The Barons: Building A Stronger Tomorrow
By Lowetide
12 years ago
David LeNeveu (goalie) and Kirill Tulupov (also in photo) are two of the men "on the farm" for the 11-12 season. A minor league team that housed talents like Jeff Petry and Linus Omark a year ago is brimming again with talent. Who are these guys?
The best players for OKC are veteran like Bryan Helmer, but the reason we should pay attention to the Barons are the prospects. If you’re 25 years old and in the AHL, the chances are slim (although not impossible) for an NHL career. At 20, there is much hope for the future.
If you’re 20 years old, a fairly high draft pick for the parent team and are getting a "push" from the coach? Life’s pretty good. Oiler fans will be following the fortunes of Tyler Pitlick, Curtis Hamilton, Colten Teubert and Teemu Hartikainen, although the Finn could be ticketed for the NHL at any minute.
Secondary prospects like Chris VandeVelde, Johan Motin, Kirill Tulupov, Phil Cornet, Tanner House, Ryan Lowery, Hunter Tremblay and Ryan O’Marra are also players who could emerge or spend some time with the big team.
Last night in the third period against San Antonio, Colten Teubert scored a goal on his 4th shot of the night. Young Tyler Pitlick–who had impressed earlier in the evening with a wonderful dash into the offensive zone, notched his first pro assist on the goal.
OKC had a terrible game last weekend and had to wait a long time for game 2 and a chance to set things right. The young talents on the Barons helped with a very important victory and will earn more playing time as the season rolls out.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Nation Radio is back on the air today, noontime on Team 1260. We’ll preview tonight’s HNIC game and read your comments at nationradio@theteam1260.com Scheduled to appear:
- Jim Byers from the Oklahoma City Barons. OKC’s play by play guy will join us again this season and pass along the latest from the farm. I’ll ask about Pitlick, Hamilton, Hartikainen and any questions you send me.
- Tyler Dellow from mc79 hockey. Tyler is already tearing up the blacktop this season, and we’ll touch base on his "open source" research and his recent article on Ales Hemsky.
- Jeff Angus from dobber hockey and Canucks Army. He’ll help me preview the Canucks-Oilers and give us an idea about the early struggles Vancouver has been suffering this season. If we have time, I’ll ask him about some of the prospects the Canucks fans are excited about moving forward.
- Jonathan Willis from pretty much everywhere. Jon is like Eric Clapton in the olden days. Maybe he’d show up in Traffic or perhaps Cream, but maybe he was just playing all night long with Duane Allman and jamming out Derek and the Dominos numbers. I’ll ask Jonathan about his whereabouts this week and ask him to chime in on the Oilers early season success.
- David Staples from the EJ has been requested but at this writing is not confirmed. I do know that David has been on the Katz-City of Edmonton story for many hours and we may not get him. But I’m hopeful.
Hope you can tune in.
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