The Wild Card (Ryan Potulny focused)

Keeping up with the Gopher Obsession theme; here is an interesting article about Ryan Potulny on his chances of making the Edmonton Oilers this fall. Even though Ryan played for the Golden Gophers, this is still newsworthy. Traditionally I pull for WCHA/NCAA players because it gives our league and college hockey credence. While a lot of players in the NHL come from the CHL the college hockey players are making NHL teams at a higher rate than they did in the past. Also, Ryan Potulny is from Grand Forks and there aren't a lot of former NHL hockey players from Grand Forks, ND. Goon's World would like to wish Ryan good luck.

Why Potulny will make the team: Potulny is coming to camp and knows that the only roster spots that are open are perhaps on the 4th line at best, more likely a pressbox seat. Having spoken with him it's clear to me that not only does he understand that but he accepts that if he makes the team, it will be as an energy player. Unlike Brule who to me seemed much more focused on playing a larger role than he did in Columbus (who were not as deep as Edmonton last year let alone this year), Potulny appears ready to accept a llimited role as a utility player and has the experience in that role already.

He's not big but at 6' and 192 lbs, Potulny isn't exactly small either. Of the players I am considering for this series, Potulny is probably the player I see being the least affected by being a healthy scratch for stretches of games.

The Grand Forks North Dakota product says that he's played all three forward positions while growing up through the USHL, NCAA and pro so he's definitely got versatility to play on either wing or down the middle.

As my friend Allan Mitchell pointed out recently at his blog (Lowetide) Potulny is a shooter.

Former WCHA players get big deals.

Recently the WCHA has been known for developing some great NHL talent; Jonathan Toews, Matt Carle, Zach Parise, Paul Martin, Ryan Malone, Matt Greene, Mike Commodore, Travis Zajac, Danny Heatley, Phil Kessel and Erik Johnson, Matt Cullen, Paul Stastny, Jason Blake just to name a few (please do not feel slighted if I forgot a player from your favorite team college hockey team). Recently two WCHA alumni players Mark Stuart (C.C. Tigers) and Ryan Sutter (Wisconsin Badgers) got really nice deals for their respective NHL clubs.

Defenseman Mark Stuart re-signed Tuesday with the Boston Bruins for two years and $2.6 million US.

Stuart, 24, was slated to become a restricted free agent on July 1.

He will make $1.1 million US next season and $1.5 million US in 2009-10.

Stuart was paid $942,400 US last season, when he posted four goals and four assists for eight points with a plus-2 rating in 82 games.

The Rochester, Minn., native has compiled five goals and 11 points with a plus-8 rating in 114 NHL games since he was drafted 21st overall by Boston in 2003.

Recenly Ryan Suter got one of the sweeter deals when he signed with the Nashville Predators for 14 million dollars, wow...

The Nashville Predators made a big commitment to former Badger and former first round selection Ryan Suter today with a 14 million dollar deal. The deal is for 4 seasons.

"We have a great core to build on and to be one of the best in the National Hockey League," Predators general manager David Poile said. "Usually, when you have the best defense, I think that gives you a real good chance to compete for the prize, and that's ultimately what we want to do. That's why we're here today, and that's why we've taken another step in signing one of our core players in Ryan Suter."

Suter had a career high 31 points last season for the Predators. In his one and only season at Wisconsin he had 19 points in 39 games to go along with 93 penalty minutes.

Julien on Kessel getting back in the line up.

If your a Bruins fan and you haven't seen a lot of games where the Bruins took the game to the Habs you might want to check out the embedded video of game five. Wow, that was simply amazing. It has to be one of my favorite nightlights of the 2007-2008 Boston Bruins hockey season. The Bruins took it to the Canadians rookie goaltender Price.


Bruins coach on Phil Kessel getting himself back in the line up after he had been a healthy scratch in games 2, 3 and 4. Ironically Kessel scored the Bruins first goal in game five in Montreal.

Counting on Kessel - With only five goals in the first four games, the Bruins needed a trigger-puller Thursday, leading to Phil Kessel making his return after being scratched the last three games. Julien scratched Jeremy Reich, the fourth-line winger and penalty killer, and put Kessel on the second line alongside Milan Lucic and Marc Savard.

But Julien made sure he put Kessel in the right situations. For several key faceoffs in the neutral and defensive zones, Julien replaced Kessel with Petteri Nokelainen, a more responsible two-way player. In the second period, when Canadiens defenseman Roman Hamrlik was nabbed for holding, Kessel was set up at his preferred space along the left boards, and the rookie didn't hesitate to snap a rebound of his shot between Carey Price's pads for the tying goal.

While some players might have been lost after a three-game benching, Kessel didn't dwell on the disappointment, instead using it as motivation.

"I think it's pretty obvious that we saw Phil Kessel determined to get back in the lineup and make a difference," Julien said. "I think everybody who's seen him play this year would say that was one of his best games. He was strong on the boards, strong on the puck, all those things that we've been working with him to get better at. He's shown us that he's capable of doing it. It couldn't happen at a better time than [Thursday] night. Was I pleased with his game? Absolutely. Do we need more of that? We certainly do."