Social Icons

twitterfacebookgoogle pluslinkedinrss feedemail

Pages

Hockey Challenge 2014

Recent Articles

10.25.2011

Fleming and Frank Out

Erik Fleming has been removed from the roster page at the Thunderbirds website. I can't confirm from any sources what exactly has gone down.  I will update when I can.

UPDATE - Erik Fleming and Austin Frank are both gone.  Frank appears to have chosen to leave, I'm not sure exactly what the circumstances are surrounding Fleming being gone.

Frank was known to be a very hard worker but found himself without a spot on the blueline after Seattle traded for Brad Deagle and Braeden Laroque.  He played some forward on Sunday but my guess is that he wants a chance to play defense somewhere.

Fleming, a first round bantam selection in the year that Seattle selected Calvin Pickard in the 2nd round, just never seemed to find a comfortable fit with the Tbirds and unfortunately will go down as another 1st round bust in Seattle's history. Fleming had been sitting out with an injury

Where these guys go from here is not quite clear to me at this time.

16 comments :

Unknown said...

Maybe he's been sent back like Salmon was. Thank goodness for the guys being on twitter or we'd never know what's going on.

Or maybe...a trade?

Anonymous said...

frank is off the roster as well, hopefully a move to bring in someone who can score and compliment noebels.

Anonymous said...

They don't have room to add to the roster with Jacobs and Wardley coming off their injury/surgery situations soon. They had too many d-men. It was obvious 2 of them would have to be moved out; especially after trading for both Laroque and Deagle. So now you have those two plus Verdino, Machecek, Sutter, Hauf, Theodore and Wardley, when he is healthy. That is still 8 d-men if indeed, Fleming and Frank are gone.

Anonymous said...

The WHL website weekly report lists Erik Fleming as "returning from injury".

Anonymous said...

Still need defense but an offense can help in that department. They can't score if they don't have the puck.

Anonymous said...

They do have room, they can carry up to 25 players although most teams carry 23. With Frank & Fleming leaving they are at 23 so there is a possibilty of adding a body. To find a top end scorer you will need to give up something so I could see a couple of defensive type 3rd liners going and then adding a player. Right now you have 2 guys with 1/2 the goals and that needs to change. When Verdino is playing the defense is acceptable so if they can get some soring they will be fine.

Anonymous said...

When is the last time they carried 25 players over the course of the season? It's counterproductive to a players development to sit as a healthy scratch for 40-45 games a season. You have to remember they also need to get both their 16 yr olds into 40 games minimum and when Wardley gets healthy they have to find playing time for him or send him out. When Jacobs is healthy they'll be sitting another forward every night, most likely Guiel. Doty is hardly playing now as it is. They will not be adding players unless they subtract from the current roster.

Anonymous said...

A top end scorer? Someone really thinks this team should make yet another trade after already having traded for four of the current defensemen? Jacobs is coming back from injury and they have Noebels and Gallimore.

How about we give Trook some time to get back into the swing of things after having missed a full season, while giving players like Sanvido, Alos and Rouse much less time to get it going? This team already has players that should be scoring. They just need to raise their compete level.

Anonymous said...

those players have had 2 to 3 years to show they could score... and they havent. i guess if you are excited watching guys score 5 to 10 goals a year, then thats fine, but you can rely on two players to score all your goals, and sanvido, rouse and alos arent goal scorers, there 4th line penilty killers. there needed for sure, but it would be nice to have someone other than noebels and gallimore scoring all your goals.

Anonymous said...

The above comment is great!!! Rouse, Alos, and Sanvido do nothing on offense, they hustle , I am not saying they are not dogging anything but you have to score some goals. Elliot also, get that big 6-5 frame in front of the net and bang those pucks in , same with Lund, he is 6-5, they have got to get more traffic in front of the net to control the rebound and loose pucks and get those dirty goals.

Anonymous said...

“i guess if you are excited watching guys score 5 to 10 goals a year, then thats fine”

Actually I think my post made it pretty clear that I have been disappointed by the players I listed. The fact that they have had 2-3 years to do something and haven’t doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t. It also doesn’t guarantee they will. These guys are young and they develop at different speeds if they develop at all. Whether you think anyone aside from Noebels or Gallimore can score is irrelevant because we are stuck with the others. No one is going to trade you a top end scorer for any two of them.
I don’t think this team is stacked with talent, and that is all the more reason to compete harder. You can't trade your way to success at this level. Growth needs to be organic and this team has done a poor job of drafting and developing talent. Dillon was a late bloomer while Fleming never panned out, and no one could of called that until it played out.

Anonymous said...

Salmon was never given a chance. Pickard was the star and played all the games last year, except when Pickard was blasted...like his bobble head night. Seeing Salmon the last game of the season he did alright...definately better than Pickard and the terrible defense.


Regardless, this organization has taken their fans for a ride. They can expect 3,000 fans on a weekday and over 5,000 for a weekend. They don't mind the product they are putting on the ice...they are making money.


Question is...and I just moved here...how many Thunderbirds have moved on to the NHL, the ultimate goal? How many of these kids need a good education do we need to finance to see a decent team on ice? What the heck happened to the old Thunderbird mindset of winning and advancing in the playoffs? It's still early...hoping things change...or a quick kick in the backside to the players to wake them up.

Sorry...but having taken my kids to 14 games last year to only see the team win once was a disappointment. It won't happen again this year...we are not attending at Kent...we may attend, thanks to the coupons for Everett, two or three times but it is no longer fun to attend the Thunderbird games to see them lose every single.


I am just voicing my frustrations. Sorry, all...but I can spend my money better in Everett...the drive is longer, kids love Thunderbirds, but it is hockey and they win sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Of course Seattle beat Everett at their place on Friday. I like what we are seeing out of the new coach so far. Our player quality is not as good as many teams, but at least this coach is trying to teach them how to be better. When they've played well this year, the birds have been very exciting and entertaining to watch. If they show us more of that style then tickets will be a good value. The team is also doing a much better job of fore checking in many of their games and I expect that will result in more wins than last year.

Anonymous said...

Well actually the fact that noebels and gallimore are the only ones that are scoring is relevent because they are the ones who scored the bulk of our goals last year, and so far this year, its the same thing. I never suggested that the birds would receive anything for players they have, but if we are going to keep rebuilding, why not actually rebuild. You are right, this team does have youth, but they also have something like 9, 19 year olds. We have been in the same cycle for years, and watching the same old crap. With a new coach, I would love to see this team actually rebuild, and build around trook and jacobs. Look at the roster and look at all the players, who won't be here next year. Why keep pickard, why keep noebels? There is absoluetly no point. To watch us get destroyed in the first round of the playoffs? I'm tired of waiting for players like alos, rouse and sanvido to develop.

Anonymous said...

The talk of 'actually rebuilding' with this organization scares me. Usually those words mean that it's time for a fire sale. The team has already gone through a couple of mini fire sales intended to build for the future and those haven't gone so well.

We can easily point to the Acolatse for Gallimore trade, which was a slam dunk. But then come the moves that were intended to jumpstart a rebuild.. Veterans in exchange for younger prospects. Varg for Austin Frank got us nothing. De Serres was a great goaltending offering on the trade market and in return we received the ineffective Brendan Rouse. Parker for Aasman? Yikes. Jahraus for Robbie Ciolfi. Who?

The best thing they can do is stick with the players they have, wait for Jacobs to get back in the lineup, and give this season all they have. Oh, and being smarter with scouting and drafting for next year doesn't hurt either.

Anonymous said...

I'll be happy if they can get Gropp signed.

WHL Scoreboard