NAHL Alexandria Blizzard goaltender Chris Kamal (5ft 10in 180lbs, April 3rd 1989) has committed to play at the University of Alaska, Anchorage in the fall of 2010. With Bryce Christianson's decision to give the pro route a try, the Seawolves have quickly moved to fill the roster hole. And from what I'm seeing it's a pretty interesting story at least.
Kamal comes from the Alpharetta, Georgia. He spent two years (06/07 and 07/08) in the EJHL with the Green Mountain Glades. He played in 25 games as a 17 year old winning 9 and losing 14 with a 3.06gaa and a .902 save %. The Glades won 18-2-5-2 games that season and finished 6th in the 7 team Northern Division. In his 2nd season with the Glades he played 26 games and went 4-15-4-2; his season save percentage was .891 with a gaa of 3.65. The Glades finished with an 11-26-6-2 record.
Following that season Chris suffered a serious leg break when he was pinned against a dumpster. He didn't play hockey during the 08/09 season rehabbing. But then in July of 09 Chris was invited attend the Atlanta Thrashers prospect camp; Chris' father is long time play-by-play voice of the Thrashers . Here's a link to the Thrasher's official blog saying he stole the show at the final scimmage.
Bill Tiller of the Ice Man fan blog spoke with his father during the prospect camp;
When I caught up with Dan last week during the Thrashers prospect camp, he was keeping an eye one particular player of interest…his son Chris Kamal, a goalie. I asked him how Chris was playing and how his recovery was coming along.
“I’m very proud of the way that he has reacted to the adversity”, said Kamal. “He had come off a very strong year in his first season in junior hockey…and was looking forward to his second year when he had a freak off-ice injury and suffered a complicated break of his tibia and fibula…and it cost him the whole ‘08-’09 season”.
But, according to the senior Kamal, he’s been up to playing speed since February and is in “the best shape of his life and playing the best hockey of his life…but now he needs to catch a break” in trying to land a position on a junior hockey team.
Chris then got a tryout with the Blizzard and so far this season has been stellar for them. He was named NAHL Goalie of the Week on at least two different occassions. His save percentage for the regular season was .917 in 38 games. His record was 21-11-3-1 with a 2.5 goals against average. Alexandria finished with a record of 30-22-6 for 3rd place in the Central Division. He was also named to the 2010 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament.
All in all I find it to be a pretty cool story. And my intuition is telling me that Chris Kamal could turn out to be a nice find. Here's a real positive profile from the NAHL website on March 30th. And here's the link to the NAHL's announcement today.
There's lots of good comments in the links so make sure and check them out.
21 comments:
UAA Schedule so far for 2010-11(but still tentative as always)
October
8-9 Classic
15-16 @ Brice
22-23 @ UMD
29-30 OPEN
November
5-6 OPEN
12-13 @ BSU
19-20 SCSU
26-27 OPEN
December
3-4 OPEN
10-11 DEN
17-18 OPEN
24-25 CLOSED
31-1 OPEN(But my guess its Gov Cup)
January
7-8 OPEN
14-15 OPEN
21-22 @ DEN
28-29 @ MIN
February
4-5 OPEN
11-12@ UND
18-19 OPEN
25-26 OPEN
March
4-5 OPEN
11-13 WCHA First Round Playoffs
17-19 FInal Five
25-27 NCAA Regionals
April 7-9
Frozen Four
Teams(and games) we still need in our schedule:
Preseason(1 or 2 games)
UA_ (home 1, away 1)
MSU (home 2, away 2)
WIS (home 2 games)
UNO(home 2 games)
MTU (home 2 games)
CC (home 2, away 2)
That being said, breakdown of the games:
Home:
2x Classic
1x UA_
2x MSU
2x WIS
2x UNO
2x MTU
2X CC
2x DEN
2x SCSU
Away
1x UA_
2x MSU
2x CC
2x DEN
2x UMD
2x BSU
2x UND
2x MIN
Neutral
2x Brice
Just some food for thought until they officially post the schedule
I was just reading about Kamal last night, what a coincidence. I wonder what happened to the BCHL goalies UAA was looking at?
Interesting that he has been hanging out with the infamous Yoda. I am guessing the Yoda has taught him to hate UA_ already.
I enjoy reading your blogs but I'm not in
the Know. Please explain last Who is
Yoda? Thanks
Yoda used to Coach UAF before ButterBean took over.
Doyle finally caught wind of this (I think he gets all of his scoops here) and leave it to the Tool to find something negative about the kid as well as something bad about you UAA hockey in general.
The numbers aren't exactly what I was hoping for in a goalie. Maybe he'll be a diamond in the rough, like Naumenko was. Man I hope so.
Yoda = Doc DelCastillo .... goes back to when he was UA_'s coach and is an homage both to his rigid disciplinarian style with his Jedi's-in-training as well his his distinctive ears.
Anon at 9:29pm, Did you send the numbers you were looking for to the coaching staff? Or were they suppose to just guess what you were looking for in a goalie? I know he isn't one of the BCHL goalies "the coaches were looking at" but he is a good goalie.
He may not be a big name USHL or BC goalie who posted eye popping numbers but it sounds like he is definately a solid goalie (one of the best in the NAHL). It sounds like he has been very focused on his goal of playing D-1 hockey. That will likely mean he's grateful for the opprotunity and will work his ass off to get playing time, complete his schoolwork, and be an asset to the team.
Sounds like he is goog on one on one situations too. When was the last time we had a goalie that was good at stopping a breakaway? I think it was Chris King!
Thanks for explaining the yoda bit, I've only been reading your blog for a few months now and I am impressed
at the depth of knowledge in you and your readers. It makes it so much easier to learn about the Seawolves.
Another thing I would like to point out is, I don't feel the
stifiling negativity when reading your blog compared to
the adn hockey blog. It seems the other blog incites people
to turn on each other and post some pretty harmful stuff. I
am glad I have a place to check into that I can get good
information from and not feel I'm going to get slammed.
After awhile people see what is really going on and will look elsewhere for their info. Keep up the good work. I know it's not easy at times, thanks again.
The ADN "blog" sucks. Or maybe I should say their Blogger sucks. Nothing but negativity, hate, mean spiritedness, etc. I cancelled my subscription and the ADN was upset and wanted to know why.
I was more than happy to tell them why ... Doyle Woody.
This young man will have his work cut out for him in the net. If he really didnt play well in the NAHL playoffs and crumbled like Woodys blog mentioned then just wait until he sees the pressure that comes with the Goaltending job at UAA. His playoffs seems to be a very large flag. The main thing is the team is going to have to play much better in front of both of the incoming rookies or they can recruit Brodeur and the results for the team and both goalies will be the same. A goalies sv pct is normally indicative of team success. Best of luck to the Recruits.
I have a gut feeling that Gundy is coming in as the #1 goalie, but I think Kamal and Dusan have a shot at earning that spot as well.
Defense needs to be sharpened, no doubt, and attitudes about penalties need to change. Let's not be the most penalized team in the league this next season, kay?
Anybody else wanna join to boycott Doyle Woody and the ADN?
What are you suggesting? Most UAA fans have already cancelled their subscriptions!
So have I,(a.k.a. parents) I'm suggesting for those who haven't should.
And when you do, be sue to tell the ADN why you are cancelling!!
bryce got cut...he didn't choose to leave. The kid was behind alot of problems in the locker room and with fellow players
Ya, I heard the same thing - not "will Bryce leave" but when will he get kicked off the team.
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