It's A New Season

Yes, I know - I haven't posted a darn thing since the end of last season. Guess it took me a long time to get over the sudden and unexpected early end to the season. But the summer is winding down which means that hockey is starting up again and it's time to look forward to the new season. And there's much to look forward to.

This post will focus on summarizing what transpired with the club and players over the summer.


The really big news was that Brian Kilrea is stepping down as the GM of the club and that Chris Byrne will assume the roles of both Head Coach and General Manager. Brian will continue scouting and will of course be available to Chris as an advisor.

As for players, there was a lot of news over the summer. Let's start with the players who were already drafted in the NHL:

Tyler Toffoli:
When the 67's season ended last spring, he signed an ATO (Amateur Try Out) with the LA Kings affiliate, Manchester Monarchs. He played 1 regular season game and 5 post-season games scoring a total of 2 goals. He played well enough to earn himself a three-year entry-level contract with the Kings.

Tyler attended the LA Development Camp which happened after the draft and he made good impression there. He also earned himself an invitation to Team Canada's summer camp for the upcoming WJHC that will take place in Alberta this year. He's currently at the LA prospect camp. Follow @mayorNHL on Twitter or the associated blog for good coverage of all things Kings including Tyler. You can also follow Tyler on twitter at @tytoff16.

Petr Mrazek:
Petr signed an ATO with Grand Rapids Griffins (Redwings AHL affiliate) at the end of the season but I don' think he saw any action as their season was also shortened - the Griffins did not make the playoffs. Detroit does not have a development camp after the draft.

Petr remains unsigned while he attends the Red Wings prospect camp. The Red Wings participate in the Traverse City Prospects Tournament which includes teams from Minnesota (including former 67's Cuma & current 67's Graovac), Buffalo, Dallas, Carolina, New York (Rangers), St. Louis (Nigro), and Columbus (Smith).

Dalton Smith:
Dalton didn't get called up to the Columbus Blue Jackets AHL affiliate Springfield Falcons but he did attend their post-draft development camp. In the process, he earned himself a three-year entry draft contract with Columbus and he is currently attending their prospect camp.

You can follow him on twitter @dsmitty33.

Ryan Martindale:
Ryan was not called up but I'm not sure if the Oklahoma City Barons made it to the playoffs. Ryan also did not attend the Oilers' post-draft development camp due to illness. He's at the Oilers' prospect camp now. Ryan remains unsigned and in the midst of a numbers crunch in Edmonton. I was not aware that clubs are limited to the number of contracts they can have (apparently the cap is 50) and the Oilers are at 49.


Two Ottawa 67's were drafted during the 2011 NHL Entry Draft:
Shane Prince:
Shane was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the 2nd round (61st overall) and he attended their post-draft development camp. Here's a clip from his draft. He was also selected to attended the Team USA summer development camp where he played right to the end. He is currently at the Senators' prospect camp and participating in the 4-team prospects tournament in Oshawa. The other teams are Toronto, Pittsburgh and Chicago.

While Shane is not a prolific tweeter like his sister (@oliviaprince10), he is writing a blog about his camp experience.

Tyler Graovac:
Tyler was selected in the 7th round (191st overall) by the Minnesota Wild where he joins former Ottawa67's Tyler Cuma (they have a thing about players named Tyler?). He attended their development camp and is currently with his team at the Travers City Prospects Camp.

And news about undrafted members of the last roster:

Marc-Anthony Zanetti (@mzanetti10) and Steven Janes (@SJanes17) were invited to the Vancouver Canucks development camp and are now at the Canucks' prospect camp. Zanetti is by far the most active tweeter in the bunch - especially about Jersey Shore.

Shayne Campbell (@soupy31) is off the to the Philadelphia prospects camp.

Cody Ceci (@Cecer_83) played with the U-18 Team Canada at the Canada at the 2011 IIHF World Under-18 Championship April 14-24 in Germany. Canada lost to Russia in the bronze medal game. Cody was invited to Team Canada's WJHC summer development camp where he was most likely the youngest player there.

As an additional nod to his draft prospects, Cody was invited to participate in the NHL two-day research and development camp.

Sean Monahan (@yungmonny) was invited to the invited to the U18 evaluation camp for the Ivan Hlinka tournament. He made the team and made the trip to the Czech Republic and scored the opening goal in Canada's 4-1 Gold Medal win over Sweden.

Neil Hoch (@neilhoch) will be the team trainer for the U17 Team Ontario team. The tournament takes place in December in Winnipeg.

Jon Carnevale (@jcarny04) has retired from the OHL and is attending classes and playing hockey at Ottawa U.

Ottawa's first 5 picks in the OHL Priority Selection were David Perkin (@DPerks9), Mike Vlajkov (@mvlajkov11), BJ Salerno, Niko Kovachis and Tyler Hill. And if one Zanetti is good, then two must be awesome as Marc-Anthony's brother, Christian (@zanetti73) was drafted in the 14th round. The complete list of the 67's draft is here.

Former Ottawa 67’s
Logan Couture (@logancouture) was one of two finalists for the NHL Rookie of the Year award and has been signed to a 2-year contract extension with San Jose.

Jamie McGinn (@JamieMcGinn64) signed a one-year contract with San Jose.

Derek Joslin avoided arbitration and signed a contract with Carolina.

Thomas Kiriakou (@ThomasKiriakou) has left Guelph University after two years to play in the ECHL with the Las Vegas Wranglers.

Mark Mancari signed a one year contract with the Vancouver Canucks.

Travis Gibbons committed to the Acadia Axemen.

Zenon Konopka signed with the Ottawa Senators.

Former Ottawa 67’s Chris Draper retired

Jason Bailey (@ehjaybay) has retired from hockey and has enrolled at Carleton University.

Corey Cowick (@ccows) is still with the Ottawa Senators and led the way to the #NHLSens prospects 4-1 win yesterday over Pittsburgh with a 3-point performance (2 goals and an assist). He was wearing an "A" for this game.

And I think that's about it. If there's any news out there that I missed, please send it along. Meanwhile, time to get ready for today's exhibition game against Kingston.