Klippers lose out on 20-year-old defenceman

Larry Wintoneak has had a trade on the front burner over the past two days. Today, it was rudely knocked off the stove.

As the head coach explains in this interview, he had a deal for an out-of-province 20-year-old defenceman in exchange for futures. CJAHL rules indicate that when a player is sent to another league for futures, every team in the league he's leaving gets 48 hours to claim him off waivers before the deal goes through. This is what happened.

Wintoneak also talks about options for shoring up the back end, the sudden decision by Nick Eliason to go back to midget, and the Klippers' performance in the rookie game.

Vets who will suit up in Brooks Tuesday night include Taylor Duzan, Jordon Hoffman, Jesse Mysiorek, Sean Flanagan, Riley Down and Scott Hellyer. They will be joined by a mix of '92s and '93s, along with three '94s (probably Howell, Schwark and Daniels).

One more note before we get to Larry's interview - a total of 374 people stopped by the blog today (over 1,000 page views). That's just over double the number from any other day so far. Good to see there are lots of other people who can't wait for the season to start.