For the Komets
Round 1: Kevin Watters, forward, from Adirondack
Round 2: Mario Larocque, defense, from Danbury
Round 3: Mike Berry, forward, from Adirondack
Round 4: Drew Omicioli, center, from Danbury|
Round 5: Mike Boudreau, goaltender, from Adirondack
Comments
Scott Hay is rumored to retire and get a job outside of hockey.
Rumors, rumors...
I heard a rumor that Enema Man was full of....
Nice draft today, I think the Goaltender pick may have been just another possibility to bring into camp to battle for the backup position. I would bet anything that the Frankes are working on something big in net for this next year. The kid from Missouri is nothing more than a back-up candidate, too. I think we will all be very happy and excited come the first pre-season game as we will see some big-time scorers, defensemen, and a big-time goalie in here as well. Question will be, will our talent be as good as or better than the other teams. I think this league will be loaded this next year. Should be a great hockey season coming up.
The league will be loaded if they eliminate the vet rule. And, why not? If you can get the guys to play for what you can pay, why penalize the fans by having to cut more talented vets to keep lesser guys?
Larocque listed at 6' 3" == 165 == ?!? in hockey databade. That can't be right.
Sounds like one long pencil......Maybe a #2 pencil.
David did you see who they picked up the first draft? How much more toughness do you want?
i checked and larocque is 210 a vet and a guy who regularly gets over 200 pim. he and mcmillan would really add toughness and then bring back galbraith and who knows who else and we might have the jungle back again.
Sounds good to me Chuckitt.
Tony MacMillian is not in the league of a Benefield, or even a Fels. He is a middle weight at best. I like taking Larocque and I hope we can sign him. We need the heavy up front and I am sorry Galbraith and MacMillian do not fill that role.
MacMillian will dance with anyone at anytime. I personally measure toughness by more than the ability/willingness to fight. Watters is not afraid to bang. Sure he doesn't fight much but with his skills you don't want him to.
Why would you want the Komets to waste a dispersal draft pick on a Fels type? 10 points/ 245 PM is not the type of player you seek when there are skilled guys to be had.
Tony take a look who Rockford picked up in these two drafts. They got scorers and toughness to boot. They handed us our lunch in the playoff's and not only got better but add toughness to an already tough hockey club. Now I know this does not mean anything other than you hold these players rights. I will take size and toughess any day over a guy who is 5-10 and got his lunch handed to him by Danny Stewart last year in our building. You have to have an enforcer who at least strikes a little fear in an opponent. We do not have that. Everyone on here said Worlton did not strike fear into anyone. Well Benefield, Fels, Leblond (sp), Wingfield, Mirsty, types do. We had a chance to pick some of these types and did not. We draft guys like Paul Falco come on!!!Elich is more of a cancer type like Duhart was early in his career. Will see who we can sign and who can not. Time will tell. Heck even Port Huron signed a tough guy in Colt King who be a force in the UHL.
David well I may not agree with the way you would have had the Komets draft, I can certainly understand your reasons for wanting them to go that route. I believe they can find those players outside the draft. Remember they are pretty much going from scratch. If they had planned on keeping 12 guys from last year and drafted this way I would have questions too.
But for these being the first 10 guys,I am ok with that. Maybe they felt they could not sign or afford the players you mentioned if there is going to be a cap.
No matter who they took there will always be ways to second guess. Forgetting who they didn't take, just looking at who they did, I think 1-10 it was a pretty good draft.
Guys like Falco, who knows? He certainly didn't have horrible numbers for a guy who didn't always take a regular shift. He is not an experienced player but they must have seen something to draft him.
If I had one wish it would have been that a coach was named before these drafts even though that wasn't really possible. That way he could have had a say in who was brought in. That being said, the Frankes have a good idea of the type of coach they want brought in and I am sure they drafted accordingly and with confidence that the players brought in, if signed would fit.
The way the league is shaping up with the potential to be loaded with talent, I dont think you can afford to have your prototypical fighter... If you read Stan Drulia's comments about Colt King you'll see that he is all fired up that this guy will be a 20 goal scorer in the UHL and be one of the toughest guys in the league. Teams are gonna be looking for that type of player to fill thier policeman role this year unless the UHL increases the amount of players you can dress for a game. Then I believe the K's may go find themselves a monster to patrol the ice 2 or 3 times a period. I bet with the way that Rockford drafted is saying that some of those guys like Johnson, Big Snake are gonna move up and they are just replacing them, besides I think Bennefield finished the season in the AHL...but dont quote me on that...
Yes Bennefield did finish the year in the AHL so that says something about his talent level. Reading the comments this morning in the JG we are still in talking with PC and Chaulk. For my money I let PC go and play elsewhere thus opening another vet spot. I am not displeased totally with the draft picks,but would have thought they would have taken at least one "true" enforcer one the fans have seen and read about.
David- I think JR's got it right for the moment. The UHL hasn't added the roster spot yet despite all the talk that they would so why waste a draft pick on a guy your not likley to sign. If the UHL decides to add the roster spot for the "enforcers" aka "goons" then the K's can look seriously at getting one of those. Until then I think they were smart in the draft picks they made, although I would have like them to get another defenseman or two. But, we'll see what happens during the summer.
If we are going to pick the best player. Why didn't we pick up Sylvain Daigle when he was still there when it was time for are pick. He could fill the void and be a game breaker. Plus why wouldn't he want to come to Fort Wayne.
Good point-Paul D. I do think that Daigle might want a price that the Frankes are not willing to pay, but as Blake said in an earlier post, he believes that the Frankes have something up their sleeves in reguards to goaltending.
But what kinda price could he really get. I don't think Lawson would come here to play and take a pay cut. It should be interesting.
Well Daigle did play in Danbury last year, I bet he got one of those no show jobs.
I bet he was one of those $100,000 guys. At least $75,000 realistically.
Paul - Notice that Muskegon passed on Daigle too.
I think it has to do more with Daigles' Vet status than anything. I really don't think the Frankes want to tie up a Vet spot with a goaltender. If they did, they would of just re-signed Frenchy. Thats why I think they passed up Daigle.
Hello All,
This is my first time making any comment on here. I've been mostly just a "reader." I enjoyed reading what everyone has to say throughout the year. I just wanted to give my input on a player I think the Komets should look at. His name is Shawn Legault. He lat played in the UHL in 2001-2002 for Elmira. He had 365 PIM with 25 points. He's had stints in the AHL, but has been playing in the CHL the last few years. This guy can score and consistently puts points on the board. 2004-2005 he had 46 points with 300PIM. Last season he had 20 points and 299 PIM in only 48 games! Why can't the Komets get a guy like that?
I bet finances play a little part of that. I looked over some of some of the attendnace figure for the CHL and most teams make the UHL look sick. They might pay a little better in the CHL as opposed to the UHL. And your playing in front of more fans.
Blake,
Is there any chance the league drops the Vet rule completly. I heard that it could be dropped to 5. That would hurt the UHL a great deal.
I think Joseph might be right.
If they drop the vet rule to five every fan should write in to every newspaper and complain. To me that just says they can't even enforce a hard cap, and they don't care about putting the best product on the ice.
I've asked the question HOW does the league enforde a hrd cap and only Tony E. came up with something that I thought wouldn't fly because I don't think owners would want to forfeit games for being over the cap, although I could be wrong seeing as how Adirondak forfeited 2 games due to violating the vet rule.
There's quite a bit more on enforcing the cap in Saturday's story, but I would think the fact that they are sending sworn documents over state lines and the government just used that to take down Danbury, that would scare the crap out of me from doing it. That's some pretty serious stuff. There are some pretty interesting proposals in Saturday's story.
David, you're so wrong about losing PC. Big mistake.
I like PC. The problem last year was it looked like he was a one man show on his line. For him to be truly effective, you need to put guys on his line who can keep up not just skate speed wise but "speed of the game" wise. Otherwise it is like putting one of the old Russians on a line with Andy Townsend and Jeff Worlton.