Monday Table Topics + Trade

Good afternoon.

First I'd like to tell all of you what is coming up tonight on the Co-Op Leisure Time Sports Fix.

I'll be speaking with the President of the World Junior Hockey Championship Organizing Committee Jack Brodsky. Brodsky was on the show last December teeing up the WJHC, and tonight we'll get an update on how things are coming a long. For those readers that are still on the fence about whether or not to attend the WJ's, let me tell you from personal experience that NOTHING beats watching your home country play for the Gold Medal live.


My second guest on the show tonight will be the Head Scout for Hockey Canada Al Murray. Murray was a long-time scout for the LA Kings, and has been with Hockey Canada since 2007. He's a great speaker, and should provide some excellent insight. If you are at all interested in hockey scouting, than I suggest you listen to tonight's interview.

My final guest will be the voice of the Dauphin Kings, Kevin Jeffery. The interview was supposed to run last week, but we had too much content for an hour, so Kevin's interview (which is great) got pushed to this week.

The show starts at 8:00, and you can here it on www.cjnb.com.

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The Battlefords North Stars are tops in the Bauer Conference still, yet this past weekend still felt kind of weird. You ask anybody in the Battlefords, and I'm sure they'll tell you, "It's great that we're winning." But at the same time, it's HOW we are winning that gets a lot of people thinking negatively.

Does winning a hockey game in a shootout make the win a little less convincing?

I don't think so. They all count on the stat-sheet, and it's not like the Stars are playing poorly and winning games. But I'm really curious to know what you think.

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I've been receiving text messages all afternoon from North Star's fans asking me about the trade that's been announced on the SJHL website.

If you haven't heard:

October 26/09
Nipawin Hawks trade 1989 F Kory Kimpinski (Brandon MB) and 1990 D Kyle Hamm (Brandon MB) to the Battlefords North Stars for future considerations.


I know. What a steal right?

Well all of this is contingent on Kimpinski and Hamm wanting to play here. We've already had one player say no this year (Koltyn Miller) and mark me down for one of those fans who is silently pleading that these two show up to play here.

Both were very impressive when I saw them play in Nipawin nine days ago. Kimpinski would be an excellent fit up front with his vision and skill, and Kyle Hamm adds more experience and depth to our back-end.

Ken Pearson has told me that he'll know by the end of the day whether they're coming to play here or not. When I know, you'll know.

But should this trade work out, then the North Stars have just grabbed two quality players for next to nothing.

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I'm really intrigued by the results of the blog poll right now. It's not that I was expecting a certain player to win by a landslide, but it's great to see such a close battle.

You still have a few days to weigh in, and I'm looking forward to seeing who prevails. We'll see if the coach agrees!

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The Battlefords North Stars player of the month for October is going to be announced on Wednesday night. The choice for September was extremely difficult, and the choice for October may be a little easier.

In my opinion Brett Miller has been a step above everybody else, and given the teams success in October, that's really saying something.

Other possible candidates for me would be: Kyle Birch, Blake Peake, Mitch Wall or Cody Folstad.

Did I miss anybody for the month of October that you feel deserves to be there?

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That's all for now. I've got a dentist appointment. I'll more than likely be adding to the blog at some point this evening, hopefully with news about Kimpinski and Hamm.

Fingers crossed North Star Nation, this could be big!