Jackets make a few minor moves
Due to some recent injuries to an already weak defence core the Jackets have had to make a few moves to address some things. The team was also at it's limit in terms of the number of player contracts that it could have and with two ECHL'ers making a case that they should be with the team sooner than later the team decided to do some early season house cleaning.
First off Jeff Hoggan was bought out of the last year of his contract after clearing waivers. At his age there was nothing new that he was going to do so he was let go. Next off some guy named Alexander Naurov was bought out. I think he'll play in the ECHl this year...but who knows this guy was pretty much a nobody and hence...you're off the island.
The team also announced that centre Trevor Letowski, AHL goalie Miroslav Kopriva and a 2009 3rd round pick went to Anaheim for J.S. Aubin. The move will allow the team to move Jaroslav Halak to the AHL to work on his game and hopefully bring it up to CPHL calibre. Letowski was signed as a UFA and had a one year deal so he was going somewhere sooner than later. Kopriva was signed as a UFA last year but now finds himself in the juggernaut Central Hockey League in the South West U.S.A. I don't think he had a real bright future. The 2009 3rd round pick...well who knows what the hell that will be. Call me in 7 years when I'm 40 and we might have a player.
A trade made recently pending league approval see's pest Brandon Prust moved to the Winnepeg Jets for defenceman Doug Murray. Prust has an outside shot of getting to the NHL this year and could be a full time NHL player by next year. But his absolute upside to us is a 3rd line guy and more likely a 4th liner. Murray is a 6-7 defenceman with the NHL's San Jose Sharks. He has great size and San Jose is one of the NHL's elite teams. We were lacking a bit in terms of depth on defence and we feel that Murray will be a usefull regular player for us next year.
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