Mike Emrick was officially voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame today. Well-deserved.

Komets General Manager David Franke said today he has sent offers to every player from last year's team. That doesn't mean everyone will sign, but he's hoping for a minimum of eight or nine. The Komets will maintain the players' IHL rights through the first 90 days of next season.

The Komets announced Thursday that veteran winger P.C. Drouin has agreed to terms and will return for the defense of the 2008 IHL Turner Cup. Drouin, 34, will be skating his fourth season in Fort Wayne.

Last season Drouin was added to the Komet's roster in November after starting the season appearing in 20 games at Nottingham (EIHL).

The IHL addition of Youngstown could happen very quickly. I heard that the ECHL has told the SteelHounds they want the team to go dark for a year and come back in 2009-10. That's very unlikely to happen.

If it doesn't happen right away, that's a good sign, too, because it means the IHL owners are taking their time and are checking things out. They aren't just going in with hands out taking anyone who expresses a bit of interest. SteelHounds Owner Herb Washington is very well respected, though, so there likely won't be any problems.

Some other notes:

October

17 - at Port Huron, 7:30 p.m.; 18 - Flint, 7:30 p.m.; 24 - at Bloomington, 8:05 p.m.; 25 - at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.; 31 - Kalamazoo, 8 p.m.

November

1 - at Bloomington, 8:05 p.m.; 7 - at Muskegon, 7 p.m.; 8 - Bloomington, 7:30 p.m.; 13 - at Flint, 7:30 p.m.; 14 - Muskegon, 8 p.m.; 15 - at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.; 21 - Port Huron, 8 p.m.; 22 - Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.; 27 - Flint, 7:30 p.m.; 28 - at Port Huron, 7:30 p.m.; 29 - Muskegon, 7:30 p.m.

December

I just talked to David Franke and he said he's continuing to have post-season meetings with the players and he's meeting with Al Sims tomorrow as they start game-planning how they want to put next year's team together. Franke and Sims both said they'd be happy if they got 8-to-12 players back next year. They'd prefer to have more than that, but they know it's unlikely. Some players will move up, some will try to go to Europe and some will possibly retire - though they both said no one has indicated that as of yet.

A story on John Anderson's NHL head coaching chances.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/thesosenheimerboys

Click on the journal for more.

 Keep those prayers coming!

Send me an email with your phone number. I might be going through Warsaw next weekend.