PLYMOUTH - While the Plymouth Whalers are at practice this week in preparation for games Thursday at Windsor, Friday at Saginaw and at home at Compuware Arena Saturday against Saginaw, the 2013-14 National Hockey League season starts on Tuesday.
16 Plymouth Whalers alumni have been named to various NHL opening night rosters. The Whalers include:
Gregory Campbell (Boston); Brett Bellemore (Carolina); John Mitchell (Colorado); Jared Boll and James Wisniewski (Columbus); Tyler Seguin (Dallas), Stephen Weiss (Detroit); Justin Williams (Los Angeles); David Legwand (Nashville); JT Miller (NY Rangers); James Neal (Pittsburgh); Tom Sestito (Vancouver); Connor Carrick, Michal Neuvirth and Tom Wilson (Washington); Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg).
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Wilson and Carrick are surprises for some, but both played well over Washington's training camp and won jobs. John Feinstein of the Washington Post writes:
"The teenagers in question are Tom Wilson and Connor Carrick. Wilson won’t turn 20 until March and Carrick is a few weeks younger. Both were draft picks in 2012 — Wilson in the first round, Carrick in the fifth.
Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Wilson came into camp with a solid chance to make the team; Carrick didn’t. Both played too well for (Washington GM) George McPhee and (Head Coach) Adam Oates to keep them out of the lineup. The only question with Wilson was whether the Caps wanted to keep him in Washington to play limited minutes in the NHL or lots of minutes back in the Ontario Hockey League. Carrick has been the surprise of camp."
The blog, The Russian Machine Never Breaks, covers all things Washington Capitals and spent a lot of time with Wilson and Carrick during training camp. Scroll around the blog to see.
Meanwhile, several other Plymouth alums are starting the season in the American Hockey League, including Rickard Rakell and Stefan Noesen (Norfolk); Vince Trocheck (San Antonio); Chris Terry, Beau Schmitz, Michal Jordan and Justin Peters (Charlotte); Garrett Meurs and Mitchell Heard (Lake Erie); Jamie Devane (Toronto); Tim Sestito and Scott Wedgewood (Albany); Tyler Brown (Adirondack).
AHL teams are finishing up training camp and start the 2013-14 season on Friday. We'll have a complete list of Plymouth alums in the AHL soon.
