Leaving Town

It seems the rumors about Steve Simoes are rumors no more.

From EuroHockey.net:





LNAH, which translates into North American Hockey League, is a low-level professional league that just so happens to be based in Quebec, which is where Simoes was born and raised. It was rumored that his recent engagement to his girlfriend Amanda would be bringing him back up to Canada, and now it looks like that will definitely be the case.

Other 2007-08 Bucks rumored to be leaving the States for the upcoming season include Rookie of the Year finalist Andrew Desjardins, forward Chris Korchinski and goaltender Dustin Traylen, who are all expected to look for work in Europe.

"Left wing"/enforcer Alex Penner has also left Laredo, but will still be in the States next season, playing for the Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Chiefs of the East Coast Hockey League. He signed with the team earlier this month, as stated on the website of his management agency, Uptown Sports.

Some More Signings

The Rapid City Rush added another forward today by signing veteran Chris Lipsett.

In other signing news, the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs have revealed their first official player for the 2008-09 season by announcing the re-signing of left wing Joe Ori.

You can find a full list of off-season signings and transactions here.

I'm sure everyone is wondering when the Bucks will start announcing some signings of their own, but you will have to wait a little bit longer for that.

Media relations/broadcasting director Bryan Benway is home in upstate New York until Monday, then some of the obvious re-signings should start coming through.

Coach/general manager Terry Ruskowski has been sending out contracts to some new guys, but those transactions will probably not be revealed until later in the summer.

Return of the IceRays

It was a long time coming, and something I think the fans were hoping to see, but the Corpus Christi franchise revealed today that the team will be re-adopting its IceRays moniker of years past. The logo is basically the same as the previous Ice Rays' logo, but with a very different color combination. It can be seen here.

Tuesday's Happenings

Melrose was in fact introduced as the Lightning's new head coach on Tuesday. I know it was a very expected event, but it was still nice to see. Was it just me, or did he look 10 years younger at that press conference than he has in all his time at ESPN? Maybe it's that studio lighting...

Greg Rajan has word that the Corpus Christi Rayz will be holding a press conference tomorrow (okay, later today) to announce some news about the team's name and logo. Everyone is expecting a return to the "Ice Rays" moniker the team went by from its inception in 1997 until the change to "Rayz" in 2003.

The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees are pitching in to help raise money for injured Colorado Eagles defenseman Les Borsheim's family to help pay medical bills by holding an online auction, which can be found here. The team announced these efforts in a letter to fans from recently re-signed left wing Rob Voltera. I'm a sap for sure, but I think he had some great things to say.

NYTimes.com has been my home page ever since I was instructed to make it so in my freshman communications class, and today there were two stories of interest to make the front page, albeit for very brief periods.

The first, a piece about the Austin Ice Bats, is probably more relevant to this blog...but I think most people reading it can also relate to the second, which details the rise in border crossings due to Mexico's lower gas prices.

Melrose Appears Bolt-Bound

It's been known for a while that ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose (a former NHL player and coach) was the top candidate for the Tampa Bay Lightning's head coaching position, and now ESPN.com is reporting that his hiring is official. A press conference to make the announcement public is expected tomorrow.