Just got off the phone with Austin Lotz, who is headed home to Manitoba to wait out the remaining 10 days before WHL teams must cut down to three 20-year-olds on Oct. 16.
Various outlets reported Monday night and Tuesday morning that he had been released. However, Lotz said that as far as he knows he has not been released – he just wants to let this play out over the next week or so to see if he’s dealt, released or assigned elsewhere.
“Honestly for me it became a little much to sit and watch the guys play and not be on the ice,” he said. “I thought it was best for me to go home and wait it out.”
That concurs with the Silvertips organization, which told me that any information that he has been released “is false.”
“He’s still on our roster, but I think it was a bit of a frustrating time for him to be sitting on the bench,” Silvertips general manager Garry Davidson said Tuesday. “I think he came to a mutual agreement with the coaches (on the decision).”
It became apparent that Lotz would be the odd man out when Carter Hart assumed starting goaltending duties last season. In addition Everett’s other three overage players – Carson Stadnyk, Remi Laurencelle and Cole MacDonald – were named alternate captains.
Lotz had nothing but good things to say about the Silvertips organization. Drafted at 14, he’s spent more than a quarter of his life with the organization, he noted.
“Honestly I don’t really have words for it,” he said. “Everett became my second home if not my first home. The memories I’ve made here are beyond me, and it’s incredible.”
Everett, thank you. I take pride in my time as a Tip more than anything.… https://t.co/lkPCyuWHgY
— Austin Lotz (@lotzy30) October 6, 2015
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