The last weekend of the preseason is coming up and that usually means that teams will be missing the players that are at NHL camps. So let’s see what that means for the TBirds this weekend.

When Seattle visits Everett this Friday at 735 and hosts Everett Saturday at 705, the team will have a bit of a different look. But it’s one that may not be that far off from the regular season lineup.

Here’s the current roster:

Forwards: Baltram, Barzal, Eansor, Elder, Gropp, Hickman, Holowko, Kolesar, McKechnie, Neuls, Osterman, Pederson, Spencer, True, Volcan
Defensemen: Bear, Hauf, Henry, Khaira, Smith, Theodore, Wardley, Wolf
Goaltenders: Flodell, Kozun, Mumaugh

We know that Wardley will be at Montreal rookie camp this week. Hickman will join Winnipeg this Thursday in advance of the Jets participation in the Young Stars tournament in Penticton this coming weekend. Theodore will be at Ducks rookie camp and may get a long look at full camp when that starts.

So that would leave the team with this for this weekend:

Forwards: Baltram, Barzal, Eansor, Elder, Gropp, Holowko, Kolesar, McKechnie, Neuls, Osterman, Pederson, Spencer, True, Volcan
Defensemen: Bear, Hauf, Henry, Khaira, Smith, Wolf
Goaltenders: Flodell, Kozun, Mumaugh

I fully expected Kozun to be invited to the Washington rookie camp but their roster came out today and he wasn’t on it. That comes as a bit of a surprise to me given how well he played at their development camp earlier in the summer. I don’t know why that didn’t lead to an invite but it is what it is. So that throws a bit of a wrench into the plan for the weekend. I would imagine the coaches would have rather had Flodell and Mumaugh each play a full game this weekend. That still may happen but they’ll either need to split up one of the games or one of the goalies is sitting.

The defense is left with 6 players with Wardley and Theodore gone so those are the 6 you are going to see all weekend. The only reason that wouldn’t happen is if they want to see Osterman back on the blueline again. The chance of that happening is almost nil but preseason is a good time to try stuff like that.

With 14 forwards, 2 are going to be in the stands each night. It’s a good opportunity to rotate through your 98’s (Elder and Volcan) and the 97’s who weren’t with the team last season (Osterman and Holowko). It’s also a good time to work on lines and power play groups. The top two lines should get a lot of opportunities this weekend, with someone stepping up to fill in for Hickman on the Barzal-Gropp line.

With only 26 players, there aren’t too many slots where guys are auditioning for jobs. You get down to a 23-man roster when you solve the 5 overager and 3 goalie situations. For this weekend, though, you’ll get to see what the Thunderbirds will look like if Henry, Mckechnie and Kozun were the overagers that are chosen to stick around. It’s a chance for that trio to make the roster decisions real hard for the front office.