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Archive for August 21st, 2008

Man of his word

21 Aug 2008 @ 8:17 AM

The last time I wrote Zac Dalpe had moved from being a lock to play for Ohio State to being undecided. Well, the Canes 2^nd round pick has signed the dotted line with the Buckeyes. However, as reported by Alexander, the Canes offered the prospect a contract. If he had signed that would has killed all NCAA eligibility for Dalpe and ensured he would play one of three places: Plymouth (Major Junior), Albany or for the Canes. With Zac still developing, not to mention still growing, I’m pretty sure we all know what option it would have been. Yet another case of conflicting interests between the Plymouth Whalers and the Hurricanes.

This means that the best chance people would have had to see Zac in action was at the prospect camp as he’s most likely not going to pay his own way to training camp. Rutherford stated that the Canes plan to re-visit their talks with Dalpe next year and that they are still high on the prospect. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that they plan on re-visiting talks by calling in the middle of class shortly after the World Junior Championships. If that happens again I’m sure LA will be waiting with another package of a decent young defenseman and a third line center that will half-ass it after deciding he doesn’t like being stuck behind Staal and Brind’Amour on the depth chart.

One correction from my previous entry needs to be addressed though. PK is not the only owner of CHL and NHL franchises. Daryl Katz, the Edmonton Oilers owner, also the own of the Edmonton Oil Kings, which joined the WHL just last season. In fact the President and CEO of the Oilers, Patrick LaForge, also serves as the Governor of the Oil Kings. Whether they try to run the Oil Kings as the Junior Oilers, much as the same way PK treats the Whalers as the Junior Canes, remains to be seen.

Posted By: DaveG
Last Edit: 21 Aug 2008 @ 08:26 AM

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