Camp Demotions (Sep 27)

Kicking off a busy day of cuts, one more from Saturday, as the Vancouver Canucks cut one of their potential rookie candidates in Hunter Shinkaruk. Shinkaruk is one of a few early cuts that had a projection attached to him, but like many of those early cuts, the uncertainty of making the roster kept his number down around 10 points. We just don't know how the season will pan out, but he could certainly make the jump mid-season, if all goes well.

Saturday night saw the Nashville Predators also cut a high profile rookie prospect in Kevin Fiala, who made a little bit of noise in the off-season, trying to train his way into a job on opening night for the Preds. That obviously hasn't been the case for him and he'll have to make his way back into the big league through the minor league process.

If Fiala was to make the roster, I had him as a 30-point player.  Now that he's headed to the AHL, his projection goes down to 10 points, thinking he might make the trip back up during the year.

A few players with projections were cut from the Edmonton Oilers camp roster on Saturday night and the biggest one was forward Andrew Miller, who had been starting to make an impact, but was going to have an uphill battle with a lot of those speedy forwards that have joined the team.  Miller only had a 15-point projection, but his demotion will now bring him down to about 5 points.  Forward Tyler Pitlick and defenseman Brad Hunt may be AHL call-ups now that they have been cut as well, but they didn't really figure to be draftable this year.

The New Jersey Devils lineup was so up in the air, it was hard not to give a bunch of projections to some bubble players, making sure that you get yourself covered. Rookie pool candidate John Quenneville was one of those players cut on Sunday morning, as he was sent back to junior for another year of development, probably a solid move on the Devils' part.  Also making the trip down to the minors, goaltender Scott Wedgewood, who was in competition for the back-up job in Jersey, losing out to Keith Kinkaid.

The race for roster spots in Arizona is looking a little bit brighter for a number of their top prospects, as projected forwards Lucas Lessio and Craig Cunningham were assigned to the AHL on Sunday afternoon.

If you were reading the Sports Forecaster projections, you would have seen Lessio in at 26 points for the year, which would have made him a fringe player for this pool, maybe even a very late sleeper.  You will want to disregard that projection to start the year.

It looks like the NHL comeback for veteran forward Ruslan Fedotenko has hit a speed bump or road block, as he has been demoted from the Wild training camp on Sunday. Fedotenko was hopeful that he would get a new start after missing a year in the NHL, but that doesn't appear to be the case this year. Even if he did make it to the show, there wasn't much for expectations for him, as I only had him in at 20 points, playing a bottom six role.  Forwards Zac Dalpe and Brett Sutter were also minor projections that got sent down on Sunday as well.

There were a couple of professional tryouts cut by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, as both Curtis Glencross and Devin Setoguchi were let go from camp.  Glencross was given a projection of 38 points by the Hockey News, but he could earn a contract from the Leafs, who are still in their rebuild process.  The Leafs are still with a couple tryouts left on their roster and they could prove to be a little bit more interesting down the stretch.

The Boston Bruins have made their call on who they want as their back-up goalie and with the demotion of both Malcolm Subban and Zane McIntyre getting sent down to Providence of the AHL, Jeremy Smith gets the win and he'll be the number two to start the year, playing behind Tuukka Rask.  That's one of the biggest training camp questions answered, well before the start of the season.  Now the Bruins can work with their pair of keepers and they'll move forward through camp.

On Sunday afternoon, the Calgary Flames made a number of cuts, bringing their roster down to 32 players, still leaving about nine cuts yet to make in this preseason.  Among those cut, forward Emile Poirier was sent back down, an 18-point projection by the Hockey News, definitely a bubble player, at best.  There is still plenty of competition left in this team's roster, which will have a huge effect on the draft.

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