u/grypas15

Hi all, I'm originally from the Detroit-metro, but years ago I moved out to the West Coast. I live in a big city now, but my family is still in the area. I'm getting married in a little over a year and am looking for venues for the reception. My partner and I are young, queer, urbanites. We are looking for places in and around Ferndale/Royal Oak or Ann Arbor. I found the "Ferndale Project" in my search, and from what I can tell, it is exactly the vibe we're looking for. The issue is, my mom, who is the one funding this, thinks everything south of Hall Road is a "sketchy area." She's worried that people's cars will be broken into while we're there. I kind of think that's a bit exaggerative, but even though I spend a lot of time and energy explaining I do not live in a "warzone," there are areas of my city that you do genuinely have to be cautious in. I assume it's fine, but I want to check.

A few months ago I put together a write up predicting what this upcoming season's roster might look like. There have been some trades, some players waived, some people signed, so I thought I'd put together a Pre-Camp update. We'll obviously know a little more based on who reports to the Neely Cup camp in a few weeks, and after that, the Pre-Season will also give some insight and allow us to see if there are any stand outs.

Let's first look at Confirmed Departures. These are moves that have been officially announced by either the Winterhawks, the College a player is moving to, or the Player themselves:

Carter Matthews (D 06) - Rensselaer Polytech Inst.
Carsyn Dyck (F 06) - Waived
Griffin Darby (D 08) - Traded
Alex Weiermair (F 05) - NHL/AHL/ECHL - Aged Out
Niko Tsakumis (D 05) - University of Alaska - Aged Out
Nathan Free (F 06) - Union College
Ryan Miller (F 07) - University of Denver

Now let's look at what I'm calling Possible Departures. These are moves that are listed on sites like Elite Prospects, but haven't been confirmed by any official channel.

Ben Miller (F 06) - Elite Prospects has him listed for the 26/27 Northeastern University Roster, and he posted something on instagram like, "Good luck to all the guys moving on," but I can't find any official denotation of his departure.

Cole Slobodian (D 06) - His original commitment was for the 27-28 season, but Elite Prospects and College Hockey News both have him listed for this upcoming season. I think it's possible he's back, but we'll see.

If we exclude all those departures, that leaves us with the following Returning Players based off last year's Postseason roster:

FORWARDS
Kyle McDonough (F 07)
Sam Spehar (F 07)
Jordan Duguay (F 08)
Reed Brown (F 08)
Jake Gustafson (F 08)
Luke Wilfley (F 08)
Finn Spehar (F 09)
Jordin St. Louis (F 09)
Alessandro Domenichelli (F 09)

DEFENCEMEN:
Max Pšenička (D 07) (Signed his ELC but unless he makes the NHL or AHL roster - he will be back)
Cameron Jacobson (D 08)
Will McLaughlin (D 08)
Luke Christopherson (D 09)

GOALIES:
Ondrej Štěbeták (G 07)
Cruz Chase (G 07)
Blake Clark (G 09)

That leaves us at 13 Skaters and 3 Goalies. However, there are young players that signed during last season, two new eligible signings over the summer, and a few players that were on the team for part of last year. These are who I consider to start, All but Officially Confirmed

Stevie Grumley (D 07) - 41 Pts (17 goals, 24 assist) in 41 games played in the BCHL (1 ppg)
Avery Laliberte (D 06) - 10 Pts (3 goals, 7 assists) in 62 games played in the USHL (.16 ppg)
Easton Dozark (D 10) - 134 pts (50 goals, 84 assists) in 89 games played in 15UAAA (1.51 ppg)

While Laliberte was born in 06, he does not qualify as an Overager as his birthday is September 18th. If Slobodian and/or Miller do not return, there will be no foreseen Overagers on the team this season. They put a ton of effort into recruiting Dozark last year, and he seems to be an excellent player from everything I've seen. He turned down the NTDP, so all signs point to him being here next year. This next group is the High Likelihood players. They either played a little bit with the team last year, or are stellar prospects ready to make the jump:

Crewe Schimnowski (F 10) - 89 pts (42 goals, 47 assists) in 44 games played in U18AAA (2.02 ppg)
Trevor Toyne (F 10) - 64 pts (28 goals, 36 assists) in 24 games played in U18AAA (2.67 ppg)
Liam Reed (D 09) - 17 pts (3 goals, 14 assists) in 47 GP in the AJHL (.36 ppg), 0 pts 3 GP in Portland
Aaron Zulinick (D 08) - 5 pts (1 goal, 4 assists) in 25 GP in the BCHL (.2 ppg), 1 goal in 11 GP in Portland

I am extremely bullish on Schimnowski. When he was playing against same age competition in U15 a year ago he put up 111 points (57 goals, 54 assists) in 29 games, that's almost 4 ppg. As a 15 year old, he posted just over 2 points per game in a U18 league, winning Rookie of the Year, First Team All Star and MVP in the same season. He played on the same team as Toyne, so they could both come in next year and take minutes on the 3rd line together and continue their chemistry.

Okay, now this next portion was a bit of doozy to put together. The way the rules work for the WHL, a team is allowed to have 50 players designated as “protected.” This includes those on the team, and “prospects in the system.” The current Protected Players List on the Winterhawk's website is outdated. So, I put together this list of every player that was drafted by the Winterhawks that would be eligible to play for them this year, or whose rights we have acquired. I have excluded players that were drafted by the Winterhawks but have either been traded or were not protected and ended up on another WHL team. That’s the only way I could fully confirm that they are not on our Protected Players List. These players are designated by their current commitments and how likely they are to change their current commitments to come to Portland or for Portland to want to bring them in this year. They are ranked on a scale 1-5, with 1 being Very Unlikely, and 5 being Likely. A ⭐ infront of their name means they have, at one point, signed a Development Contract with the Winterhawks.

Mason West F 07 - NCAA - 1.5
Garin Ludwig D 06 - NCAA - 1
Adam Kleber D 06 - NCAA - 1
Garrett Lindberg D 07 - NCAA - 1
⭐ Tyler DiCarlo G 09 - NAHL - 2
Maverick McKinnon F 10 - NTDP - 1
Gavin Godbout D 10 - Minnesota High School - 1 for this year, 3 in the future
⭐ Luke Brunen G 06 - SJHL - 1
Reid Varkonyi F 06 - NCAA - 1
Alex Thompson D 06 - MJHL - 1
Liam Goertzen F 06 - MJHL - 1
Simon Garchinski D 07 - PJHL - 1
Trevor Oishi D 07 - SJHL - 1
Tyce Penrod F 07 - SJHL - 1
⭐ Luke Myhre F 07 - MJHL - 1
Griffin Brown D 07 - USHL - 2
Mario Fate F 07 - NAHL - 1
⭐ Owen Chapman F 08 - SJHL - 4
Cash Lanigan F 08 - SJHL - 3
Nash Nicolay F 08 - AJHL 1
⭐ Lincoln Black-Greaves D 08 - MJHL - 4
Griffin Sturm D 08 - NAHL - 1
Tate Hanson F 08 - AJHL - 1
Morgan Stickney G 08 - NCAA - 1
⭐ Caden Leibel F 09 - U18 Prep - 4
⭐ Cash Brebant F 09 - AJHL - 3
Becker Wenkus D 09 - USHL - 1
⭐ Hudson Sayers D 09 - U18AAA - 3.5 
Nixon Mah G 09 - U18AAA - 1
Freddie Schneider - NTDP - 1
⭐ Nikita Mikhailov - MHL - 1
Kohen Ruedig D 10 - U18AAA - 2
⭐ Cooper Dryden G 10 - U18AAA - 5
Jaxon Jaffray F 10 - U18AAA - 2
Alan Han F 10 - U18AAA - 1
Kane Tomsic D 10 - U18AAA - 1
Stellan Gasseau F/D 10 - U16AAA - 1
Cameron Young-Thompson F 10 - U18 Prep - 1
Max Melicherik F 10 - Liiga U20 - 2.5 (Import)

There honestly isn't a ton of space for many of these prospects to make the team. There are a few I want to talk about. The first is Cooper Dryden, he is a goalie and has been stellar. As a 15 year old in U18 he had a .914 Save Percentage and a 2.11 GAA. Personally, I think that Cruz is likely to be traded at some point. He's a really solid backup, but he is in his last year, unless he plays as an Overager in the following season. Stebi is more than likely gone after this season too (although there is a part of me that hopes he sticks around as one of our Overagers in the 27-28 season because I think that will be our big contention window with the young core we're building). Clark is young, but I wasn't all that impressed with him in the times he did play, and didn't have great stats playing in a lower league. It's possible he gets better, but I think the future of the net is in Dryden's hands. It would be great to bring him on as Third Goalie to start the season, and if he's competent enough as a Backup, move Chase at the deadline to a team that needs a good backup or even a decent Starter.

The next one I want to talk about is Max Melicherik. He would be our 3rd Import on the team. He is a high powered scorer who has been playing up his whole career so far. He is playing in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, so I hope they Winterhawks are recruiting him heavily while he's in North America. He had 55 points, 29 goals and 26 assists in 43 games while playing in the Liiga's U18 league. He's a big kid at 6'2" 190, at 15 years old and is a play driving Power Forward. I doubt he starts the season with us, but he would be an excellent mid season acquisition. I'm sure the allure of staying in Europe and playing only one step below the pro league is going to keep him put for the moment though.

Putting all of that together, here's my Pre-Camp Projected Roster:

FORWARDS
Kyle McDonough (Captain)
Sam Spehar
Jordan Duguay (Alternate)
Reed Brown
Jake Gustafson
Luke Wilfley
Finn Spehar
Jordin St. Louis
Alessandro Domenichelli
Crewe Schimnowski
Trevor Toyne
Owen Chapman
Caden Leibel
Cash Brebant

DEFENCEMAN
Max Pšenička (Alternate)
Cameron Jacobson
Will McLaughlin (Alternate)
Luke Christopherson
Stevie Grumley
Avery Laliberte
Easton Dozark
Aaron Zulinick

GOALIES
Ondrej Štěbeták
Cruz Chase
Cooper Dryden

From Winterhawk Socials: "The Portland Winterhawks announced today that Carsyn D. and Carter Matthews have cleared WHL 20-year-old waivers and are now free agents.

We would like to thank Carsyn and Carter for their contributions to the organization and wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors.

MORE » [https://pdxhwk.us/RosterUpdates26](https://t.co/CBEe580z3g)"

Carter had already committed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the 26/27 season, but it is a bit of a surprise for me to see Carsyn not returning for his Overager season. He has not committed to any NCAA team, so it seems likely another team may pick him up as an Overager Free Agent. With Nathan Free having committed to Union College for the 26/27 season, the only overagers remaining on the roster are Ben Miller and Nathan Brown. However, it is likely that Ben Miller will be joining Northeastern University in the fall and Nathan Brown is will likely be heading to St. Cloud State. This would leave the team with no overagers for the upcoming season, as even though recent signee Avery Laliberte was born in 2006, his birthday is after the official cut-off, making this his "age 19 season."

Obviously cities are influenced by their geography and geographic histories. But, imagine, if you can, that you could move any city in the world into a different climate, biome, or geographic region while maintaining all other aspects. It'd be as if that city developed exactly as it had, just in this other place. It maintains the culture, all industry remains the same, public transportation remains the same, regional crops/animals remain the same (and you add the regional crops/animals from the new place) everything's the same, just in a different climate, geography, political landscape.

One that I think about is New Orleans. It's maybe my favorite city in the world, but I could never live there because of the climate and Louisiana politics. If I could pick it up and plop it along I-5 between Portland and Seattle, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. The only other one would be if I could move Portland (along with Mount Hood) to be somewhere along Lake Superior in the UP, that might edge out PNW New Orleans.

I'm not one to moan and groan, I genuinely love the show, I've been watching since it started airing, but you can't mention the Stanley Cup Finals ending with a shutout from a Rookie Goaltender that came into the series in relief of their starter? It's an incredible story. I understand why you couldn't give it a full block or segment, but to not even mention it in the "Winners and Losers" mini-segment where you can include a clip of Jameis Winston picking up trash. Come on man.

I know the NHL isn't a league partner with FOX and that the guys aren't hockey fans, but I wish they'd give one segment to discuss it with a guest at least. With the surge that Team USA's Olympic win gave to the sport, the fact that this is the highest rated Finals in over a decade, and the incredible storylines it has produced, it would be nice for the sports show to give it some time.

Hi all, I run a sharpening business, and as a part of it I also do knife rentals to local restaurants. My typical fleets are Mercers and Messermeisters. These are knives I've used in the kitchen both professionally and at home.

I recently had a client reach out asking about Japanese knives. I originally typed up an email telling him all the reasons why I think it's a bad idea. But, my wife convinced me to tell him that we don't currently offer them, but that I would get back to him with more info.

At home I have a few Japanese knives, my "collector" ones, as well as a few MACs that are my daily drivers. I've had an MTH-80 for nearly a decade now, so I'm very familiar with the brand, the knives, and how they hold up to regular use. If I were to do this, that's the direction I lean. But, maybe there are some brands I'm overlooking? I've never used Shun or Tojiro, but I do know they're recommended often.

My concern is, first and foremost, that random line cooks aren't going to treat them very well and I'll have damaged products. Also, I worry about the lifespan and having to replace them more frequently if/when they are damaged. Are there Japanese knives that won't break the bank, hold their edge, and survive kitchen abuse?