Saturday, June 07, 2003
James Sheehan's value to the Cotton Kings is probably a moot point, since he obviously wasn't coming back to Lubbock. But I stand by my amusement.
The expansion draft is what it is, nobody in it is a first-team all-star. But Tracy Egeland saw every game the Cotton Kings fans did and still wanted him. Colorado knew that and was willing to spend its first pick to make absolutely sure they got him. And both teams felt that way without being 100% positive they could keep him in the CHL.
He was not the best player in the draft, just the one most worth having -- who wouldn't want a non-vet defenseman, presumably well-paid but not overpaid, who's been to the (UHL) finals and was +20 (putting him in the top 10 in the league among blueliners)?
I don't care how many bad penalties the fans remember -- that's what you call anecdotal evidence. 78 PiMs is nothing for a halfway engaged defenseman. Yeah, he melted down (against Macker, hmmmmh) with eight minutes on January 5 (including a classic "objects on ice" infraction). But he had just 14 PiMs in 19 games in February and March -- numbers that could win you the Lady Byng, or at least make you very unpopular if you play for Wichita. So I suspect he learned his lesson.
And let's not forget, the draft list wasn't made up by a hockey coach. Maybe Kirk Tomlinson would have tried to keep him.
Unless, of course, Sheehan was exposed to do Egeland a favor -- in which case all the talk of retirement and returning to the "U" was just a smokescreen, and Chris Stewart saw right through it. This scenario is unlikely, as Lubbock and RGV no longer officially share ownership. But they still share quite a lot (congratulations, Chris).
The expansion draft is what it is, nobody in it is a first-team all-star. But Tracy Egeland saw every game the Cotton Kings fans did and still wanted him. Colorado knew that and was willing to spend its first pick to make absolutely sure they got him. And both teams felt that way without being 100% positive they could keep him in the CHL.
He was not the best player in the draft, just the one most worth having -- who wouldn't want a non-vet defenseman, presumably well-paid but not overpaid, who's been to the (UHL) finals and was +20 (putting him in the top 10 in the league among blueliners)?
I don't care how many bad penalties the fans remember -- that's what you call anecdotal evidence. 78 PiMs is nothing for a halfway engaged defenseman. Yeah, he melted down (against Macker, hmmmmh) with eight minutes on January 5 (including a classic "objects on ice" infraction). But he had just 14 PiMs in 19 games in February and March -- numbers that could win you the Lady Byng, or at least make you very unpopular if you play for Wichita. So I suspect he learned his lesson.
And let's not forget, the draft list wasn't made up by a hockey coach. Maybe Kirk Tomlinson would have tried to keep him.
Unless, of course, Sheehan was exposed to do Egeland a favor -- in which case all the talk of retirement and returning to the "U" was just a smokescreen, and Chris Stewart saw right through it. This scenario is unlikely, as Lubbock and RGV no longer officially share ownership. But they still share quite a lot (congratulations, Chris).
# posted by JC @ 2:18 PM 
