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Stars' Late Season Mini-Report

Written by: Geoffrey Ussery on 04/09/2003 Subscribe to HF's RSS Feed

Usually, the Stars farm system is rather quiet in terms of news. A few players may have good years and shoot up the rankings, but there is not much in the noteworthy category going for them. This spring turned out to be a little different than usual. A few prospects (and former prospects) saw their names in the headlines in their respective countries. Let us take a quick look at these happenings.

Ryan, Aquino Traded

The two most skilled prospects on the right side, Northeastern captain Mike Ryan and the suspended Anthony Aquino, were both sent elsewhere at the trade deadline.

A second round pick in 1999, Mike Ryan was traded with a second round pick in the upcoming draft, assumed to be the Stars' own pick, for veteran forward Stu Barnes. A move to bolster the Stars for a playoff run, the Stars traded away a good prospect in Ryan, and if the second round pick was indeed theirs, a very late second round pick for a versatile forward in Barnes. While the Stars did unload who some consider their best goal-scoring prospect in the deal, they gained an immediate asset for players that may never hit the squad. With the Stars current depth and a few players pushing to join the team relatively soon, there was no guaranteed spot for Ryan. This move is definitely good for the present, but time will tell exactly what they gave up in Ryan.

The other skilled RW, Anthony Aquino was sent to the Atlanta Thrashers for a 6th round draft pick. Aquino, who left Merrimack to join the Oshawa Generals of the OHL, played a small number of games before being barred from OHL competition because of a pending appeal on a court case involving his departure from Merrimack. After leaving the Generals, the whereabouts of Aquino were unknown. Then at the deadline, he was moved and promptly signed by Atlanta.

These two moves depleted the already thin depth on the right side in the Stars' system but are great for a team in win now mode. They got a good contributor at cost of a good prospect and decent pick, and a late round pick for a forward who probably would not sign with the organization.

The Daley Drama

One of the biggest stories recently was surrounding superb prospect Trevor Daley. After a loss, then Sault St. Marie Greyhounds coach John Vanbiesbrouck, used a racial slur to refer to Greyhounds captain Daley in a meeting with players while Daley was absent. At practice the next day, the players in the meeting told Daley about the slur, who, after consulting his agent Bobby Orr, left the team. Soon after, Vanbiesbrouck admitted to using the slur and stepped down as coach and GM of the Greyhounds while remaining a minority owner. Daley then rejoined the team and finished out the season with the Greyhounds. However, in the team's first playoff game, Daley injured his knee and was forced to sit out the remaining three games of his team's playoff series as the Kitchener Rangers swept the Greyhounds.

Mighty Miettinen

Finnish superstar Antti Miettinen, who made his way into the limelight last year with a breakout season, followed up with another excellent campaign in the SM-Liiga. Miettinen's play was so excellent that he was awarded the Lasse Oksanen Trophy naming him the SM-Liiga's best player. The voting for the award was quite lopsided in the promising prospect forward's favor. His 25 goal, 25 assist campaign had him a shade under a point per game, but he was a key player for the very strong HPK team that finished first in the regular season and third in the SM-Liiga playoffs. In the playoffs, Miettinen posted a goal and 7 assists in the 10 games in which he played for HPK. Miettinen was suspended for 3 games in the first round against TPS for a kneeing incident, so he did not play each game for HPK. After this season, it is possible that he will be signed by Dallas over the summer. Next up for Miettinen is probably the World Championships.

Lundqvist a Champion

One of the other Stars prospects who had a very good year, Joel Lundqvist of Frölunda can add SEL Champion to his resume as Frölunda swept Färjestad in the championship series. Lundqvist and his linemates started off the playoffs cold, but he and especially Carolina prospect Magnus Khanberg turned it up and played a pivotal part in the later series for Frölunda including the championship series. Lundqvist finished 3rd overall on his team in playoff scoring and 2nd in goal scoring. Lundqvist has improved quite a bit over the season, and his production continued in the playoffs when it mattered most. It seems unlikely that the Stars are ready to bring him to North America at the moment as he could probably use a little more development time, but the possibility is there. Hopefully, he will be invited to join the World Championship squad for Sweden, but the odds may not be in his favor since he is so young.



Copyright 2003 Hockey’s Future. Do not reprint or otherwise duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.

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