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Posted Sept. 17, 2002
By Annie Fowler
Herald staff writer
The Tri-City Americans acquired goaltender Ryan Senft from the Saskatoon Blades on Monday in exchange for future considerations.
"The ingredient (Ryan) brings right now is some pretty solid WHL regular-season experience," said Americans coach Shaun Clouston. "He's been on the bus and through the grueling practices. He brings a little bit more experience - being one year older for a goalie is a bonus. He's proven he can play at this level already. We are excited to have him coming in."
Senft, 18, played in 17 games for the Blades last season, allowing 27 goals with a 3.98 goals against average.
The year before, he played for the Tisdale Trojans in the Saskatchewan Midget Hockey League and had a 2.73 goals against average in 43 games.
Also Monday, the Americans reassigned goalie Joey Spracklen, 17, of Kennewick to the Tri-City Titans Junior B team, and defenseman Cody Thoring, 16, to the Swift Current Triple-A Midgets.
"Basically, we have Shannon (Szabados) injured right now and we've told Joey (Spracklen) that it's in his best interest to play for his team or a Junior A team," Clouston said.
With Szabados injured, Tri-Cities needed to make sure starter Tyler Weiman had a backup Saturday when the Americans open their season, playing host to the Spokane Chiefs.
"That was part of the decision," Clouston said. "We needed to have all of our bases covered for the start of the season."
Szabados, 16, the first female to play for a WHL team, took a puck off her left shoulder last week in Portland and has a deep bruise.
"It's a bad bruise but nothing's broken," Clouston said. "I would think we have a fair bit of time between now and the start of the season, but you never know how it's going to turn out."
Notes: Tickets for the Americans' season opener are on sale at the coliseum box office. ... The Chiefs play 10 of their first 13 games - including seven in a row during October - on the road. ... Vancouver D Andrew de Sousa, the No. 2 overall bantam draft pick in 1998 (by Tri-Cities) - sandwiched between Jay Bouwmeester and Dan Blackburn - did not score a goal last season for the second consecutive year. In 174 regular-season games over three seasons, de Sousa has just one goal and 19 assists. ... Rick Rypien, 18, is trying to crack the Regina Pats lineup. He is the younger brother of Calgary Hitmen enforcer Wes Rypien, 20. They are cousins of former NFL and WSU quarterback Mark Rypien. Rick played with the AJHL's Crowsnest Pass Timberwolves last season, putting up 22 points in 57 games. ... D Chris Stubel, 18, dropped Thursday by the Vancouver Giants, has joined the Medicine Hat Tigers. Stubel was Tri-City's first pick, 15th overall, in the 1999 bantam draft. ... In 2001-02, Seattle finished with 2,057 penalty minutes for an average of 28.6 per game, most in the WHL. ... Ryan Thrussell, an overage defenseman with the Ams last season, and former coach Milan Dragicevic, are both part of the University of British Columbia's hockey team this season - Thrussell as a player and Dragicevic as head coach. ... Scott Kelman, acquired as an overager last season, is at the main camp of the Florida Panthers on a free agent tryout.
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