Daily Dose of the Dub: Glass coming back to Winterhawks; Pats trade for Royals backup; Stanley headed back to Swift Current; Gatenby waived by Tri-City

Cody Glass on his way back to Portland

So after getting one more NHL preseason game under his belt on Monday, which he nearly scored in, Cody Glass is headed back to the Portland Winterhawks. Glass had 102 points in 64 games last year and is the now the returning leading scorer in the WHL.

The former sixth overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft played in two NHL preseason games with the Golden Knights but Vegas obviously wants him to get one more year of action in the WHL.

Glass also figures to be a cornerstone of Hockey Canada’s U-20 World Junior Championships roster.

Glass’ return is a huge boon to the Winterhawks as they lost four of the other five of their top scorers from a season ago and are currently without Ryan Hughes due to a lower body injury that has him in a walking boot.

Portland is in Kennewick for a game against Tri-City on Friday. It is unknown at this time whether Glass will play in that game.

Portland also waived overage forward Conor MacEachern and first-year import Dean Schwenninger and reassigned defenseman Ryan Miley.

Portland was put into a tough position with overage import Joachim Blichfeld coming back to the WHL, even though he was signed by the San Jose Sharks and eligible to play in the AHL.

MacEachern was a depth forward for Portland last year, after switching from defense and was a heart-and-soul type of grinding forward. He is from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. He did play in the BCMML as well and could end up in the BCHL.

Miley, a 2000-born defenseman is headed to Surrey of the BCHL. He got into one game last year with the Winterhawks.

Schwenninger was taken in the CHL Import Draft this year. The 2001-born Swiss winger played in four preseason games, notching two assists.

There was a change to the rules this year, allowing WHL teams to trade first-year Euros after December 15th. Unfortunately for Portland this did not help them as they were forced to move one much earlier than December. While MacEachern has cleared waivers, the WHL Weekly Report has Schwenninger as “TBD.” This means that either the waiver process had not finished yet, or another team is trying to claim him.

Pats bring in McNabb

The Victoria Royals were carrying three goalies on their roster though the first weekend of the 2018-19 season. They made a somewhat unexpected move on Tuesday, trading 2000-born netminder Dean McNabb to the Regina Pats along with a ninth round pick in 2019 for an eighth round pick in 2020 and a conditional fifth round pick in 2020.

McNabb was drafted in the third round by the Royals in 2015. He played in 28 games last season, but only posted a 4-10 record as a lot of his appearances were late in games that were out of reach, so that starting goalie Griffen Outhouse could get some rest.

Outhouse, an overage goalie this year is one of two goalies left on the roster. The other is 2001-born Colorado Springs native Brock Gould. This trade could be read as the Royals believing in Gould being able to take on the job of starter next season.

The Pats, meanwhile now have four goalies on their roster. 2000-born Max Paddock appears to be the main guy in the crease but McNabb joins 1998-born Kyle Dumba and 2001-born Matthew Pesenti on the roster. One would expect the Pats to make some changes to this area of their roster soon.

Stanley headed back to Swift Current

A part of one of the biggest WHL trades in recent history is headed back to the team that traded him. 1998-born defenseman Matthew Stanley, who was part of the package the Swift Current Broncos sent to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for Stuart Skinner, Tanner Nagel and Giorgio Estephan, was placed on waivers and then claimed by Swift Current.

The Hurricanes had four overage players on the roster with Stanley, forwards Jake Elmer and Taylor Ross and import defenseman Igor Merezhko. With Stanley being waived, it seems either the Hurricanes are in the market for another overage player or they are going with Merezhko as one of their two imports. That would mean they need to waive either 2000-born goalie Akira Schmid or 2001-born defenseman Danila Palivko.

Merezhko played in one game over the weekend, Palivko played both and Schmid did not play in either. Lethbridge has two other goalies on the roster in starter Reece Klassen and 2001-born Carl Tatachuk.

Swift Current meanwhile has lots of decisions to make.

Ward reassigned by Seattle

Another Western Conference team has settled its goalie situation as the Seattle Thunderbirds have reassigned 2001-born netminder Eric Ward. They seem to have settled on 2001-born Cole Schwebius as their backup goalie behind starter Liam Hughes.

Tri-City waives Gatenby

The Tri-City Americans were another team forced to make a tough decision. They had five overage players on their roster entering the season. Defenseman Dan Gatenby was waived by the Ams and has cleared waivers. Forwards Parker AuCoin, Nolan Yaremko and Brett Clayton and defenseman Anthony Bishop are still on the roster so one more will have to be moved.

Dan Gatenby (Andy Devlin)

Gatenby was acquired from the Kamloops Blazers prior to the 2017-18 season and played 57 games for the Americans. He had five assists and was a plus-four. In 14 playoff games, he had one assist and was a minus-one.

Tri-City Americans Governor and General Manager Bob Tory had this to say about parting with Gatenby, who was a hard-nosed blue liner for them last year:

“It is always tough to waive a veteran overage player. This year the market was one where trades of overage players was limited. We started with six guys of which all played for us last year and all were capable of playing … this year.  It was imperative to get the numbers down to a manageable situation. Danny was a valuable player for us and we wish him all the best in the future, however in the end we can only keep three. For now Yaremko, AuCoin, Clayton and Bishop will continue to battle for the three spots,” Tory said.

Kamloops reassigns Palaga and Ramsay

The Kamloops Blazers trimmed their goalie count on Monday, reassigning 18-year-old Max Palaga to the BCHL and 17-year-old Rayce Ramsay to the SJHL. This means that rookie Dylan Garland will be backing up veteran Dylan Ferguson this season.

They are another Western Conference team to go with a 16-year-old backup as the Everett Silvertips and Portland Winterhawks have gone this route as well.

 

Brannstrom cracks Vegas’ roster

Brandon Wheat Kings drafted import defenseman and Golden Knights first-rounder Erik Brannstrom has shown enough in camp and preseason to stick with the big club. He posted 15 points over 44 games last season in Sweden’s top league, the SweHL.

Brandon took Brannstrom in the CHL Import draft and currently has an import slot open.

Isles assign Bellows to AHL

The New York Islanders have sent 1998-born forward Kieffer Bellows to their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Tigers, where he will begin his professional career. Bellows ranked 15th in the WHL with 41 goals last season, helping lead the Portland Winterhawks to a second place finish in the Western Conference with 94 points.

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