My apparent obsession with Troy Hesketh, coupled with my being out of town all weekend, has caused me to get a bit behind on a number of recent items, not to mention a few other items that I'd been accumulating over the past week or so but failed to get posted. So I figured I'd better do a little linkorama to get all caught up. Here goes . . .
- Jake Dowell, who became an RFA this summer, has signed a 2-yr deal with the Chicago Blackhawks. (Props to wojo for the heads-up.) Here's what Dowell had to say:
"Definitely makes me feel real good to have this contract done and puts me a little bit at ease, gives me something to work for, a jump during my training this summer to get into next year. They had so much success this year, I got to be part of the playoff run and hopefully part of everything coming next year and be on the team full-time."
- UFA Brad Winchester has re-upped with St. Louis, signing a 1-year $800,000 deal.
- Brian Elliott visited a kindergarten class as part of the Ottawa Senators' Read to Succeed program, and the Sens website has the video.
- Over on WiscoHockey, Chris Walby shares some final thoughts on the recent TW camp. Of particular interest to us over here is his take on potential Badger recruit Jake McCabe:
"Jake McCabe is unreal. He’s going to be a sophomore. He might be the best defensemen in the state."
- Badger Hockey figures prominently in Andy Baggot's Saturday column "Ten UW records that won't be broken:"
1. Mark Johnson scores 125 goals in 125 career games for the UW men’s hockey team. Rationale: First off, a sniper this prolific is in the NHL before you can say, “It’s a great day for hockey.” Then there’s the matter of needing to average 41.6 goals a season for at least three years. You can count on one hand the number of times a UW player has topped 40 goals in a season during the modern era (four, two by Johnson).
4. Mike Eaves totals 267 points in 160 career games with the UW men’s hockey team.Rationale: Once again, if you’re good enough to challenge this mark, you’ll be in the NHL before you get a sniff of your senior season. Besides, we’re talking 67 points a season and only five UW players have done that since 1980.
8. Jessie Vetter totals 39 career shutouts for the UW women’s hockey team, an NCAA record.Rationale: It’s exceedingly rare for a world-class talent like Vetter to intersect with four Badgers teams formidable enough to reach the NCAA title game.
- Oilers blogger speeds offers his thoughts on Hesketh and the other Oiler picks. (Nope, I just can't get away from Hesketh, can I?)
I actually like what I've read about Hesketh. It seems to have been a little bit early to select him, but they were worried other teams were interested and maybe they were. That said, I don't really like his projected timeline, which currently sits at one more year at Minnetonka, one year in the USHL, finally followed by starting college in 2011/12. I'd have selected F Rajala in this spot, and the THN guide had G Roy as the BPA at this point. Interesting that both players were later selected by the Oilers anyways.
- Spector has a couple of rumors of interest to Badger fans: 1.) The Calgary Flames add Jay Bouwmeester, then flip Dion Phaneuf to Ottawa for Dany Heatley. 2.) Meanwhile, 300 km up Highway 2, rumours persist that Edmonton GM Steve Tambellini is shopping one of his four offensive defenceman in an attempt to kickstart the rebuild in Edmonton.
The 2nd rumor involves Oilers blueliner Sheldon Souray, and if the Oil trade Souray, I gotta think that they hold onto Gilbert.
- Speaking of Tom Gilbert, in his blog Gilbert indicates that he bought a house in Edmonton, that he'll be spending most of the summer in Madison, and that summer is a slow season for his shoe fetish. Oh, and if you missed it, and if you have about 20 minutes of your life that you don't really care if you get back, you could take a look at "A Day in the Life of Tom Gilbert": Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. But you know, say whatever you want about Tom's apparent shoe and jeans fetishes; all-in-all he seems like the same ol' Tom, and it's nice to see him having success in the NHL and remaining a nice guy.
- Speaking of Badgers having success is the NHL and still being nice guys, I've gotta give some love to Joe Pavelski. On Saturday, Pavs hosted a Golf Outing and Cookout fundraiser to benefit youth hockey and to establish a the Joe Pavelski Scholarship fund.Very cool of Pavs to be doing this type of thing already in his young career. Nubeetle, Chuck, and I attended, and the event seemed to be fairly successful. (Props to the boys at Northwest Sports for organizing a great event for Joe.) I'm hoping to be able to post some fundraiser results when they become available.
Pavs also hosted his 4th annual hockey camp last week, and due to the number of registrants he added another camp this week. Here's an article (with video) from last week about Pavs' busy summer in WI. (Thanks to DPlaya for the link.)
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