Saturday, January 03, 2009

Broncos Host Hobbling Hurricanes / Dudas Update

Former Bronco defenseman Jesse Dudas has found a temporary home. He suited up for River Cree First Nations in the Alberta Chinook "AAA" Senior hockey league last night against the Bentley Generals.

I confirmed it with Jesse this morning. He told me he played last night and that he needs to play somewhere for the time being.

Dudas is going to be the steal of the trade deadline just because his value has dropped so fast even the Dow Jones is laughing at him.

He tells me he's in good shape, faster, stronger and ready to play.

There is apparently some offers coming in for his services but I'm sure they are nowhere near where they should be.

There's teams out there looking for defenseman and you have to think a suitable offer could come forward...then again maybe not.

Potential destinations? How about Regina or Medicine Hat? Both need another defenseman and both have an open 20 year-old spot.

It would pain me to see him shipped to either of those teams being division and conference rivals.


Here's my problem with the Dudas story. If he wanted a trade then his best decision would have been to report, play in some games, prove he's the player he says he is right now and then force an offer from a team.

Instead, he's busy logging minutes with River Cree in senior hockey.

We're one week from the trade deadline. We will see what happens.

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The Broncos will try to salvage the weekend tonight when they host the struggling Lethbridge Hurricanes. The 'Canes will play their third in game in three nights and their 4th game in five nights.

They only dressed 15 skaters in Prince Albert last night with players away at WJ's, U-17's or injured. Their two young goaltenders have had to face plenty of shots - 42 last night in P.A. in an 8-2 thumping.

However, they have some dangerous players in their line-up including Dwight King and not to mention Colton Sceviour who recorded a hat-trick last time these teams met.

The Broncos are coming off a 5-3 loss to Medicine Hat after spotting them a 4-1 lead last night with the Tigers scoring four times on nine shots.

The Broncos cut the lead to 4-3 after two periods but couldn't find the tying goal in the third period despite pouring 37 shots towards Ryan Holfeld.

Bretton Cameron completed the hat-trick with an empty-netter with 22 seconds to play as the Tigers picked up a 5-3 win and a big two points in the process.

We're on the air at 7pm with the pre-game show, 7:30pm with the play-by-play from the Credit Union I-plex.

I'm off to find my truck under all this snow.... talk at you tonight.


Jon

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jon: Did Jesse give you any indication why he did not want to report back here after his recovery? We could use a big, tough defenseman.

Anonymous said...

Jon, have the Broncos outright released Dudas?

I saw him play last night, was hands down one of the better players for the River Cree team.

Jon Keen said...

The Broncos haven't released Dudas. He played illegally in a senior hockey game Friday night. I believe it's been dealt with.

As for why he didn't report. I think it was a decision between himself and his new agent. I'm not sure of the finer details though.

Anonymous said...

Jon - wouldn't the Tigers have to release a 20 yr old if they wanted to activate Dudas? McCue, Bosch and Ringrose are the 20 yr old they have now, correct?

Jon Keen said...

Mccue signed a pro deal over the Christmas break with Anaheim.