News and Notes – June 2 2014

It was a quiet weekend for the Calgary Flames but a fairly busy one in the hockey world, as we now know that the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers will face-off in the 73rd best-of-seven Cup Finals.

By wonderful coincidence, the Flames won the season series against both the Kings and Rangers. That and a toonie gets you a cup of coffee nowadays.

Let’s catch up on a few things, shall we?

Game 3 of the ECHL’s Kelly Cup Final is tonight, with the Alaska Aces and the Cincinnati Cyclones tied at one game apiece.

Olivier Roy was injured in Game 1 and is done for the series. Based on the organization’s fondness for Joni Ortio and its…whatever towards Roy (indifference?), I doubt he’s back next year. He’s had good ECHL numbers (13-7-0, 2.10 GAA, .922 S%) but his AHL numbers were so-so (7-8-1, 3.31 GAA, .901).

Meanwhile, John Ramage is third in Aces playoff scoring. He has 13 points in 17 games. Kane “The Franchise” LaFranchise has 10 points in 11 games. Turner Elson has 8 points in 17 games, while pending RFA James Martin had 0 points in 11 games, but hasn’t played since the semi-finals.

The Flames didn’t sign 2012 6th rounder Coda Gordon by yesterday’s deadline, so he’ll go back into the draft. The club previously signed Patrick Sieloff (2nd round), Brett Kulak (4th round) and Ryan Culkin (5th round), while college kids Mark Jankowski (1st round), Jon Gillies (3rd round) and Matt Deblouw (7th round) can’t be signed until they leave school.

Gordon had 71 points in 59 games this year as a 19-year-old, but he played primarily with some combination of Graham Black (97 points), Colby Cave (71 points) and Nathan Burns (34 points in 28 games). I got the impression from people who watched a lot of the Swift Current Broncos that Gordon was good, but not the guy driving the bus. And with so prospects on the left side in Calgary and Adirondack (and centers moving to the wing because of center depth), I can’t blame either side for not coming to a deal. It’s probably best for everyone.

One of the CBA’s recurring quirks is this: teams retain the rights to drafted major-junior players for two years…as long as they offer them a contact by June 1 of the next year.

That’s it. Just an offer.

So, the Flames offered 2013 fifth rounder Eric Roy a contract. He’s under no obligation to agree to it, it’s primarily a paper transaction to retain his rights. The team already has signed (deep breath) Sean Monahan, Morgan Klimchuk, Emile Poirier and Keegan Kanzig. They don’t need to make offers to college kids Tim Harrison and John Gilmour, or European draftee Rushan Rafikov, as they’re exempt from the wacky rule.