Last season with the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec League, the 19-year old right wing posted 53 goals and 106 points in just 47 games. Kolnik also notched 15 goals and 37 points for the Quebec League Champions in 18 postseason games.
His two year junior totals produced 95 goals in 109 career games. His linemate Brad Richards was signed to a three year deal with Tampa Bay earlier this summer.
Kolnik is likely to spend a year in the Islanders minor league affiliate in Lowell because the Isles have few spots open on the teams depth chart at right wing with Maruisz Czerkwski and Mark Parrish on the first two lines, Dave Scatchard, Bill Muckalt, or Mats Lindgren as right wing on the third line, and Steve Webb as the 4th line right wing. Mike Stapleton and Claude La Pointe will likely be on the teams 4th line with Webb.
As Al Arbour once said about another right wing named Mike Bossy, ” Give me the homerun hitter ”
In Juraj Kolnik the Islanders have got one.
Taylor Pyatt from all indications is ready to join the Islanders and is likely to be the rookie forward who joins the team this year.
Dimitri Nabakov and former Hobey Baker winner Jason Krog, who looked very good after going to Providence after a poor start at Lowell will also get a chance to make the team so its going to be very competitive.
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SLOVAK NEWS – AUGUST UPDATE
Training Camp of Dream team
In the end of July, national head coach Jan Filc called a “small” training camp of players considered as nominees for national team on Olympic games 2002 in Sault Lake City. He invited around 50 players playing in the NHL, AHL, IHL and in the European leagues. Only four of invited players apologized their absence – Svehla, Droppa, Vaic and Hlinka. Other players took part on this camp. The climax of this camp was exhibition game “America” versus “Europe”, which was playing in August 4th in Bratislava. It was amazing game for Slovak fans to see Demitra, Satan, Palffy, Stumpel, Bondra, Handzus, Hossa, Bartecko, Chara, Suchy etc. on “American” team and Sekeras, Visnovsky, Ciger, Pardavy, Bartos, etc. on team “Europe”. America won that game 12 : 7 when Satan (3 + 2) and Bondra (2 + 3) on one side and Pardavy (3 + 0) on the other one, were scoring stars. It was a great show for all hockey fans. By the way the best skater in speed competition was Lubo Visnovsky followed by Peter Bartos, Jaro Obsut and Peter Bondra.
Crystal Cup
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Here is the Lineup:
FORWARDS (13):
Player Hgt Wght Shts BirthPlace Birthdate 99-20 Team Lge GP-G-A-PTS-PIM
Zdenek Blatny 6-1 187 L Brno, Czech Repub. 01-14-81 Seattle WHL 7-4-5-9-12
Kootenay WHL 61-43-39-82-119
Eric Bowen 6-2 225 L Canoga Park, Cali. 10-30-81 Portland WHL 69-2-5-7-184
Frederic Faucher 6-1 195 L Lorretville, Quebec 04-14-82 Drummondv. QMJHL 68-23-36-59-47
Simon Gamache 5-10 180 L Thetford Mines, Que. 01-31-81 Val D'Or QMJHL 72-64-79-143-74
Darcy Hordichuk 6-0 200 L Kamsack, Sask. 09-10-80 Saskatoon WHL 63-6-7-13-265
David Kaczowka 6-2 205 L Regina, Sask. 07-05-81 SeattleT WHL 63-3-3-6-211
Jules-Edy Laraque 5-8 180 L Sept-Ils, Quebec 08-23-80 Acadie Bat. QMJHL 43-13-20-33-39
Halifax QMJHL 28-8-9-17-6
Derek MacKenzie 5-11 169 L Sudbury, Ont. 06-11-81 Sudbury OHL 68-24-33-57-110
Carl Mallette 6-0 188 R Pointe-Clair, Que. 11-17-81 Victoriavi. QMJHL 69-49-76-125-97
Blake Robson 5-11 190 R Calgary, Alb. 03-31-82 Portland WHL 70-20-27-47-96
Ben Simon 5-11 180 L Shaker Heights, Ott. 06-14-78 Notre Dame CCHA 40-13-19-32-53 Read more»
2000-2001 Panther Training Camp Report
The upcoming 2000-2001 Panther season will be very reminiscent of the 98-99 season when rookies Mark Parrish, Oleg Kvasha, Jaroslav Spacek, and Peter Worrell all played meaningful roles on a rebuilding team. 98-99 was also a season that saw the arrival of Pavel Bure who became the first superstar on the Panthers, and quickly upgraded the skill level on the team. In the 99-00 season, there were fewer spots for rookies to play on, and the only notable rookie to play for most of the season was Ryan Johnson.
In the 2000 draft, Bryan Murray shocked the hockey world (especially Islander fans) by trading solid sophomores Parrish and Kvasha for #1 ranked prospect, Roberto Luongo and the once highly touted prospect, Olli Jokinen.
The offseason also saw the departures of forwards Cam Stewart, Ray Sheppard, goalies Mike Vernon and Mikhail Sthalenkov and the FA addition of Igor Larionov. All these roster moves have given the Panthers the potential to have 3 rookies competing for open roster spots, and the potential of some more trades might free up another 2-3 spots.
In this article, Hockey’s Future will hopefully shed some light on what could be some intense battles for some very deserving prospects. While the Panthers are no longer in a re-building mode, there is some drama that will unfold in the fight for those few coveted open roster spots on the Florida Panthers for the 2000-2001 season.
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Week 2 of the Prospect Camp began with the much anticipated return of Guy Carbonneau to the Canadiens’ family. Carbonneau, who expects it to take a couple of months to settle into his new position, looked quite comfortable on the ice. The prospects looked very anxious to be around him, almost colliding with one another in order to take passes from Carbonneau during warm-up.
Jason Ward and Eric Chouinard were on the ice nearly 45 minutes before the morning practice was scheduled to begin. Ward and Chouinard were joined by Roland Melanson. Melanson would feed the players the puck in front of the net. The passes would alternate between the backhand and forehand. Surprisingly, Ward seemed to be more comfortable than Chouinard, although Chouinard’s quick release and accuracy were prominent during the drill. Mathieu Garon also joined the drill, but that was just prior to the start of practice.
Canadiens’ assistant coach Clément Jodoin made his first on-ice appearance. He took over for André Savard, running most of the drills during practice. Savard was more of an observer, although he did contribute a few of his own drills.
Practice seemed to focus mainly on offensive and defensive triangles. Many of the drills were set up to be three on three’s . Jodoin was very specific as to how exactly the players were to cycle the puck. Carbonneau was a close observer during this section of the practice, occasionally offering some words of advice to the players. Read more»
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