Gebauers start in Saskatoon

[Sova 53]

After being traded from Ottawa Mark Gebauer was headed for one of the leagues strongest teams, the Saskatoon Wild. Even though the distance is immense with a travel time of over 6 hours and more than 2900km Gebauer immediately seemed to fit into his new environment. When his trade was made public there were some opinions on it as always but most agreed that this move would be beneficial for both teams, in the long run, the only ones that looked at it with dismay were Saskatoons rivals that hated seeing them getting their hands on one of the highest scoring centers in the league. Gebauer seemed happy about the trade when asked about it in press conferences the only downer is that he missed a couple of games before he was able to start since he first had to do some in depth medical tests. Gebauer was feared to have injured his left ankle in practice and showed signs of being over worked and therefore the staff decided to keep him out for a couple of games which now looking at it with hindsight might have changed their playoff position.

Since Gebauer is on the lineup the Saskatoon wild, which has only been the case for the past nine games, he has scored 8 Goals and also racked up 6 assists. This shows that Gebauer definitely found his way into the team and is now an integral part of it. In his game against his former team, he has not been holding back either scoring twice and having another 2 assists.

He seems to be working well with his linemates and also possess an ability to score in clutch situations such as overtime. 

If we take a look into the future and try to see where Saskatoon will end up in the playoffs its hard to not see them as one of the top teams but on the other hand the competition is fierce and even with Gebauer they lost games against Halifax and Las Vegas which might be a bad omen when considering that they most likely will face each other at some point in the tournament.

Personally, I believe Saskatoon will end up no lower than the 3rd place but they have a real chance at winning it all and it is kinda dependent on how well the players on each team develope as much as how lucky each team is on a given day. Gebauers personal future seems to be looking bright he has been shooting up the rankings and probably will be drafted in the first round and will be heading to the VHL quite soon but that is in the further in the future and it is more important to try and win the playoffs at the moment.

His personal performance in the playoffs might play an important part in when he will be picked and therefore with what team he will end up so it is important for him to give everything now and play to the best of his abilities, but nothing else should be the goal for any hockey player before any game.