Manitoba Moose news and notes

The Moose will kick off the 2017-18 season tonight at 6 pm CT in Grand Rapids, Michigan as they take on the defending Calder Cup champion Griffins.  You can listen to the game on Moose Hockey or TSN 1290 Winnipeg at approximately 7:30 pm.  The two teams will face off again tomorrow night at Van Andel Arena with another 6 pm CT puck drop.

The team announced they have finalized their opening night roster which includes these 30 players:

Forwards (18):

Mike Sgarbossa, Chase De Leo, Buddy Robinson, Jimmy Lodge, Brody Sutter, John McCarron, Francis Beauvillier, Darren Kramer, Michael Spacek, Cam Maclise, Mason Appleton, Patrice Cormier, Jansen Harkins, JC Lipon, Kyle Connor, Kale Kessy, Brendan Lemieux and Jack Roslovic.

Defence (10):

Kirill Gotovets, Jan Kostalek, Cameron Schilling, Mark Flood, Sami Niku, Jake Kulevich, Nelson Nogier, Tim Daly, Peter Stoykewych and Julian Melchiori.

Goalies (2):

Eric Comrie and Michael Hutchinson

The Moose have also indicated that they have signed three players to professional tryout offers including Mark Flood, Cam Maclise and John McCarron.  You may remember Flood as a defenceman who played 63 games with the Moose 1.0 in 2010-11 as well as with the IceCaps (11 games) and Jets (33 games) when the Jets returned to Winnipeg in 2011-12.

Fans will get the opportunity to see full seasons from some Jets prospects who have already spent some time with the team’s AHL franchise.  This includes Jansen Harkins (2015 2nd rounder) who played 10 games over the past couple of seasons once his junior team had been eliminated and Michael Spacek (2015 4th rounder) who played 4 games.  Other Jets prospects who will join the team for the first time include Mason Appleton (2015 6th rounder) and Sami Niku (2015 7th rounder).

Couple of new(ish) faces worth watching include Francis Beauvillier (2012 6th rounder by Panthers) who played nine games with Manitoba to conclude last year as well as newcomer Brody Sutter (2011 7th rounder by Hurricanes) who contributed two goals for Manitoba in their first pre-season win over the Wild.

In addition to the above players of course folks will be paying close attention to Kyle Connor (2015 1st rounder), Jack Roslovic (2015 1st rounder), Chase De Leo (2014 4th rounder), Brendan Lemieux (2014 2nd rounder by Sabres) and Eric Comrie (2013 2nd rounder).

The Moose return on Sunday and will prepare for their home opener which takes place on Friday, Oct. 13 when they host the Cleveland Monsters at 7 pm CT.

As always stay tuned for the latest Manitoba Moose news by keeping it locked to illegalcurve.com and on social media including Twitter | Facebook | Instagram.  And you can follow me on twitter as well (@icdave).