Assets: Has great size and reach. Is good on face-offs and does the little things in order to survive the NHL game. Can play both center or right wing.
Flaws: Has skating issues. Was supposed to put up much bigger offensive numbers in the pros but has been a major flop in terms of production.
Career potential: Checking line center.

Assets: Boasts a tremendous combination of size and skating ability. Has sound body-checking skills, and is both defensively aware and an emerging offensive talent.
Flaws: The jury is still out on his offensive upside. Tends to struggle in the hockey sense department.
Career potential: Power forward.

In a joint announcement today, the Manitoba Moose and Vancouver Canucks announced a new developmental affiliation agreement with the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL. The agreement is a one-year contract that will see the Moose and Salmon Kings work together for the first time in order to develop players within the Canucks organization.

“We are pleased to enter into a new partnership with the Victoria Salmon Kings,” said Moose General Manger Craig Heisinger. “In the past, we have been very successful at developing players at the ECHL level, such as Jesse Schultz and Alexandre Burrows, among others. We are confident this will continue in the future with the Salmon Kings.”

The Salmon Kings finished the 2005-06 season with a 26-37-9 record, good for fifth in the West Division. On June 8, 2006, Victoria hired Tony MacAulay as the second head coach in the franchise’s short three-year history in the ECHL. MacAulay finished the 2005-2006 season as Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations of the Trenton Titans (ECHL), where he helped the defending Kelly Cup Champions reach the American Conference playoffs.

Victoria Vice-President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Dan Belisle, is a veteran of establishing partnerships between professional hockey leagues. In 2004-05, Belisle established the first NHL affiliation in Boardwalk Bullies (ECHL) history, when they partnered with the NHL’s New York Islanders and the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Prior to that, while at the helm for the New Orleans Brass (ECHL), Belisle secured affiliations with the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators. In addition, while with New Orleans, Belisle worked with the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers.

“This is a historical day for the Victoria Salmon Kings. We are very excited about the opportunity of working with these two prestigious teams and helping to develop talent for their clubs,” said Belisle.

Since 2002-03, the Moose had been affiliated with the Columbia Inferno. In the four seasons the two organizations were formally affiliated, the Inferno compiled a record of 154-104-30.

For Victoria, it makes the player recruitment process that much easier. Instead of coming to play for a team that lacks a track record, the Salmon Kings offer the opportunity of advancement within the umbrella of a pretty decent organization. Look for younger and higher-skilled players to wear the mighty fish uniforms this season. Look for players and management to have more incentive to perform -- and make the playoffs.

And you Western Hockey League fans should appreciate the fact that this is a new breed of Salmon King and that some of the players we see on the ice here may actually find their way to the big pond that is the NHL.

"We'll sit down with Trevor in the next week and he's very aware of our situation and what our expectations are," Nonis told TEAM 1040 AM on Wednesday.

"And I still expect that Trevor will be in our lineup when we open up next year."

During an informal media gathering to discuss his departure, Roy said it was an emotional decision but felt it was time to pursue another path.

"I know the grass is not always greener on the other side but after what I've gone through the last two years, I have to find out for myself," said Roy, who had 101 goals, 212 points and 1,434 penalty minutes in 603 career games with the Moose.

Roy's role with the Moose during the past two seasons was slightly diminished because of American Hockey League roster rules which limit the number of veterans teams can dress on any given night to five and Roy was often the sixth.

When his number was called, Roy showed he could still contribute and often garnered plenty of ice time, even in crucial situations.

"Showing your emotion is no good for the team and you're part of the team so you have to do your part," said Roy, a product of Sioux Lookout, Ont., who now lives in Winnipeg. "I've known for a while that I don't want to sit in the press box anymore. I want to be a part of something and make a contribution on the ice still. I think I'm still capable of doing it. Maybe this is my way of dealing with it."

"He's given us a lot more than we've given him," said Heisinger. "To say that somebody is going to replace Jimmy, that's just not going to happen. Both sides have been excellent for each other's development.

"Jimmy has defended his teammates for all nine years that he's been here. And he probably scored the most important goals in franchise history in the biggest games. Now we're going to have to find somebody else to score them."

Heisinger said it's a day he's prepared for during the past few seasons but that he's not prepared to close the book on Roy just yet.

"I'm not sure this is the end of the story," said Heisinger. "I think it's a bookmark of a chapter and we'll see what happens in the next year or two. I just find it hard to believe that when Jimmy hangs it up, that he won't be a Manitoba Moose."

For the unsuspecting newcomer who requests No. 21 this fall at Manitoba Moose training camp, here's a quick list of what watchers will expect of the candidate inside that jersey:
Score giant overtime goals, provide selfless defensive play, display willingness to fight larger opponents on a near-nightly basis, visit hospitals, read to schoolchildren, be first out of bus to help trainers unload equipment, answer to media after games when most players have headed for refuge of trainer's room, provide Winnipeg dentists and plastic surgeons with endless work, sign autographs at grocery stores or restaurants or funeral homes or ice fishing huts, market franchise year-round and generally be the type of player every owner, coach and mother would love.

Jimmy Roy, who for the last nine years has worn No. 21 for the Manitoba Moose, is leaving to play this season in Germany for the Iserlohn Roosters. The Moose aren't just losing a player. They're having a hunk of their soul ripped away. Roy, the pride of Sioux Lookout, has long been the glory of the Moose, Winnipeg and Manitoba. They don't come down the pipe like this 170-pound redheaded slice of gristle very often. Don't think the Moose don't know it.

So for now, No. 21 is empty and so is the stall in which Roy has sat these last nine years. Camp will open this fall like it does every year and the Moose will move on. And maybe some rookie fresh out of junior will want the number he's worn since his days as a pee wee.

Do yourself a favour kid, just walk away from the sweater.

You meet Todd Bertuzzi for the first time and you start with the pleasantries, of course. Small talk. Hockey stuff. Did the trade surprise you, and what do you think of the Panthers, and et cetera and so forth. But everything is leading somewhere else, somewhere darker, and you know it, and he knows it.

South Florida's newest NHL star, the goal-scorer counted on to end the club's long playoff drought, moves a pinch of Kodiak tobacco from a tin to under his upper lip after a while and looks you in the eye as he opens the door slightly, just enough.

"It was uncomfortable and very distracting," he says, meaning this past season with the Vancouver Canucks. "It was tough to stay focused. Maybe the fresh start is what was needed. No strings attached."

Bertuzzi still feels remorse, but the tears have dried. His family -- his wife of 10 years, a daughter, 7, and a son, 5 -- has received death threats. Police details have accompanied him on road trips. Booing and derision have chased him in visiting arenas throughout the NHL.

The prices paid by victim and attacker cannot be compared, but Bertuzzi has paid some, too, for his solitary act of cowardice masquerading as hockey machismo.

He thinks Panthers fans will welcome him and says, "I think fans will enjoy me," and he'll be right, if he is the 40-goal scorer he says he can be again, and if he backs up his claim, "I am not coming here to not make the playoffs." This franchise has had no scorer other than Pavel Bure capable of offense like Bertuzzi, at his best, can bring. And no playoff victories since 1997 make Panthers fans a generous, forgiving lot.

Never mind that the Manitoba Moose found a head coach.

The big news yesterday was that Brendan and Stephanie Arniel got their dad back. Not to mention Lia Arniel will have somebody around to do the shovelling this winter.

The announcement that Scott Arniel has become the fifth head coach in Moose history could be summed up by the last three words of the man's acceptance speech at the downtown arena.

"I'm back home," Arniel said, and you got the impression nobody has ever been happier to have landed a job in Winnipeg.

No, he wasn't born here. But, like former Moose boss Randy Carlyle before him, Arniel has become an adopted Winnipegger.

Sometime after being drafted by the Jets 25-odd years ago, he fell in love with the place.

"Originally I used to go home every summer, back to Kingston," Arniel said. "Off and on, all the places I've played over the years, I always ended up back here. My wife's from here, my kids know Winnipeg ... this is home to them, as well. I love the city, I love the area, I love the friends I have here away from the game. It's just perfect."

"If people ever wonder how badly he wanted to be a head coach, all you have to do is look at the sacrifice he made, especially from his family's point of view," Regier said. "I think he's a great choice, for the team and for your fans. We're thrilled for him and we're sorry to lose him."

Regier, while he was working for the Islanders, first met Arniel when he was playing for the IHL's Utah Grizzlies.

"I was meeting (coach) Butch Goring and he made a point of saying to me that there's a guy in that room who's going to be an outstanding coach someday," Regier said. "He introduced me to Scott Arniel. He's a student of the game, he's passionate about it, he's always learning and he's got a great work ethic. That always stuck with me."

"I can tell you about his enthusiasm, his intelligence and his poiseafter having gone through a Stanley Cup run (with Buffalo)," said Vancouver vice-president and assistant GM Steve Tambellini, in Winnipeg for the announcement. "With his history with Manitoba, I can't think of a better person not only lead the Manitoba team, but to lead Vancouver prospects."

In a conference call with the Vancouver media Sunday afternoon, Mitchell spoke at length about how excited he is to return home to play in British Columbia. He was a huge Canuck fan as a kid and Mitchell said some of his best Christmas memories are of heading to Vancouver to catch a couple of Canuck games over the holiday break.

"We jumped in the ruts there, as all of us do on the north end of Vancouver Island, and head down to Nanaimo and took the ferry across. It was kind of a tradition for me and my family anyways. My dad is a mechanic back on the north end of the Island so at Christmas time it was commonplace for a kid who dreamed about playing in the NHL to go down and watch the Canucks play. We'd always come down at Christmas and watch a couple of games at the Pacific Coliseum."

The lure of returning home to play in Vancouver proved too great to resist for Mitchell, who was traded at the deadline last season to Dallas. The Stars, as well as a number of other teams, tried to sign Mitchell.

"Playing in a Canadian city where hockey is No. 1 is something that really appeals to me," Mitchell said. " It's fun to go to the rink. I think in a Canadian city you are expected to win and I kind of like that. I like that pressure. As a player I like the things the Vancouver staff has kind of been doing and feel that I can help complement their team in a defensive role. Obviously they signed Robert Luongo, a star goaltender, and as a defenceman hopefully I can work well with him and add a little different element to the Canucks that maybe they haven't had, maybe being a little tighter defensively."

"(Ruutu) plays hard, he plays to win and in terms of changing the dynamics of the team, he's a step in the right direction," Shero said. "He's always played a role on good teams, and he knows what it takes to be a good teammate. He's not a fun guy to play against, but having said that, he understands the game, he has good hockey sense and he can play with good players."

"I think it's important to have an established goaltender," Kings general manager Dean Lombardi said. "I think some of his best hockey's ahead of him. This kid's a competitor."