Murphy officially to ASU; Gerlach to Major Juniors

by Redwing77

Forward Wade Murphy has transferred officially to Arizona State University per Brad Schlossman.  In my opinion, it's not surprising but rather disappointing.  I had heard great things about Murphy coming into his time at UND and he just couldn't put things together.

He has to sit out a year (in 115 degree heat) before being able to lace the skates up, but all the best for him.  He'll be in a great position to be the leader on a young-ish team.

In other news:  Max Gerlach bolted for the WHL.  The Texas-born winger played in Colorado last year.  He's off to the Medicine Hat Tigers organization.  He was listed as a 2017 recruit.

It's yet another example of why I believe players will go to the NCAA (if drafted by Major Junior teams) only if they actually suit up.  Next to go Major Juniors?  Jost and/or Fabbro.

I guess that means I'll care about him if/when he gets to the NHL.  Best of luck.

Miles Koules Sick Goal

This came up in my Twitter feed tonight. Former UND recruit Miles Koules scores this beautiful goal for Medicine Hat Tigers. Through 24 games Koules has a line of (7g-9a—16pts). Koules is also a minus -11, breaking it down further Koules has the second highest minus on the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Are the Portland Wnterhawks the next to be punished?

This past summer the OHL’s Windsor Spit Fires were fined $250,000.00 for breaking the OHL’s recruitment/benefit rules and policies. Now according to Dean Milard of the Pipeline Show, the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League could be the next CHL team to face some stiff punishment for a violations of the recruitment rules. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Dean Milard; Coming Down the Pipe --- The In the case of Portland, here is their latest big recruit and a few situations that some might be suspicious of, and reasons why there might not be anything wrong with it at all. Seth Jones joined the Hawks this year after a trade with Everett during the 2012 post season.

- Did the team speak to Jones before the trade?
- Did he simply realize that the Winterhawks have developed some pretty good blueliners lately?
- Did they offer him more money to play in Portland after the trade?

Depending on who you talk to, Jones is a stud no matter where he plays. Some wonder why Everett wasn't his choice as it didn't seem to hurt Ryan Murray who went second overall. But a case can be made for the likes of Joe Morrow and Derrick Pouliot in Portland. As for his NCAA options, he had narrowed his choices down to the University of North Dakota. Formerly the Fighting Sioux. UND is an unreal program and playing there is never a wrong choice, but Portland isn't exactly second banana. They've been to the final, two straight years and some (like me) have them getting back there again this year. Maybe Jones just saw the writing on the wall that they were going to be good, especially with him and jumped on board.

After this revelation; one does have to wonder how many more CHL teams could be in violation of the recruitment/benefits rules? I am sure that Dean Millard and Guy Flaming will keep us updated on this developing situation.

Western Hockey League addresses player safety

Three North American junior hockey leagues have taken major steps to tighten rules to the game of hockey and improve player safety.  From my vantage point, it would appear that all three leagues are also trying to limit the players that play a reckless brand of hockey or at least change the way they play the game of hockey.

This season, the USHL instituted a new rule which has specified a number of penalties that the league has termed as “dangerous play” to include minor penalties (ie: elbowing, head contact, kneeing). Also, the USHL will monitor and review the above penalties as well as all major penalties throughout the season.
When players start accumulating multiple penalties they will be notified and addressed by the USHL Commissioner’s office. This action is being presented as a way to educate the league’s players.  If league office deems it necessary they will punish players via supplementary discipline.

Translation, the league is sending a message to their players – if the players rack up penalties that the league has deemed as dangerous play the players are going to pay the consequences for their actions.
The Ontario Hockey League has put a limit on the number of fights that a player can participate in during the course of a hockey season after a player reaches 10 fights the offending player will begin serving a two game suspension for each fight over 10.

The OHL and the USHL are not alone the Western Hockey League is also enacting some stiffer rules of their own to address on ice play.

During the summer the WHL has adopted this as a rule:

Adoption of a staged fighting rule. Should a fight occur following a face-off during a game, it will be considered a staged fight. Should a stage fight occur during a pre-season, regular season or playoff game, the players involved shall each receive an automatic game misconduct in addition to the major penalty. Should one player clearly initiate or instigate the fight, only that player will receive the game misconduct in addition to a minor penalty for instigating the fight. Should the linesmen intervene and prevent the fight from starting, the players involved will each receive misconduct penalties. [WHL.CA]

The WHL is also going to address player’s safety and deal with the repeat offenders and issue supplemental discipline where it’s necessary.

 The WHL also announced it remains fully committed to the Seven Point Plan introduced this past season to address player safety concerns in the area of head blows and concussions.  The Seven Point Plan includes continued emphasis on discipline as it applies to repeat offenders; production of an education video on player safety; seminar for all General Managers and Head Coaches on September 11, 2012; continuing to provide players with best available protective equipment; working with the WHL Arena Advisory Committee to adopt acrylic glass as a standard for all WHL arenas; continuing to collect and study research data on concussion injuries and their causes.

That makes at least three Junior Leagues in North America are looking to stop a certain type of player in their ranks and have taken steps to address those issues. In reading and interpreting these new rule changes, it would appear that the various leagues are going after the predator/agitators that skate up and down the ice taking liberties with the opposition players – truth be told, these players have been put on notice and their days could be numbered in junior hockey if they don’t change their behavior.

Also, the message should be – if you don’t change your on ice behavior – we will compel you to change your on ice behavior. The Western Hockey League has a page that lists the players that have been given supplemental discipline. To date, 10 players have been suspended a total of 21 games.

Originally posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine

Seth Jones to the Winterhawks?

In perusing the Internet today it would appear that Seth Jones might be going to the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL. I don't really think it's that a big shocker to anyone and his chances of playing at UND are probably between slim and none. It had been announced that the highly sought after Jones was going to pick between the WHL and going the NCAA route at UND. Jones actually made a recruiting visit this past season. Here is the press release from the Portland Winterhawks.

Where are they now - Corey Fienhage

s/t to Sabres Prospect and Kris Baker. Check out this fight between Mitch Maxwell vs former Fighting Sioux defenseman Corey Fienhage who now plays for Kamloops Blazers of the WHL...

Corey Fienhage finished -1 with his fourth fighting major of the season as Kamloops lost to Lethbridge, 4-1. The 6'4 "Moose" Fienhage dished out a clean hit along the boards early in the third period and was asked to tangle with a Mitch Maxwell. Earlier in the game, Fienhage ended Hurricane forward Philip Tot's night with another clean, hard hit.