Last man standing

[Greg_Di 1,028]

After what appeared to be a rough off-season from the LA stars, losing two top prospects with the trade of Pombo and retirement of I-Smell, it seemed like that would be the worst of the news that players and fans would have this season.

 

To everyone's surprise that was not yet the worst of it. Newley acquired forward Gustav announced his retirement before playing a single game for LA and between this news and after losing those prospects and the draft pick cupboard pretty bare, the Stars management decided that the team needed to re rebuild. No player was safe and the fans were ready for another disappointing season. Management let the players know of the new direction and then the trades hit one after the other.

 

Phantom of the VHL was shipped to Seattle for a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick in this upcoming draft.

Next Thorvaldsson was shipped to Vancouver for a Toronto and Riga first round pick and Joe Block.

Eagles was the newest but also last man standing of what was LA's core players that the team thought they would build around.

 

"It was definitely a shock and things spiraled pretty quickly. I understand where the management is coming from and they communicated to us what will be happening" Roger said "Even after all these moves I am still happy to be part of LA and become on of this teams cornerstone pieces moving forward"

 

Even with the massive sell-of, leaving the team with just a handful of players, the Stars still have been performing pretty well. The starts are 7-10-1 and won against a few playoff contending teams such as the Wranglers and the Bears.

Roger Eagles has been performing very well, even with not much support in front of him. He has already hit 2 shut-outs and sits at a .922 save percentage and 2.93 goals against average. 

Many are wondering if the trigger was pulled to early on the trades, since the team seems to be doing OK with the group they had and may have done better with Phantom and Thorvaldsson.

 

"I am not complaining about our start considering all the factors, we can only grow from here. I think in the bigger picture the right move was made by management to get this team back on track" Roger said "I am feeling great on the ice and I believe I can set personal bests in all categories even with a weaker team in front of me. I am not going to play worse due to what happened this off-season, this only motivates me to play better and see how far we can go as a team in the next few seasons. Sure my end of season prediction last season was to make the playoffs and I know that won't happen, but who knew that this off-season would happen like the way it did. Now my goal is to do the best I can and set some personal bests"

 

LA will look to rebuild there prospect pool in the upcomming draft. This may have set them back 2-3 seasons but in the end the faith to return to the playoffs soon is still there. Eagles and Management will be pushing to make that happen.