And then there were 26

Trying to fix the ice Friday night

The Aeros announced that they cut 5 more guys from camp today: forwards Rylan Kaip, Michael Kennedy, Bobby Robins, defenseman J.F. David and goaltender Per-Olivier Pelletier.

Pelletier isn't a surprise since Jose Theodore is headed to Houston for the week. Wish there was more to say about the other guys but... they never even got a chance to show their stuff for coaches and fans. Stinks for them.

Getting close to a final roster, folks. Games start mattering in a week!

Welcome to Hockey Season, AHL style

Aeros start camp today with testing and physicals in the morning and then hitting the ice at 3 p.m. I find it interesting that they're on the ice today, as it seems like most camps don't hit the ice until day 2.

But I like it. This team needs a jump start and I'm guessing the guys won't mind it either. Maybe helps to knock some nerves back to just rip that bandaid off and get out there with the guys you're competing against for a job.

The first round of Wild cuts came last week, sending down LW Brandon Buck, RW Jarod Palmer, RW Joel Broda, RW Jean-Michel Daoust and G Josh Tordjman to join the tryouts on the training camp roster in Houston.

But today, the big cuts come as the team whittles down to the crew that will mostly be together until the end of training camp and into Finland.

Before we get to those names, though, an update on the goaltending situation: Apparently, Khudobin is not the shoo-in we first thought he would be. Wild GM Chuck Fletcher has not committed to making Anton the #2 and has made noises like he might pick up a free agent with more NHL experience to back up Backstrom.

That's disappointing for Anton, though. I would guess his latter-half inconsistency last season is a good chunk of where their reservations are coming from, and rightly so. He let in too many untimely goals in the AHL and you just can't do that in the NHL or you're the next Vesa Toskala (which, BTW, is a name Fletcher threw out there, along with Jose Theodore. Wouldn't THAT be fun?)

We'll keep you posted on that front as the Wild continues to evaluate and make decisions between the pipes.

Okay, here's your list of guys who are having a crappy day today:

F
Robbie Earl*
Petr Kalus*
Warren Peters*
Jon DiSalvatore*
Colton Gillies (who Russo reports is "pumped")
Cody Almond
Chad Rau
Carson McMillan

D
Tyler Cuma
Max Noreau
Nate Prosser
Jared Spurgeon
Jamie Fraser

G
Matt Hackett

*These guys are on waivers for the purposes of being sent down. Will know tomorrow if they've cleared.

A few who have managed to hang on for at least a bit longer are Kassian, Wellman (though I think he's going to stick out of camp), Bagnall, Falk, and Scandella. These guys might get a sweet first class trip to Finland at the end of the week even if they don't make the final roster, so congrats to them.

Anyway, welcome to Houston, fellas. It's not that bad. Flip-flops in the winter, yo! It's gonna be great. Just ask Colton!

(Thanks to Russo and his killer tweeting and blog today for the updates.)

Camp Schedule and other stuffs (with a p.m. update)

Dudes! It's HOCKEY SEASON! YAYYYYYY!!!!!!

Just wanted to post a few nuggets for ya to keep your mouth watering:

First, the Aeros put out their training camp schedule yesterday. Don't be shy about going out and checking the guys out. It's free, it's nice and cold in the rink, and Darryl Sydor will be there!

Here's the schedule.

Do keep in mind that times may vary and what the guys are doing on the ice might not be real interesting all the time. For the last two years, I've gone the morning of the home pre-season game. First year, it was a good pre-game practice for the guys playing and then a real practice for the guys not playing. Second year, they were just screwing around, shooting on the goalies, not much structure, not much fun to watch.

Looking back, that's kinda how the seasons went, too, eh?


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NHL pre-season starts tonight and if you are fortunate enough to have the NHL Network on your television, they're showing 35 or so pre-season games for the first time ever.

I love the NHL pre-season. The games are kinda weird, but it's cool to see the AHL-bound guys try to become somewhat less AHL-bound, if'n you know what I mean.

So, here's THAT schedule.

And the Wild are apparently going to start making cuts either after the first pre-season game tonight or tomorrowWednesday or Thursday, so guys will be trickling into town shortly.

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Was picking up some breakfast this morning and listening to the NHL channel on XM and heard part of the Hockey Diaries. It follows Caps veteran Mike Knuble and up-and-comer Tyler Sloane through all of last season with audio diaries and other reporting and tons of interviews.

It's an NPR-style thing, so an unusual "tone" from how you normally hear hockey reporting, but it's really lovely, interesting, and a must-listen for any hockey fan. A real inside look at the course of a season for two players at very different points in their careers.

Check that out right here.

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OH! I remember now what I meant to add this morning:

Talked to a friend in Denmark who keeps me posted on former Aero Morten Madsen who was rather unceremoniously shown the door at the start of last season. Things are going great for him. He was named an alternate captain for his team in the Swedish Elite League, Modo Hockey and just recently scored in the season opener.

Nice to hear that a not so great ending to his time in the Wild system has turned into a really good situation for him in Sweden.

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Won't be long until we're all back at the Toyota Center. I'm pretty excited for the season, eager to see what Coach Yeo and this bevy of prospects (for the first time in a while), will be able to do against what is going to remain a very tough division.

The Early Aero Roster Cuts

Via Aeros media relations, here is a list of the six players cut from camp this week, leaving the roster at 29 players.

LW Maxime Boisclair
RW Josef Fojtik
RW Justin Kinnunen
LW Maxime Lincourt
RW Derek Merlini
D John Wessbecker

The really interesting cuts are going to be next week, and it's going to involve the goalie situation. In Barry Brust, Wade Dublelewicz, and Anton Khudobin, the Aeros have three goalies capable of playing a good game at the AHL level as well as being capable of playing some time in the NHL should it be required. In the past, Khudobin would be the easy cut, but I was asking around yesterday, and it seemed evident that the team likes Khudobin, especially after his playoff performance. Ultimately, I think that it will be Khudobin who gets sent down, but it won't be an easy decision for Kevin Constantine and Troy Ward.

We can probably also expect, because of injuries up in Minnesota, for the Aeros to be keeping a few of the extra forwards around for a bit until the likes of Irmen and Kassian are returned to Houston, and until that time comes when the Wild figures out what it's going to do with Gillies and Pouliot.

It's here! Almost... It's Training camp! (updated x 2)

As most of you already know, Aeros camp started today with physicals this morning and ice time this afternoon until 3.

The team will continue to practice through Friday from 9:30-12:30 daily and practices are open to the public. If you have the time, it's pretty interesting to watch the guys run drills and just do their thing outside of a game situation. Plus... it's hockey!

We haven't gotten a camp roster from the team yet (hint hint) but I just got this hit that a couple of Laredo Bucks are in town for camp. Maxime Lincourt and Josef Fojtik. Seeing as how I finally had to learn to spell "Dubielewicz" today, Fojtik there just kinda blew my mind. It's not hard to do.

Anyway, here's the press release about those guys.

UPDATED: And here's the press release about the three Texas Brahmas who are attending camp: D Justin Kinnunen, D Derek Merlini, and G Brett Jaeger (who I discuss a bit more below).

Also, adding to this are a couple of guys Andrew mentioned a while back. D Ryan Gunderson, who had off the chain assist numbers last season in the ECHL (5 G, 53 A) has signed an AHL/ECHL contract with the Aeros.

And in on a tryout is F Matt Fornataro, who had 25 points with Worcester last season.

2nd UPDATE: And since one Maxime just isn't enough, the Aeros have also brought in F Maxime Boisclair from the Corpus Christi IceRays for a tryout.

Also in camp are suspects either you're already familiar with or we've listed on the roster:
G Barry Brust, LW Brandon Buck, LW Jon DiSalvatore, D Jamie Fraser, C Brian Kaufman, C Morten Madsen, RW Carson McMillan, D Maxim Noreau, D J.P. Testwuide, C Peter Zingoni, D Ryan Lannon, D Brandon Rogers and D Clayton Stoner.

As mentioned above, joining Brusty at the other end of the ice is Brett Jaeger, whose Brahmas won the CHL championship last season. He's got great numbers through most of his career and signed for another year with Texas this summer, so hopefully having him on the radar will prevent the goalie carousel the team went round and round on late last season should they need to call someone up.

Others remain with the Wild. Khudobin has played 60 good minutes of pre-season action for the Wild, and Kassian, Irmen, Falk, and other Aeros have been getting quality minutes of their own with the big boys. All have been playing quite well from what I understand, but they will start to trickle down to Houston over the next couple of weeks until the Wild have to make some hard decisions, particularly on defense.

Also, someone asked me about the waiver situation when guys are reassigned from Minnesota to Houston. Aren't the Wild at risk for losing those guys? Well, not really, as Russo explains very nicely here. Knowledge is power.

Aeros Training Camp set for 9/21; Traverse Prospect Tourney

T3I has learned that the Aeros will begin training camp at Sugar Land Ice (SLICE) on Sept. 21.

That's less than a month away, with Wild Training Camp starting a week earlier on Sept. 13 in St. Paul.

Later this week, we'll try and get you a peek at possible camp invitees and info on pre-season games.

Also, we tweeted about it earlier but the Wild released their roster for the Traverse City Prospect Tournament, which several NHL teams participate in to get another look at their prospects before everyone heads to their respective training camps.

Last year, the NHL Network showed the tournament games, but looking at their schedule, nothing is listed yet, but they do this stuff last minute a lot of times, so maybe it's still a possibility. It was fun watching Clutterbuck be the "veteran" last year. Looks like Morten Madsen and Justin Falk will be the vets this year.