Trio of Veterans Signed for 2010-2011

Hello fellow Jackalope fans! It's a beautiful day here in the Permian Basin, and the Odessa Jackalopes have announced three player signings for next season's team. It has officially been announced that Sebastien Thinel, Dave Van Drunen, and Phil Plante will all return to the Jacks for the 2010-2011 season.

This is great news as all three of these players have been key components of the Jackalope's success over the last couple of seasons. All three of these players are also veteran players meaning the Jacks now have only one veteran spot on the roster left to fill. I found it interesting that the Jacks announced three veteran players all at one time, and Karlander was not one of them. What this leads me to believe is that Karlander will probably not be with the Jackalopes next year. If this turns out to be true, then the veteran that takes Kory's spot will have some pretty big skates to fill. Karlander was an offensive threat, a master on faceoffs, and brought incredible leadership to the team. If he does not return, then all of those elements will be dearly missed.

However, there are some more than capable veterans available that would be great additions to the Jacks. The first one that comes to mind is Chad Woollard. He is now officially a free agent since the IceRays announced that they would not be returning to the Central Hockey League next season. Oh, by the way, have you heard that the IceRays will not be back in the CHL for the 2010-2011 season? We will get to that in just a bit. Now, lets get back to Woollard. This guy is one of the premier snipers in the entire CHL. Not only that, but he was an MVP finalist last year, and is also very good on the power play. I would be thrilled to see him in a Jackalope sweater next season, but that is just wishful thinking on my part. Who would you guys like to see fill the open veteran roster spot should Karlander not return next season? Feel free to leave a comment on this post and speak your mind on this matter. All in all, I am very pleased with these three signings by the Jacks. Welcome back guys, and lets finally bring that Presidents Cup home next year.

The Jacks also officially announced that Brian Swiniarski has retired from professional hockey. Many of us already knew about this, but it still sucks to see that this is now official news. Thank you Swinny for all of the memories over the last few seasons.

Finally, the Central Hockey League has now lost another team to the NAHL. It was announced that Amarillo would cease operations just a little over a week ago, and now we have found out that Corpus will not be returning to the CHL next season either. Both teams will join the NAHL. This is obviously very bad news for the league as there are now only thirteen teams left in the CHL. We can only hope for new expansion teams or for some type of merger in the very near future, or I predict that we will not have a Central Hockey League in the not-so-distant future. Lets hope and pray that this does not happen. With all of this said, I'm going to go ahead and wrap things up here. I will blog again soon.

Until next time Jackalope fans all I have to say is GO JACKS GO!!! and welcome back Thinel, Plante, and the captain Van Drunen!