Why did he drop in the rankings? Most elite players will have the odd game where they are just totally invisible. Dumba doesn’t have games where he is invisible, he takes over a lot of games and almost singlehandedly wins them. On the flipside, he will have other games where he makes huge defensive errors that very visibly cost the team the game. Good or bad, you know he is in the game. It didn’t help him any that most of the defense went down with injuries for huge parts of the season, nor did it help for him to be paired with a different defenseman every other shift (and some forwards during the stretch where they only had 4 defensemen). Also I think that he tried to simplify his game a bit after the trade deadline, and he eliminated a great deal of his physicality in doing so. I am sure that the scouts were more impressed with the huge open ice hits to separate opponents from the puck moreso than tapping it off their stick and clearing it.

The coaching staff consists of two former defensive defensemen and strong defensive forward, if they can’t develop his defensive skill, nobody can. I think that Dumba has already come a long way defensively last season from the player that most of the time didn’t position himself between the forward on the boards and his own net, and I don’t think he has stopped improving in this aspect of his game.

The loss of Petrovic, Weller and Borejko next season is a huge blow to this team, and I wouldn’t be suprised at all to see them move one of Kambeitz, Inglis or Elson for an overage defenseman to help transition the young blueline to playing a ton of ice time. I think they may try to add an experienced 19 year old defenseman next season at the very least.

I think that Petrovic is the only player that Red Deer has that could have been used to legitimately improve the team, but with the injury to Weller any deal that they made would have to net a big future return, in addition to someone to replace Petrovic. Keep in mind that the Rebels could add a prospect or a 2nd rounder by dealing Weller (had he not been injured), but would a one-dimensional (though arugably the best in the league at that dimension) overage defenseman return a prospect better than what the Rebels have coming up already? And a draft pick is pretty much a crap shoot if it isn’t in the top half of the first round.

In the end, I have no problem with them not trading any of these guys though. It is an exciting team to watch, and you can see almost all of the young guys continuing to develop–The only time you should trade your younger players like that is if you are in a position to make a huge run in the playoffs, or if they stop developing for whatever reason.

I think in order to be buyers, or even at least stay with what they have before the trade deadline, is to win two out of these three weekend games. They will have to beat Medicine Hat and their refs that will be spoon-feeding them two-man advantages tonight, and a powerhouse Edmonton team on Sunday to accomplish this. It is just a really tough part of their schedule to try to ease some of their players into the lineup, new players and players that are coming back from long-term injuries.

Win or lose, buyers or sellers there were at least some positives to take from the game last night. The single biggest being Pouliot! He actually looked like a confident WHL goaltender after coming in when Dubyk got the hook, made some solid saves, and was able to display some huge rebound control on a handful of shots that he blockered to the corner. I honestly thought that with no career wins, and the Rebels acquiring Dubyk that this kid was just circling the drain, maybe he isn’t quite ready to go home yet?

Marc Mackenzie looked great for his first game back in the ‘Dub, and looks to be a huge upgrade over Muller, in terms of skating and sheer skill. He even managed to pick up his first assist in his first game, assisting on Hamilton’s third period goal.

Even though they looked to be a little sluggish at times, and a lot more winded than the other players at the end of their shifts, it was great to see Borejko and Kambeitz back in the lineup. Now they just need to get them back into playing shape, and fast!

Dumba continued to bounce back from a dreadful December with one of his stronger games. His huge hit seemed to really spark things for them, and they almost came back to tie it up after said hit.

Getting Borejko back will be huge, as at least 3 of the 10 consecutive games that they lost were a direct result of huge miscues by Doetzel in the final 5-10 minutes of the games. No fault to Doetzel though, he is a 16 year old rookie that has been sort of thrown to the wolves of late with all the injuries and suspensions. He looked tons better when he was getting an appropriate amount of ice time against an appropriate level of competition.

Borejko is also very poised, and plays well against a heavy forecheck–and that will help with their lack of puck possession that they have had during this 10 game slide.