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Roger McQueen

Roger McQueen Commits To Providence College

at CDT | by 4 Comments

Aug. 6: Providence has officially announced McQueen’s commitment. That means he won’t be in training camp with the Ducks and will play out at least his freshman season with the Friars before potentially signing his first NHL deal as soon as their season ends.

Aug. 2: Last month, Ducks prospect Roger McQueen indicated that if he didn’t make Anaheim’s roster out of training camp, he would return to WHL Brandon for the upcoming season.  However, it appears he has had a change of heart.  Brad Elliott Schlossmann of the Grand Forks Herald reports (Twitter link) that McQueen has been pursuing NCAA options with Providence emerging as the frontrunner for his services.  Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal adds (Twitter link) that McQueen could announce his commitment to the Friars within the next couple of days.

The 18-year-old was the 10th overall pick back in June.  A big center with plenty of offensive potential, McQueen ultimately slipped on draft day thanks to a back injury that cost him most of last season which made him more of a riskier selection.  However, he did return late in the season and was quite productive, notching 10 goals and 10 assists in 17 games for the Wheat Kings.

Given that he missed most of the season due to injury, a return to Brandon would have made a lot of sense for McQueen to allow him to get more game reps.  A healthy regular season and playoff run can lead junior players to push past the 80-game mark whereas in college, few teams get to half of that number so staying in junior could help make up for some lost development time.

On the other hand, going the college route would be an uptick in the level of competition McQueen would face.  Meanwhile, after missing so much playing time, jumping from 17 games (20 including playoffs) to possibly four times that amount might come with some risks of its own while having more time to work on off-ice conditioning would help him fill out his six-foot-five frame.

It’s unclear if McQueen ultimately had the change of heart or if the Ducks indicated that their preference is for him to go to the NCAA.  As a result of this decision, McQueen won’t be able to sign his entry-level contract as many first-round picks often do after being drafted or attend training camp with Anaheim.

West Notes: Rossi, Gushchin, Skinner, McQueen

at CDT | by 4 Comments

One of the more prominent remaining restricted free agents is Wild center Marco Rossi.  He has long been in trade speculation given what’s believed to be a significant gap to bridge between the two sides but with a little more than $10MM in cap space per PuckPedia, they have ample room to sign him or match any potential offer sheet.  Without the ability to file for arbitration, Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune suggests that Minnesota still holds the hammer in negotiations, especially since they’ve positioned themselves to be able to match an offer sheet, something Edmonton didn’t do last summer when they lost a pair of players to St. Louis.  At this point, a trade looks less and less likely so it feels like a situation where the two sides are going to have to hammer out a contract.  While the team has presented short-term and long-term offers, a shorter-term pact would seemingly make the most sense for Rossi if his camp feels that Minnesota’s offers are too low for a long-term agreement.

More from out West:

  • Sharks RFA winger Daniil Gushchin told Sport24’s Dmitry Yerkalov that he hasn’t decided yet if he’ll re-sign with San Jose or play in Russia next season. The 23-year-old was quite productive in the minors with the Barracuda, tallying 28 goals and 23 assists in 56 games but that performance didn’t give him much of an opportunity with the Sharks as he played in just a dozen games where he had only one assist.  Gushchin stated that he is hoping to make a decision about his playing future by the beginning of August.
  • Still with the Sharks, new winger Jeff Skinner received some trade protection in his contract according to PuckPedia (Twitter link). The 33-year-old has a full no-trade clause through January 30th at which time, the protection drops to just a six-team no-trade clause for the remainder of the season.  Accordingly, while this deal won’t stop Skinner from being a speculative in-season trade candidate, any move is likely to come closer to the trade deadline.  Skinner had 16 goals and 13 assists in 72 games with Edmonton last season.
  • If Roger McQueen doesn’t make the Ducks’ roster in training camp, he told Global News’ Scott Roblin (Twitter link) that he will return to WHL Brandon instead of pursuing NCAA options. McQueen was the tenth pick last month, sliding in the draft after being limited to just 17 regular season games last season due to back troubles but he was quite productive in those outings, picking up 10 goals and 10 assists.  Given that he missed most of the year, it’s not overly surprising that he’d elect to return to junior to get more game action in to try to make up for some lost time.

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