CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

The 2008-09 campaign was the most successful in Manitoba’s eight year AHL history.

The Moose went 50-23 during the regular season – first place in the AHL – and lost to the Calder Cup champions, the Hershey Bears.

Their roster was a combination of: Canucks and Stars prospects, plus players under contract to the Moose.

This season, Dallas has their own franchise – the Texas Stars – and Anaheim will be placing their prospects throughout the AHL.

Last season, Anaheim’s players were playing for the Iowa Chops – a franchise that has now been suspended by the league.

Dallas’ Maxime Fortunus and Mark Fistric were critical to Manitoba’s Kelly Cup run.

MANITOBA MOOSE – 2008-09

This season, the Moose will have  a few good Anaheim prospects.

Brian Salcido is starting his 4th pro season and is not considered an AHL veteran (260 regular-season games played), and thus won’t take up one of the five critical veteran spots.

In three pro seasons, Salcido has scored 28 goals, 123 points and 246 penalty minutes in 233 AHL games – with the Chops and before that, the Portland Pirates.

Last season, the 5th round pick – 141st overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft – had 10 goals, 43 points and 108 penalty minutes in 76 games, and one assist in two games for the Ducks.

“He’s a top-end American League defenceman,” said Scott Arniel. “He’s a guy that you can use on your power play and he can log a lot of minutes. He’s a big-bodied guy that moves pretty well and plays physical…He’s got a real good shot from the top. Last year we were looking for that left-handed defenceman for our power play and we could never really find it.”

“When we were in Anaheim with the Canucks, he had played the night before and I talked to Randy [Carlyle, Ducks coach] about him and he thought the kid played very, very well for them,” Arniel said. “They have depth at the defensive position.”

Anaheim also assigned prospect Matt McCue to the Moose today.

“He can really handle himself,” said Scott Arniel, noting McCue got into scraps with Alexandre Bolduc and Nathan McIver in a recent pre-season game between the Ducks and Vancouver Canucks. “He’s 6-foot-5 and has big, long arms. We’ll get a feel for him this week.”

There will be additional players arriving in Winnipeg as the Ducks’ roster is further trimmed.

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