EVERETT – It appears the Everett Silvertips have their roster set for opening night.

Everett made two roster moves Monday, releasing defenseman Joel Eisenkirch and reassigning defenseman Matt Strong. Those cuts probably will be the final ones before Saturday’s Western Hockey League season opener at Chilliwack.

The cuts leave Everett set at defense, with 17-year-old Mike Alexander and 16-year-old Tyler Hlookoff earning the two backup spots.

Eisenkirch was invited to camp primarily as insurance against right wing Moises Gutierrez earning a professional contract. Eisenkirch, a 20-year-old from Regina, Saskatchewan, has three years of experience in the Western Hockey League. He scored four goals and had six assists in 50 games with Kamloops last season. However, with overage defensemen Cody Thoring and Jason Fransoo returning from last season, Eisenkirch was fighting an uphill battle. When Gutierrez returned from his tryout with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins last week, Eisenkirch’s days were numbered.

“Unfortunately he was the odd man out,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said. “We’ve got our three 20s.”

Gutierrez is still hobbled by a knee injury suffered at Pittsburgh’s rookie camp, and teams are allowed to carry more than three overagers into October. However, the Tips decided to make the move now.

Strong, a 16-year-old native of Calgary, Alberta, was Everett’s third-round pick in the 2005 bantam draft. A good-sized body at 6-foot-2 and 191 pounds, Strong was deemed not quite ready to make an Everett roster that returns six defensemen from last season.

“He’s 16 and under the new rules you have to play 16-year-olds in 40 games,” Soetaert said. “We just felt Hlookoff and Alexander were a little ahead of him. We really like him and think he has a huge upside, but he needs to play for his development.”

Alexander, Everett’s eighth-round pick in the 2004 bantam draft, always seemed to have an inside track at making the roster. The 5-foot-10, 188-pound native of Campbell River, B.C., was called up several times last season during injury crises and acquitted himself well in three games. Hlookoff was more of a surprise. The 5-foot-11, 168-pound native of Castlegar, B.C., was selected four rounds after Strong in the 2005 bantam draft.

The cuts leave Everett with 27 players on the roster: 16 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders. The Tips would like to get down to about 25. However, center Peter Mueller (Phoenix) and goaltender Leland Irving (Calgary) remain at NHL camps. With left wing Ondrej Fiala still in his native Czech Republic recovering from knee surgery, and with Gutierrez questionable for the start of the season, Everett has just 23 healthy players for the opener.

Soetaert said there’s no timetable for the return of either Mueller or Irving.