The Edmonton Rush are coming off of a season where they represented the west in the Champions Cup, but a trade still left them with the top draft pick in the league. Edmonton traded off some of their studs like Aaron Wilson and Shawn Williams, but are looking to make up that production.
Edmonton has a pre season tilt with Toronto on Saturday and they have had one session of training camp thus far.
Rookies Mark Matthews and Curtis Knight had their first ever NLL training camps. Both of them were first rounders for the Rush this season. Since camp, the Rush have made little to no moves. They have signed several players to one year deals such as Kyle Rubisch, Ryan Dilks, Aaron Bold, Cory Conway, Jeremy Thompson and Zack Greer.
After their first session they cut Scott Evans from their roster who went on to sign in Toronto. Other than that, their roster remains the same as their last training camp session.
For Edmonton, there is not much of a goaltending battle happening like we see in the other camps. We pretty much know that it will be Aaron Bold and Brodie MacDonald. What is interesting to watch is the right handed shooting side without Evans.
Ryan Ward is the obvious leader of this unit but they will now be relying pretty heavily on rookie Curtis Knight. They acquired Cory Conway from Calgary and Jarrett Davis from Rochester and those guys will be counted on to put up some points.
On the left it’s a solid unit with Corey Small, Mark Matthews and Zack Greer. Tom Johnson and Alex Turner should also be there.
Players left competing for spots are Jesse Fehr, Mitch Banister, Mike Cudmore and Kyle Goodchild. All of those guys have a chance to make it but will need strong showings in their pre season game on Saturday.
Locks on defense are Chris Corbeil, John Lintz, Brett Mydske, Ryan Dilks, Kyle Rubisch, Tyler Codron and Jeff Cornwall. Goodchild might be the best trying to make it, but there is a loaded right side.
Keep watching for previews of this game coming tomorrow and coverage of who does what. The game can be seen on TV on Rogers Cable in Ontario.
