The Michigan Daily put out an epic article on the evolution of Michigan's student section. It's a very entertaining read, and brings up some great memories like the Michigan-Cornell NCAA tournament series--Fun fact: I attended Michigan's wins on Saturday and Sunday, while that Friday, when they lost, I assembled a Lite-Brite at my grandparents house. Coincidence? You're welcome, history.-- and the Molly story, because We Should Never Forget. I'm a little disappointed the 1998 regional doesn't get more attention in Michigan hockey lore, but you can't complain when you have to pare down a list of great moments.
As for the stuff between the boards, there's a rumor out there that former Grand Rapids Catholic Central/Sioux City Musketeers goalie Adam Janecyk will be Michigan's new third string goalie. Janecyk seemed to struggle numberswise in Sioux City, but is a pretty legitimate talent. I would not be surprised to see him work his way up and start a couple games for Michigan next year.
Former Alaska-Anchorage assistant Damon Whitten is the new assistant coach at Michigan Tech. He's going from a team with zero winning seasons in the last 16 years to a team with one winning season in the last 16 years. That's called a promotion. Also: Obligatory video of Bob Gassoff demolishing Whitten.
It's the summer, so I feel like I can over this for the 1000th time. Yahoo's CHL blog wrote an article basically saying even though what Paul Kelly says is true, he shouldn't say it because it makes us look bad, and makes the classic mistake of confusing 'amateur' with 'extremely poorly paid professional'. From the article:
One wonders how they reconcile considering a CHL player, getting a $50 weekly stipend a professional at the same time schools are taking in $60 million annually from football alone, coaches earnseven-figure incomes and schools cut decades-old conference ties in search of more TV revenue? That sounds pretty professional.
The NCAA is finally considering loosening some of its amateur rules. Oddly enough, hockey would be exempt, though. Well, perhaps Kelly and the U.S. stakeholders should work on trying to get the rules to reflect the hockey world of 2010, not 1920.
It's actually pretty simple to reconcile it. Amateur status does, and has always, referred to the players playing the sport. The money anyone else takes in is irrelevant.
People can hem and haw about $50-a-week all they want. I've yet to find anyone comfortable with the idea of Cam Fowler, who allegedly received $500,000 from the Windsor Spitfires(I'll pick a new example as soon as Kitchener and Windsor file their lawsuit, which I'm sure will be any day now), being labeled an amateur. Kitchener a couple years back is the only team I can remember doing this, but their ownership took them on a vacation to some resort in Mexico or the Caribbean. That would be outlawed under NCAA rules. The fact that players are giving their name and likenesses to EA Sports to be used in a video game--even though the players got sold out and get nothing on the deal--would be against NCAA rules.
It's true that they get very little. But the fact is, they are professionals that get very little. And it's in the CHL's best interest to keep them that way, and to destroy the eligibility of as many players as possible. The "player contracts" teams ask players to sign aren't the issue. They really serve no other purpose than messing with a player's NCAA eligibility. If you raise the bar another foot, CHL teams will just tell players to jump another foot higher.
I gave up on Russian prospect Kirill Kabanov after former teammate Brandon Gormley politely, but clearly said himself and his teammates thought it was best that Kabanov leave their team in the middle of their playoff run when asked about Kabanov at the Combine. Kabanov had crept back onto a lot of people's radars when he hired a high-powered agent and went around the NHL Combine blaming everyone but himself for all the bad stuff written about him. Then, today, it was announced that his agent was cutting ties with Kabanov. He's completely alienated everyone in Russia so he can't go back there, and there's enough major red flags that I can't imagine any NHL would want to deal with him. He's starting to run out of options.