Oh yeah...

Neal Prokop took the ice this week

I forgot to talk about the overage situation:

(Real quick if you're behind on the times, Ams forward Neal Prokop returned to the team after season ending leg surgery in the playoffs last year. That puts the Ams at 4 overagers [20 yr olds] which means the Ams have to cut one in less than two weeks)

So Neal played two games this week and notched an assist in each before being scratched in favor of Zak Stebner on Saturday. By the way, in 13 games for the Americans, Stebner has added 7 assists. (just so the record is clear)

I had originally figured that we would see stebner released or traded, being a WHL journeymen, being traded between five teams the last several years. Prokop nrings so much to the table as far as leadership and consistency goes, I highly doubted that we would see him go. THen i got to thinking about it...We traded to get Stebner for a reason. We have a young defensive group this year. Stebner was our way to add talent and experience for a long season and hopefully postseason. Last year Stebner beat the Americans in the WHL finals as amember of the Calgary Hitmen.

The Americans were still scoring goals without Neal. Thats the rough side of it. Could the defense survive without Stebner? Maybe...Grist is getting better it seems with every game, Yuen is becoming a staple in the group, and Schmidt is...well...doing his thing.

Some are saying that Prokop got some playing time so trader Bob could work his magic with other teams, giving them an opportunity to see that he is legit coming off of the injury.

Like I said before, I dont know how its going to come down, nor would I want Bob Tory's job at this point.

If you're looking for my opinion, at this point I'd have to say to hold on to Stebner. We brought him in for a reason and we could still use him. He adds depth to a defense that needs it. I hate it because Prokop was huge for us last year and he could be productive, but I'm not seeing Tory toss away Stebner because Neal made a quick recovery.

Maybe we can get Jessicas opinion on what she thinks we should do.