Traverse City Tournament Roster Preview

Today is 1 month until the Traverse City NHL Prospects Tournament. The tournament started in 1998 with just 4 teams competing, but the past few years the tournament has expanded to 8 clubs competing and representing every division except the Eastern Conference Norhteast Division. Now finding stats and the teams that have competed was tough, I found them for the last 4 years and a site had an all-time player register. From 05-07 the Blue Jackets played in the tourney's championship game winning back to back championships in 05 and 06.

Now this is just my opinion of the team the Blue Jackets will be sending to the tournament. I'm only basing this on the players that attended the Jacket's development camp in July and knowing that most NCAA players can't attend. The Blue Jackets appear to be sending a BIG team with only 3 forwards under 6'1". The smallest defensemen are Cody Goloubef and Theo Ruth both at 6'1", and the "smallest" goaltender is 6'4" Gustaf Wesslau. I believe the minor league coaches normally serve as the coaching staff for this, so this should be Rob Riley and his staff in charge..

FORWARDS
The shortest players on the team will be Matt Calvert(5'10"), Chris Francis(5'9") and Tyler Murovich(5'8"). This will be Calvert's third tournament after tying for the lead in points(7) and goals(5) last year. Murovich is another holdover from last year only playing in 2 games picking up no points in 2 games. Francis is one of three Portland Winterhawks on the team the other being 2010 1st round pick Ryan Johanson and Oliver Gabriel. Johanson will be the probably be one of the most high profile players in the tournament being the highest draft pick from this year's draft in thee tournament. Michael Kantor is one of many tough customers on this Blue Jackets team picking up 71 Penalty minutes in only 29 OHL games playing with Murovich and the Saginaw Spirit. Tomas Kubalik is one of only four foreign players on the team playing in the World Juniors last year with the Czech team picking up 9 points in 6 games. One of the team's heavy hitters will be Kyle Neuber picking up 188 penalty minutes last season leading the Columbus Organization in that stat. Dalton Smith is another tough customer who has the potential to be a decent power forward for the Jackets in a few season picking up 20+ goals and assists last season with the Ottawa 67s. Petr Straka led all QMJHL rookies in scoring last year picking up 64 points in 62 games(64GP 28-36-64) while picking up two rookie of the year awards in the QMJHL. The last forward is Nick Sucharski, Sucharski was selected in the 2006 NHL draft probably making him one of the older players in the tournament. Sucharski is leaving Michigan State after being part of the 2006 National Championship team scoring the game winning goal to put the Spartans into the Championship game. Now like i said this is just a guess of who I think will be up there and if i'm right the Jackets will have to invite a few more players since i've only named 11 forwards.


DEFENSEMEN
Now the only player I'm sure will be playing in the tournament is Brandon Archibald (only because I asked him on Twitter). Archibald has been very busy this summer the 4th round pick has already taken part in the CBJ's Development Camp, the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp and he still has this camp, the Blue Jackets main camp and the Greyhounds camp to go. Anton Blomqvist is the lone European prospect the Blue Jackets have on Defense. With European prospects it's kind of hard to find stats and info but I did find this quote from hockeysfuture.com interesting, "He had been labelled as somewhat inconsistent while playing in the junior ranks, but has been able to step up considerably upon being promoted to the men’s team". Steven Delisle is the one of the many defensive prospects making their professional debut this season. Here's Hockeysfutures take on Delisle it seems they think he would good to put with a offensive defenseman kind of like the Jurcina-Russell combination last season "While Delisle boasts great size, he uses it more for his positional play, rather than throwing his weight around on a regular basis – picking his spots rather than over-committing. He is generally not suited to an offensive role, and would be a great complement to an offensive defenseman in a pairing, providing sound decision-making ability and strong positional play in his own end." Cody Goloubef is leaving the University of Wisconsin a year early to begin his pro career. Goloubef was part of a Wisconsin defensive group where almost every member was a 1st or 2nd round pick. Austin Madaisky draft stock rose after a midseason trade from the Calgary Hitmen to the Kamloops Blazers. Madaisky picked up 18 points in 39 games with the Blazers. John Moore is the Blue Jackets top prospect, this will be his second Traverse City tournament after playing in last year's only picking up 1 assist. Moore will probably take on a bigger role in this year's camp as one of the leaders as one of only 8 holdovers from last year's team. Dalton Prout was selected in this year's draft as a 20 year old. Prout is another tough guy on this Blue Jacket's team picking up 121 penalty minutes with the Barrie Colts while aslo picking up 26 points and being a +26. Theo Ruth or as he'll always be known as player we got for Sergei Fedorov is a physical stay at home defender picking up 130 penalty minutes playing at Notre Dame. David Savard is the Blue Jackets most offensive defenseman and is another player back from last year's squad. Savard had a rough tourney last year being a -3 in 2 games last year. The Jackets might add another defenseman but I don't think they should with 9 defenseman making the trip including the 5 rookies making their pro debuts most likely with Springfield and whatever ECHL team the Jackets hook up with.

GOALIES

The goaltending duo the Jackets are sending to Traverse City is the biggest of the teams that have announced their rosters. Gustaf Wesslau(6'4") is making his North America debut after starring in Sweden the last few years. Blue Jackets fans that went to Development Camp got to see Wesslau backstop Team Berry to a McConnell Cup championship. Mathieu Corbeil (6'6")has been playing on a brutally bad Halifax Mooseheads team, the team won more games in the 07-08(42) season than the team has won the last two years combined(39). Now when you look at his all-time record(11-50-3) don't think the Blue Jackets drafted a bust most of the sites I found believe the kid is a bit of a project but has a lot of potential. Now the Jackets have brought 3 goaltenders to this tournament before so they may add another.


TOURNAMENT NOTES
Of the 5 rosters that have been officially announced and my makeshift guess above there are 11 first round picks in the tournament. As I said Ryan Johansen is the highest pick in the tournament. Hurricanes prospect Zac Dalpe is the only player with Ohio ties in the tournament. Dalpe is leaving OSU after his sophomore season putting up 70 points in 76 games. Best name of the tournament Michal Jordan of the Hurricanes team(bummed he's not wearing 23)

PLAYERS FROM LAST YEAR'S TEAM

Matt Calvert 4GP 5-2-7

Tomas Kubalik 4GP 1-1-2

John Moore 3GP 0-1-1

David Savard 2GP 0-1-1

Anton Blomqvist 3GP 0-0-0
Steven Delisle 2GP 0-0-0

Tyler Murovich 2GP 0-0-0

Kyle Neuber DNP

Ive said this before but if you're on Twitter follow both @en4cer45 and @CBJprospects for live as it happens updates from the tournament and this blog for hopefully game recaps(pray for free wifi in the hotel)