older than 20 years old before December 31 are eligible for selection for that year’s NHL Entry Draft. In addition, non-North American players over the age of 20 are eligible.

I kind of understand the strategy.  It just seems like a recipe for disaster.  If you’re super competitive you might succeed, but have one or two bad years and the losses could be ginormous. 

Of course, what are the odds of a team going more than 5 years in a row and not make the playoffs?  Impossible. ; )

Exacterly – that’s why Tavares got drafted a year later – his birthday was after Sept 14 and they tried to make a pitch to the NHL to move him up a year.