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Huck24 · 11-20-2019, 10:26 AM

We are still sitting in the off season, awaiting the start of S51 in the SHL. We recently caught up with Lyle Odelein III while he is playing in the IIHF tournament for his native country, Canada. We wanted to talk to Lyle about some of the big moves that his New Orleans Specters pulled off at the SHL entry draft and some huge free agent signings as well as contract extensions. It was a busy weekend for NOLA and here are Lyle’s thoughts on all of these new happenings!

Q: Morning Lyle, thanks for taking a break and talking with us, it’s always great to get your opinions on what’s going on in New Orleans.

A: Not a problem, always happy to have a sit down.

Q: First things first, let’s talk about the S51 SHL draft that went down this Saturday.

A: Sure thing, I wasn’t able to be at the draft or in New Orleans for that matter, since I’m playing in the IIHF tourney, but I was definitely keeping my eyes on what was happening. I couldn’t believe that Mitchell van der Heijden @bluesfan55 was still available when we went on the clock with the 13th overall pick. I know Mitchell from St. Louis, he was a player that the Scarecrows wanted to draft last season, but weren’t able to make it happen. He’s a great young player, his rookie season last year was impressive, we are super lucky that he wasn’t picked up before we got a chance at him. I think he’s going to show a whole lot of teams that he shouldn’t have fallen that far in the draft. Big win for us!

Q: So, all in all it sounds like it was a good draft.

A: I think so. There were a couple of prospects I was hoping we’d get a shot at, Elizabeth Doyle @Evok and Ruslan Zaporozhets @CptSquall, they are both Scarecrows. Great people and players, but they went before our pick, Doyle is going to be joining my old Crow captain, Nicolaj Muller in Buffalo and Ruslan is going to be joining my Crow alternate captain partner, Mika Kandinsky, with the Toronto North Stars. So, I think they are in decent hands there. But honestly, I couldn’t be happier with us snagging Mitchell van der Heijden, he’s definitely one to watch!

Q: New Orleans work wasn’t done there though, they had a very eventful weekend. Some major contract extensions and they made a huge splash in free agency.

A: We sure did! Extending Smyth, Fox and Sloth was a no brainer. These three are frickin’ amazing. Great teammates and great players. They all will be leading the charge for us in S51. It’s great seeing your teammates sign on for extensions, I signed mine at the start of last season knowing that this is the place I want to be, seeing everyone else re-up just shows that I wasn’t wrong about wanting to be here, in my humble opinion, it’s the best team in the SHL.

Q: Well, I think what I was going to talk about may prove your point there. The Specters have just had a pretty wild free agency frenzy. Signing three free agents this past weekend.

A: Ya we did! Some huge pick ups for us! With us losing both Physt and Fletcher last season, we knew that we would need some help on the blue line. Those guys played some big minutes for us last season, and knew that they would not easily be replaced. But our GMs are the best in the business, they made signings that are going to be huge for us. On the defensive side of things, they brought in Chuck Crutchfield @ligma who played in Winnipeg last season. He’s a great defender and seems like a really solid guy as well. We also signed one of my fellow S48 draft members, the first overall pick of the draft! Kaspars Claude @Bruins10 declared that he wanted to test free agency after being drafted by the Tampa Bay Barracudas, he liked what JoeK and TDZ had to offer and signed with us. I’m really looking forward to playing with these two on the blue line. I’ve played against both of these guys, Chuck last season and Claude for three seasons in the SMJHL. Kaspars s a really good guy and wants to remind everyone in the SHL why he was selected first overall. These guys are solid defenders. Like I said, we can never replace Physt and Fletcher, but these guys are great additions! And upfront we were able to snag Mika Mayfield @BadWolf who played in Minnesota last season, she had some solid connections here in New Orleans and we all were very happy to hear she decided to sign with us. She is going to add even more talent to our forward squad!! I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m really excited about our team!

Q: Ah ya, I can tell you’re excited, as you should be!

A: Agreed, I think the moves we made this off season and during the draft have set us up for success for a long while. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I’m contributing to my full potential. I’ll never stop working on my game, I still want to be able to show my thanks to JoeK and TDZ for taking a gamble on me. I’m trying to keep focused on the IIHF tournament, we’ve got the bronze medal game today against Austria. We were really hoping to make it to the gold medal game, but my Specter teammates Joe Kurczewski, Nicholas Williams, Lil Manius and Charlie Serpe on team USA had other thoughts! We want to bring home a medal from this tourney, so I'm trying to focus on this next game, but I keep thinking about this coming season, I can’t wait to get out and play with the Specters, old and new!

Q: Well, I won’t keep you anymore, I know you’ve got a game to get to, maybe after the tournament and before the regular season starts we can have another chat.

A: Sounds good to me!

Well, there you have it, a big thanks to Lyle Odelein III for taking the time to talk with us. We wish him good luck in his bronze medal game todau against the Austrians, we are hoping that the Canadians get the big win so we can see them bring home that bronze medal!

Thanks for reading!

2x draft media - word count - 1125

*Bruins10* · 11-20-2019, 10:43 AM

Great article man!

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