We're in the doldrums of summer as you can tell by the lack of activity around here. I figured I owed the readers a bit of an update on what I'm working on to tie you over, and give an opportunity for some requests to be made.
The Champions Series will be the subject of a few stories coming up. I have a couple ready to go, but am awaiting on some requests I've put in from the teams themselves. Not all of the clubs have their offices open right now, so the requests aren't being handled as quickly as I'd like. I guess that's the kind of thing I have to expect at this time of year. Hopefully these will be handled promptly, but if not I'll proceed to publish the articles without the additional information and photographs.
I'm long overdue to adding a links section to the site. I'm working on a list of sites that I frequent, but if you have some you think might be worth my time that I am unaware of, please forward them to me. Hopefully we can make Puck Worlds a nice hub site for your non-NHL hockey news.
The first international hockey tournament of the upcoming hockey season is the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, an annual U-18 Men's tournament that will be taking place Aug 9-14 in Breclav, Czech Republic and Piestany, Slovakia. Canada's selection camp roster can be seen here (go Duncan Siemens) and the USA's final roster here. I'll be doing updates for the tournament as it approaches and of course when it's taking place, which isn't too far into the future at all.
Add Alexei Yashin to the senior men's powerhouse that is SKA St. Petersburg. @RussianHockeyFans Yashin had created a bit of a stir when he suggested the New York Islanders were thinking of bringing him back for some reason.
I may have jumped the gun on that whole "KHL is for old people" article I did on Friday, as there are plenty of still fairly young, productive Russian players available like Alexander Frolov and Maxim Afinogenov, guys that could fit into a lot of NHL team's top six forwards. But the fact that they haven't been lured yet makes me think they'll sign to NHL contracts. The KHL continues to be an option for them, but I think reporters linking them are taking the threat a bit to seriously. We'll see how it pans out, certainly they would be significant mentions if they did leave the NHL at this time. Nabokov and Slava Kozlov? Not impressed.
Also as a followup to that article, apparently another European club, Lev Propad from Slovakia, were accepted to join the KHL for the upcoming season (again, thanks to @RussianHockeyFans) though no progress has been made on that front at all. The idea of a pan-European league remains strong but the logistics of it has yet to be overcome... this would be a notable step for the KHL into becoming that league.
Finally, I hope to visit some arenas during the 2010-11 hockey season in various leagues. I'm obviously a bit limited by where I can travel to, but if you have some suggestions for some rinks that aren't ridiculously far from Saskatoon, I'm all ears. I haven't done enough hockey touring in my life, and am waiting on schedules to be released for some of the leagues, but hopefully visiting unfamiliar rinks and different leagues is something that not only I, but the readers can have a lot of fun with.
On a non-hockey note, the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL are now 3-0. So take that, rest of the CFL. Of course, I'm familiar with a team celebrating their centennial season with a hot start only to flame out spectacularly, so I do that mock while emphatically knocking on wood. SB Nation really needs some CFL blogs, don't you think?
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