NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds/DUBNetwork.ca MJ Warriors Beat Writer

1. Is the Price right?: All the chatter is about whether the cap hit would be worth it for the Seattle Kraken to take Carey Price in their expansion draft Wednesday evening (which is sure to be great TV, by the way), and I honestly cannot make up my mind whether they will do it. Montreal’s Hall of Fame goaltender waived his no-move clause to allow the pick and is set to earn $10.5 mill on the cap till 2025-26, front-loaded in actual pay at a total of $13 mill for next season. Seattle has said they can spend right to the cap, but at a total cap of $81.5, is it really feasible to spend a whole 1/8th on one guy and be sustainable and flexible down the road? It would put butts in seats, and he could instantly give the club a face of the franchise type, but even a two-years-younger Braden Holtby at $4.3 million from Vancouver would make more sense and be less of a risk for the new club. They won’t take Price though, right? Right? Right. They already got Chris Driedger from Florida, keep in mind. I do have a bet with a buddy that if they do take Price he’s going to buy me ice cream, so that’s really all I care about here.
2. Mailloux: The news Tuesday was that London Knights defenceman Logan Mailloux withdrew from the NHL Draft after news of charges were leveled at him by a woman whom he posted sexual pictures of online without her consent. I don’t want to get too much into all this right now, but I do want to say that I strongly agree with the tons of people who have mentioned that these young athletes do need far more structured and serious training about proper and professional conduct on social media. Yes, it all starts with the hope that they all learn to be a “good person”, and that notion, while true, is super layered: but this sort of thing – players making poor decisions on social media platforms – just keeps happening over and over again. He seemed to pull out of the draft only after a reported nine teams took him off their draft boards completely, but I hope this whole thing leads to teams taking the social media education of their players a lot more seriously. Also yes, don’t post pictures of people online without their consent, ever.
3. Another one to Estevan: Another week another Major Junior pickup by the Estevan Bruins and their general manager Jason Tatarnic. Hulking Newfoundland-born centreman Mark Rumsey and his 85 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League contests with Moncton, Bathurst, and Cape Breton will be wearing the gold and black this year, and my contacts on the rock essentially told me that the scouting report on the guy is “do not, under any circumstance, let him have space to shoot the puck.” He has a bullet, he’s 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, and will turn 20 before the season starts. Hockey is a game played on ice, not on paper, but right now on paper, the SJHL looks like a race for a second place given how loaded the Centennial Cup hosts seem. They still have to gel, of course!
4. Un-Stuck in Grand Falls: The Notre Dame Hounds pulled off a trade Monday reacquiring their own Newfoundlander in 2002-born speedster Andrew Stuckless from the Grand Falls Rapids of the Maritime league. Stuckless, who also played the 18-19 season with the Hounds U18s, started last year with the Hounds Junior A, then went back east after the SJHL season was cancelled with big brother Ethan. I know for a fact that Andrew loves Notre Dame and really wanted to be back in Wilcox for the 21-22 campaign, so it’s nice to see him get a chance to build off the underrated four points in five games start he had in the Covid-ruined campaign. Ethan, by the way, has committed to Plymouth State University in NCAA D3 in New Hampshire for next year, so that’s great for the Stuckless family! 
5. Ochitwa: Wrote a little piece on the SJHL website on Melfort Mustangs defenceman Lucas Ochitwa, and in interviewing the 20-year-old from Wadena, SK I was just struck by his maturity and self-awareness. He knows he doesn’t perfectly fit some sort of player mould, so he knows what he has and takes full advantage. It was a treat to talk to him, as it has been to chat with all the young men in the league I’ve had the chance to over the last couple of years! Please check out the article here: https://www.sjhl.ca/mustangs-ochitwa-breaking-the-mould
6. Brandon moves 20s: The top team in the Regina Hub the Brandon Wheat Kings were just stacked with quality 2001-born defencemen, so it’s no surprise that they moved on from a couple this past week. Long-time Wheatie Jonny Lambos was shipped to Everett and local boy Rylan Thiessen was sent a closer to Swift Current, but with 01s in goaltender Ethan Kruger, and Dmen Chad Nychuk and Neithan Salame still all in the mix, the decisions for this talented team will continue to be hard. We can just assume Braden Schneider won’t be back, and Ben McCartney will all but certainly be in the American League, but with leaders like Ridly Greig, Salame, and Nolan Ritchie, and excellent youngsters like Nate Danielson and Logen Hammett in the mix after some great seasoning in the Hub, this team is not going to be bad at all.  
7. Appreciate the communication!: Speaking of teams that shouldn’t be bad at all, the Moose Jaw Warriors did a solid job reaching out to me to tell me that while media sources elsewhere were assuming that import picks Martin Rysavy (Czech Republic) and Robert Baco (Slovakia) were signed, sealed, and delivered Warriors, nothing has been made official yet. Hard to fathom the details needed to be sure of something like that with different Covid situations around the world, and potential NHL-team interests in the mix, but other teams in the Canadian Hockey League have confirmed Europeans are on the way AND the Canadian government plans to allow non-North Americans into the country in mid-September. Really appreciated Moose Jaw communications guy James Gallo reaching out to confirm this all to me!
8. New board at ND!: Pretty cool new video board at the Duncan McNeill Arena in Wilcox, and unlike the one that’s already there, it is under the complete control of the fine people at the college! You know you’ll see some Neugsie graphics and videos on there!
9. Awesome time in Caronport: Had the great opportunity this past weekend to call a bunch of the top 2006 and 2007-born boys in Saskatchewan play at the Dustin Earnest Prospects Camp in Caronport, SK along with Rory McGouran, the Voice of the Humboldt Broncos. We had a real blast and some of the talent on display was awesome! Some future WHLers and SJHLers out there for sure. I’ll keep the extent of my thoughts on a lot of these kids to myself for now, but to me, the most impressive showing at the event was Shaden Duliak out of the Yorkton Terriers U15, who not only scored highlight-reel goals but showed all sorts of physical bite as well. He was not the highest-touted kid heading in, but he definitely turned my head!
10. Sask camp around the corner: It will be interesting to see how many of the players at the event will make it to Team Saskatchewan U16 camp set to go late in July in preparation for the WHL Cup planned for Alberta this fall. I can see a couple make a push for sure, although there is so much talent in this province that it’ll be a real battle all the way around! Either way, it’ll be worth tuning in to whatever stream they provide for the event to watch Saskatoon’s own Berkly Catton, the projected No. 1 pick in the next WHL Draft.

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)