Overage Player Situation

Last season, the Blades finished the year with two overage players in the lineup, forward Adam Chorneyko and defenseman Colin Joe.  A third overage player, forward Mike Reich, was released prior to the WHL trade deadline.

Coming into the 2009-10 campaign, six players from last year are eligible to return for their overage seasons in the WHL.  Forwards Derek Hulak, Milan Kytnar, Chris Langkow, and Walker Wintoneak along with defenseman Sam Klassen and goaltender Braden Holtby all could return for another season in Saskatoon.  Three of the players, however, are now under contract with National Hockey League teams and are expected to turn pro.

Hulak, who turns 20 prior to the start of the regular season, has two and a half seasons under his belt in a Blades uniform and was the team’s leading scorer last season with 30 goals and 46 assists for 76 points in 72 games played, while adding 50 penalty minutes.  A hometown Saskatonian, Hulak represented the Blades last season in the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge in the second of the two games played in the series.  Originally a bantam draft pick of the Regina Pats, Hulak was acquired by the Blades at the 2007 WHL trade deadline and will be going into his fourth season in the league.

Kytnar, a 20-year-old native of Topolcany, Slovakia, came to the Blades last summer in a trade with the Kelowna Rockets along with Colin Joe for a 1^st round pick in the 2008 CHL Import Draft and a 5^th round WHL Bantam Draft in 2009.  The 7^th overall pick in the 2007 CHL Import Draft, Kytnar was second in Blades’ scoring with 27 goals and 37 assists for 64 points in 65 games to go along with 89 penalty minutes.  In December and January, he represented Slovakia at the 2009 World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa, leading his home country to a fourth-place finish.  A 5^th round pick (127^th overall) by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Kytnar signed an entry-level contract with the Oilers on May 24^th, 2009 and is expected to turn pro with the Oilers  or their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons, this coming season.  Should Kytnar be returned to the Blades, he will be a “two-spot player”, taking both an overage player spot and an import player spot.  The other import players currently on the Blades player protected list are defenseman Jyri Niemi and forward Hampus Gustafsson.  As a result, one of the other two import players would need to be moved to accommodate Kytnar’s roster spot.

Langkow, who will turn 20 during training camp, just completed his first full season in a Blades uniform.  A native of Vegreville, Alberta, Langkow was eighth in Blades scoring with 15 goals and 34 assists for 49 points in 70 games played, while adding 52 penalty minutes.  Originally a bantam draft pick of the Spokane Chiefs, Langkow was acquired from the Chiefs at the 2008 WHL trade deadline and is entering his fourth season in the league.

Wintoneak, a 20-year-old who calls Thunder Bay, Ontario home, will be going into his fourth season with the Blades.  Last season, the right winger led the Blades in goals scored with 31 to go along with 28 assists for 59 points and added 40 penalty minutes while playing in all 72 regular season games.  The former Swan Valley Stampeder of the MJHL was originally listed by the Blades in 2005.

Klassen, a 20-year-old Watrous, Saskatchewan product, has been with the Blades for the last two and a half seasons.  A former member of the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos, Klassen had 2 goals and 18 assists for 20 points and 92 penalty minutes in 72 games played last season.  Klassen’s status with the Blades has been put in doubt after signing a free-agent deal with the New York Rangers on July 27^th, 2009.  Originally listed by the Blades in 2006, Klassen will attend training camp with the Rangers with hopes of turning pro either with the Rangers or the team’s AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.