The 20 year old situation got a little more clear this morning as Seattle acquires Defensemen Cason Machacek from Lethbridge in exchange for a 6th round Bantam selection.
Important to note here that the press release has confirmed the "retirement" of Erik Bonsor and the strong indication that Seattle does not expect to have Ryan Button back in the mix.
The release certainly makes it seem like Seattle will be in the market for another 20 year old player and they will adjust as necessary if Button is returned to Seattle.
Machacek is described as a solid stay at home defensemen with good hockey smarts. He also had 17 fights last year, though I would expect that number to go down as Seattle will likely be asking him to play top 4 minutes this season.
Hockey Challenge 2014
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11 comments :
Solid pick up by Russ, hopefully he brings leadership with him like Toomey did last year.Need another 20 blue liner, hopefully Button comes back but doubt that.
Gotta give Farewell credit, he always seems to pick up a good overager. It's a different league, but will be nice to have trio of Doty, Elliot and Machacek to keep the team from being run over.
Speaking of leadership, any thoughts on who will be team captain this season? Button is for sure not coming back?
Regarding Button... It isn't "for sure" but I think it is pretty clear that Boston has plans for him in Providence... so something would need to go wrong there for him to come back.
I'd give it 50/50 at best.
As for Captain... my pick would be Locks.
Agreed. Chances are extremely slim we ever see Button in a Seattle uniform again. Even so, his diving play at the net to save a goal last year is one of the best plays I've seen in Hockey, no matter what the league.
With that said....fingers crossed for another capable 20 year old D pickup.
Short of that unless Sutter and the rest of the D start channeling Thomas Hickey, I still believe we're in for a long, LONG year.
Totally agree with the last Anonymous comment. That play changed the whole vibe of the last month of the season.
Sutter started getting better towards the end of the year, but yeah, I think that it's going to be a long year, too. New coach has a big hill to climb this year.
What is the update on Troock?
Hard to say with Troock. I guess no one will know until he shows up (or doesn't show up) at training camp.
Tyler, I'd be interested to hear your opinion on Austin Frank and Austin Baecker. I thought Frank played ok down the stretch last season.
I thought Frank played better than I expected down the stretch but didn't have much of a meaningful impact on games. I could see him getting regular "dress" this year and seeing time in the 5/6 pairing but with a new coach I would say that anything is possible.
Baecker needs to improve his skating quite a bit to be ready for big time Major Junior hockey so I would have to see what he looks like in training camp to really give you an accurate assessment. He is one of these kids who will either take a leap forward or Junior A is probably in his future.
I thought Baecker was dropped last season and that he was going to college.
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