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TRANSACTIONS
| Date | Link | Details | |
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Sep. 12, 2013 | LINK | Assigned D Nicholas Walters to Brandon (WHL). |
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Sep. 17, 2013 | LINK | D Thomas Vannelli withdraws enrollment at Minnesota (Big 10); no official announcement has been made as to where Vannelli will play this year, but per this link, his major junior rights are held by Medicine Hat (WHL). |
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Sep. 19, 2013 | LINK | Assigned LW William Carrier to Cape Breton (QMJHL), RW Zach Pochiro to Prince George (WHL), C/W Ryan Tesink to Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL), and G Francois Tremblay to Val-d'Or (QMJHL). |
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Sep. 21, 2013 | LINK | Assigned forwards Alexandre Bolduc, Pat Cannone, Jacob Doty, Christian Hanson, Samuel Henley, Corey Locke, Mark Mancari, Tyler Shattock, Yannick Veilleux and Sebastian Wännström; defensemen Taylor Chorney, Cade Fairchild, Evan Oberg, Brett Ponich, Brent Regner and David Shields; and goaltender Jordan Binnington to Chicago (AHL). |
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Sep. 21, 2013 | LINK | Assigned RW Cody Beach to Chicago (AHL). |
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KALAMAZOO RENEWS AFFILIATION WITH VANCOUVER, SIGNS NEW AGREEMENT WITH ST. LOUIS
LINK.
Kalamazoo, MI- For the fourth time in the past five seasons the Kalamazoo Wings will have a dual affiliation. The K-Wings have renewed their affiliation agreement with the Vancouver Canucks and have entered a new agreement with the St. Louis Blues.
Both agreements will include partnerships with each club’s AHL affiliations, the Utica Comets (Vancouver) and the Chicago Wolves (St. Louis). Under the affiliation arrangement, during the 2013-14 season, Vancouver, St. Louis, Utica and Chicago will have the ability to assign players to Kalamazoo.
"Wendell Young and the Chicago Wolves introduced us to Kevin McDonald and the St Louis Blues and upon introduction we realized our organizations had similar values," said Bootland. "By having an affiliation based entirely in the Midwest, the Blues will be able to keep a close eye on their prospects."
Despite never having an affiliation agreement in the past, the K-Wings and Blues are already interwoven. Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock coached the K-Wings for three seasons from 1993-96. K-Wings equipment manager Eric Bechtol was the assistant equipment manager with the Blues for nine seasons (1996-2004). There are even connections in the front office, as Blues ticket representative Tim Thurber worked for the K-Wings from 2007-2010 before heading to St. Louis.
"The St. Louis Blues are excited to begin a new development agreement with the Kalamazoo Wings," said St. Louis Blues Assistant General Manager, Kevin McDonald. "Nick Bootland and the Wings have had a great deal of success developing players with our AHL affiliate in Chicago, and we are proud to be joining them as we strive to develop future St. Louis Blues players."
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"NEWS AND 'NOTES
Per the Tweet linked above (referencing the assignment of Cody Beach to Chicago), both Jacob Doty and Samuel Henley will not be reporting to Chicago. Both are currently listed on the rosters of the major junior clubs they played with last season, Medicine Hat (WHL) for Doty and Val-d'Or (QMJHL) for Henley.
The following players are under contract directly to the Chicago Wolves: Brent Regner (D), Evan Oberg (D), and Corey Locke (F), who participated in the Blues' training camp; Chesterfield native Mike Davies, forwards Tim Miller, Eric Kattelus and Shane Harper, and goaltender Matt Climie.
Several players still on the Blues' training camp roster will likely be sent to Chicago in the next week: Jake Allen, Sergei Andronov, Joel Edmundson, Jani Hakanpää, Dmitrij Jaskin and Ty Rattie. Once Allen is "thrown to the Wolves," Jordan Binnington will most likely be assigned to the new ECHL affiliate in Kalamazoo to start his rookie season. It would not be a surprise to see Cade Fairchild sent to Kalamazoo as well; after a solid rookie year in 2011-12 (68 games, 8 G, 26 A, a solid plus-26 and an All-Star Game appearance), Fairchild had an epic sophomore slump in 2012-13 (43 games, 0 G, 8 A, minus-5) while battling injuries for most of the year.