Hurricanes Pick Up Goaltender Linden Rowat

Lethbridge Hurricanes General Manager/Head Coach, Rich Preston, announced after last night's game against the Swift Current Broncos that the Canes have acquired 20 year old goaltender Linden Rowat from the Regina Pats in exchange for a conditional fifth round pick 2010.

Rowat, a native of Cochrane, AB is a veteran WHL goaltender with 183 WHL regular season games under his belt and an amazing 85-66-7-10 record with 10 shutouts. Rowat had a breakout season in his draft year of 06-07 finishing with a 25-18-1-6 record and four shutouts. That summer he was selected by the L.A. Kings in the fifth round (124th overall) in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. In 07-08 he had a career season posting breaking the 30 win mark for the first time with a 33-15-4-2 record and a 2.68 GAA with a .904 sv % over 3244 minutes. This was good enough to earn the goaltender a spot on the Eastern Conference first all star team in 2008.

Last year, Rowat finished his season with 48 games played, a 19-24-1-3 record and a 3.07 GAA with a solid .901 sv %. To put these numbers into perspective, if he had played in Lethbridge his entire career, Rowat would, coming into this season; hold the Hurricanes career goaltending records for shutouts, saves and games played.

This latest move caps off a busy week which saw the Canes acquire four other new players - 19 year old defenseman Mike Reddington and 17 year old defenseman Landon Oslanski from the Spokane Chiefs along with 20 year old Czech forward Radim Valchar from the Portland Winter Hawks and 90-born forward and highly touted AJHL prospect Mitch Maxwell. Forward Garrett Taylor has been released by the team to Canmore of the AJHL, while forward Michael Sofillas has been reassigned back to his midget team in Manitoba.

My Thoughts

Well I guess my gut was right. Preston isn't wasting any time trying to get this team into the win column and I give him tonnes of credit for that. I think the move for Rowat was great. Once again, Preston is able to get the guy he wants and not have to give away a high draft pick to do it. Rowat should add instant credibility in goal. His numbers speak for themselves. Now the Hurricanes have 4 goaltenders in the fold. Rowat, Tadjdeh, Kolppanen, and Anderson. One doesn't have to read too far into this to realize two won't be with this team for much longer. No team carries 4 goalies. Great pick up for the Canes' in my eyes. Hopefully this team can taste victory in B.C. in the days ahead.

Thanks,

Pat