First, the news of the day. Everett center Ivan Nikolishin today was named the WHL Player of the Week. The 18-year-old from Russia had a goal and two assists in Everett’s 6-2 home victory against Portland on Friday, then followed up with another goal and two assists in the Tips’ 5-1 victory at Kamloops on Saturday. He finished a plus-4 in those two games.
It was something of a breakout weekend for Nikolishin. He’s Everett’s leading returning scorer from last season, but he had a bit of a slow start this season with just three assists in the Tips’ first five games. He’s now second on the team in scoring with nine points in seven contests.
Nikolishin is the second Everett player in three weeks to be named WHL Player of the Week as winger Carson Stadnyk earned the honors two weeks ago. Add in Carter Hart’s opening-week nomination for the CHL Goaltender of the Week award, and it’s been a good start to the season for the Tips on the individual honors front.
Now onto the news of tomorrow.
Two years ago I completely disregarded the overager cutdown deadline.
Every year Oct. 15 marks the date by which WHL teams must get down to the limit of three overagers. In 2012 the overager deadline seemed irrelevant to the Tips. Everett had already whittled itself down to its three 20-year-olds, and the Tips seemed to have the right balance with forwards Ryan Harrison and Cody Fowlie and defenseman Landon Oslanski.
Then the deadline came, and when Saskatoon cut defenseman Connor Cox to get down to three, Everett general manager Garry Davidson decided Cox represented an upgrade and claimed him off waivers. The Tips cut Fowlie to make room.
This turned out to be a tough move. Fowlie was a two-year veteran who was well liked in the locker room, so his unexpected release came as a shock to both the coaches and the players. The move came at a particularly inconvenient time, as Everett was two games into its swing through the East Division, and the logistics of dealing with Fowlie’s departure were difficult. And while I can’t say with certainty, I get the impression it was a struggle finding Fowlie a team to play for because most teams at both the WHL and junior A level already had their teams pretty much set (it ended up being a happy ending for Fowlie as he first found a spot with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers, then got picked up by a Kelowna team that wound up winning 52 games).
Since then Davidson has made a point of dealing with his overager decisions promptly to avoid such situations. Therefore, when this season’s overager deadline and subsequent waiver draft arrives at 1 p.m. Wednesday I fully expect the Tips to be uninvolved.
Nevertheless, I’ve learned my lesson about ignoring the deadline, so this is the primer. Everett already got itself down to its three overagers: defenseman Ben Betker and forwards Kohl Bauml and Brayden Low. The Tips made their difficult decision when they traded winger Zane Jones to Lethbridge. There’s only one or two teams left with overager decisions to be made, so I don’t see much of anything happening in the entire league at this year’s deadline. But just in case, tomorrow is the day. There, I’ve acknowledged it, so I’ve done my job this year.
One last thing today. There was a scoring change from Saturday’s 5-1 victory at Kamloops, with Patrick Bajkov being awarded an assist on Everett’s fourth goal in place of Kevin Davis. That takes Davis below the point-per-game pace, so adjust your calculations appropriately when voting in this weeks’ reader poll about scoring among defensemen.
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