Cuts and things and and Mahbod gets a new home.

Let's divide this by league, shall we...

ECHL:

The Alaska Aces have signed forwards Shawn Skelly and Samson Mahbod (pronounced muh-BAWD) and defenseman Mike Baran (pronounced BARE-uhn), Alaska Aces Head Coach Rob Murray announced on Friday. The additions are much needed for the shorthanded Aces, who prior to these signings were down to 12 active skaters for Friday. All three players have met the Aces on the road, and are expected to be in the lineup on Friday night. The Aces begin a three-game road trip on Friday night against the Idaho Steelheads at 5:10pm AKT [...]

Mahbod, 23, is set to make his season debut with the Aces this weekend in Idaho. This is the third pro season for the 5'10", 171lbs. forward. He spent his rookie season in the ECHL and last year played for the Arizona Sundogs in the Central Hockey League. Following a junior career split between the QMJHL and the QJAHL the Montreal, Quebec native played for four different ECHL teams as a rookie. He had a combined 26 points (10g, 16a) in 47 regular season games with the Elmira Jackals, South Carolina Stingrays, and Cincinnati Cyclones. He also played in six playoff games with the Utah Grizzlies, tallying one goal. Last year with the Sundogs, Mahbod totaled 22 points (7g, 15a) in 43 games in an injury-shortened season. This season Mahbod took training camp with the Orlando Solar Bears, but was released prior to the start of the season. In major junior hockey, Mahbod had 168 points (57g, 111a) in 164 games for four different clubs. He finished his junior career with two tremendous seasons in the QMJHL, combining for 50 goals, 93 assists and 143 points in 118 games. In 2009 as a member of the Drummondville Voltigeurs, Mahbod had 13 points (5g, 8a) in 19 games, while helping Drummondville to their first ever QMJHL Championship. Mahbod recorded an assist in a 3-2 win during Game 7 of the Finals. He also scored in the Semifinals of the Memorial Cup in an eventual 3-2 overtime loss.

Not entirely sure I'm down with that pronunciation  and I really didn't need to read that last sentence (or the last part of the last sentence) but I digress.

NHL: After I let some terrifying waiver-claim nightmare scenarios dance around in my brain yesterday, Frédéric St-Denis was allowed to go back to Hamilton in the end. After last night's scrimmage, Gabriel Dumont will join him. Mike Hoffman was sent back to Binghamton while Guillaume Latendresse's new number is 73. Meanwhile, Dmitry Kulikov signed a new deal with Florida. Official rosters are due to be set this afternoon at 5:00 p.m....

AHL: With a depleted Hamilton lineup, Philippe Lefebvre was able to score his first goal of the season against Abbotsford. The Bulldogs lost in the shootout 2-1, however.

CIS: At their carnival game that by all accounts was a packed house, McGill beat UQTR 4-2 on Wednesday. Here is what that scoresheet looked like:

SCORING SUMMARY
-- 1st --
McGill	14:55	PP - David Rose (Jean-Philippe Mathieu & Marc-Olivier Vachon)
McGill	15:41	PP - Guillaume Monast (Hugo Laporte & Chris Longpre-Poirier)
-- 2nd --
UQTR	9:18	Tommy Tremblay (Pierre-Luc Lessard & Antoine Quevillon)
UQTR	15:48	Emmanuel Boudreau (Olivier Donovan & Marc-Olivier Mimar)
-- 3rd --
McGill	0:32	Marc-Olivier Vachon (David Rose & Benoit Levesque)
McGill	18:50	EN - Max Le Sieur (Jean-Philippe Mathieu & Benoit Levesque)

Their next game is tonight at 7 p.m. against Ottawa and will be webcast live on www.ssncanada.ca/games/ .

Meanwhile, on the same night, UNB plastered St. Thomas 7-0. Marc-Antoine Desnoyers recorded two assists and a team-high 7 shots on goal.

In regular news, Drummondville still hasn't played that game against Rimouski yet. Get to it already.

CSS (not the fancy codey kind) midterms...

It may be the beginning of the NHL season, but it's already midterm season for the youngins  And by that you should know I mean draft rankings.

While the Jones/MacKinnon drama rolls on and the Q holds five of the top 10, Nikolas Brouillard, who was all sorts of fantastic on Sunday against Val-d'Or, is listed 148th among North American skaters.

Louis-Philip Guindon, for his part, is twelfth in terms of North American goaltenders. (The only Graham on that list is Charlie from Belleville. Oops.)

It's early yet, there are a lot of games still left to play. Including:

Rimouski: 28-11-1-4, 61 points, 4th in the league, 170 GF, 140 GA, won their last three straight, Peter Trainor is third in league scoring with 30 goals, 37 assists. Their netminder, Philippe Desrosiers, has a GAA that leads all rookies and is seventh overall (2.97), and he has a .905 SV%.

Drummondville: 24-15-2-1, 51 points, 8th in the league, 140 GF, 142 GA, just won 5-2 against Val-d'Or, Verrier still leads the team with 48 points in 42 games, and Guindon is the second-best rookie with a 3.19 GAA and .880 SV%. Domenic Graham is behind him with 3.26 and .872, and the most recent win under his belt.

Head-to-head: The only game opposing the two teams this season was a 7-5 Rimouski win where Verrier and Malouin each scored twice.

From midterms to exams (of a medical nature): Frédéric St-Denis is now among the group lining up to take a physical for his part in the extremely brief training camp currently being held by the Habs. He and Louis Leblanc, Patrick Holland, Michael Blunden, and Michael Bournival are lining up in a scrimmage to be held Thursday at the Bell Centre, along with Gabriel Dumont (among others). Other ex-Volts that got called up to participate in camps include Mike Hoffman and Sean Couturier. Meanwhile, André Bouvet-Morrissette is now in Milwaukee after being called up, and with the Springfield Falcons losing some of their players to training camp, maybe they can finally test Scott Howes and see what he's capable of...

Crap that happened in trades

• It would seem Ricard likes his own traditions this time of year: Bathurst and Italians. M-O Brouillard was sent to the Titan for Giovanni Fiore (which means Johnny Flower, by the way), a first rounder in 2014, and a third rounder this year that previously belonged to Val-d'Or. The move means the end of the Tomas Torok experiment (7 points in 18 games).
• Then they got Miguel Caron from Team I Do Not Want To Discuss Right Now Due To Recent Events for a fourth-rounder in 2014.
• Gabriel Labbé was sent to (guess who?) Bathurst in return for Étienne Salvail, straight up. Not stirred or shaken.
• And today, the Volts tried to give Alexandre Grenier to the Phoenix for a tenth rounder, but the papers were filed too late so they get to claim him off waivers instead. Noooooooooo!
• Also leaving (well, sent down for now) is Érik Longtin.

Around the league:

• Rimouski and Rouyn swapped goaltenders, as Carl Hozjan and Robin Gusse head to opposite sides of the province.
• T.I.D.N.W.T.D.R.N.D.T.R.E also won the Jérémy Grégoire sweepstakes, also picking up netminder Francis Desrosiers in return for their next two first rounders, Thomas Gobeil and Loïk Leveillé.
• Well well well, Moncton gets Phillip Danault. The return? Gabriel Gagné, first round selections in 2014 and 2015, a 2015 2nd-rounder as well as a first round selection in the 2014 Euro Draft. Somewhere in there is Alex (Alex? Who's Alex?) Ivan Barbashev which is drawing criticism (if not profanity).

Everything else you either knew already or is boring but you can check it out here anyway.

Alum-flash: In news that makes me less grumpy, apparently Max Villemaire has returned to the Sea Dogs from the Gwinett Gladiators of the ECHL. Over/under on how many penalty minutes that game will have, and what percentage are his? :D

Happy New Year (and all that jazz)

Alum-stuff to start: Have a sick shootout goal to kick off 2013...



Also:

• The McGill Redmen start up again tonight in their first game after the Christmas break against Carleton.
• You may or may not have already heard about this epic night. The Bulldogs as a whole have mustered 1000% less offense since.
• Scott Howes has a new AHL tryout contract, this time with Springfield. His first game? Against his old squad, Bridgeport. Ha.

Current edition Voltigeurs now: Lukas Balmelli is currently playing for Team Switzerland in order to determine who gets 5th place at the World Juniors, the Swiss or the Czechs. Balmelli has been credited with a goal, an assist, 11 shots on goal and a +3 thus far in the tournament.

Back home, the Voltigeurs are now in eighth place in the league after having won five straight and eight of their last ten. As per Yannick Rochette of NRJ, newcomer Cole Hawes is set to make his debut on Sunday against the Drakkar when they make their way to the Centre Marcel Dionne, alongside Verrier and Gauthier. Hawes was previously injured (incidentally in a game opposing his old team and his new team). The Drakkar have a similar streak going (4 wins in a row) and are currently second in their division behind the Rimouski Oceanic, and sitting in fourth place overall.