This topic has grown pretty quite all of a sudden...

But for those of you who still think the Steelers made bad moves trading these guys: I ask you this - of the following 9 forwards, would you have really wanted Wilgosh or Smook in place of any of them?

-Pleskach
-Payne
-Hawes
-Pawluk
-Dickin
-Jackson
-Larsen
-Gardiner
-Gingera

That is a talented bunch and I don't see Wilgosh or Smook fitting in anywhere so they were expendable. Alexiuk and Goertzen have made a big difference on the back end.

For anyone saying the Steel should have kept Wilgosh and Smook, that would mean guys like Boyle and Den ouden would still be playing on the back end and that is a scary thought.

Both trades were needed, and both trades were good for the Steelers.

Bring on the Saints

agreed 100%.

pfft, I'd take either over Gingera, Larsen, Gardiner, Dickin, and Hawes. Both Wilgosh and Smook had more points than all of them. I'd even take wilgosh over Jackson, all his points come on the pp anyway. Alexiuk and Goertzen are nothing to write home about on D. Both would be fishin their cups outta the rafters if Smook or Willy came down upon them. Plus Wilgosh has 2 more years left in this league, lots of time to make the steel regret their trade. They may be doing alright without them this season, but after the big 3 and armour are gone, so will be the Steels chances.

thank god your not the GM.

The trades that were made gave the Steel a legitimate shot at winning the league and possibly getting to the RBC. If those trades aren't made, the Steel prolly don't get past the first round.

Yes, Wilgosh and Smook had some talent, but both of them are pretty soft players.

Wilgosh over Jackson? Jackson is faster, tougher, grittier, and has a way better shot. Only a myopic moron would make such a statement.

Next year the steel will be pulling rabbits out of hats for a good season. With Payne, Pleskach, Hawes, and Armour all leaving they have huge shoes to fill.

armour for the diving teamlol

steel gave away future for one more crack at it...

the same thing was said when the Howarths and Sergerie left and the Steel ended up finishing first overall the next year.

The Steel will be fine next year.

Schappert, Jackson, Pawluk, Dickin, Gardiner, Gingera, Rutherford, Olson, Alexiuk, Heide, Eckel, Korlak, Robinson, and Rewucki are all eligible to return.

But how bout we just concentrate on this year for now? There is lots of hockey to played yet. I mean really, who gives a f uck about next year right now?

Bring on the Saints

steelers will be soft next year without hawes pleskatch and larsen

Its like they say....the Steelers dont rebuild, they just reload.

.57 : Jackson is not above Wilgosh. He doesnt even do anything out there, his only points are on the PP when he loads it up from the point. Other than that who even notices him on the ice? Wilgosh can fly when he gets the puck, but before that he does little skating, which is why Jackson may seem faster, when he is trying to fly around, accomplishing less than when Willy is standing still. Bottom line: Jackson cant hold a candle to Wilgosh.

I liked Wilgosh and Smook, but the trades were made because they needed to get made for Selkirk to get better on the D-Line, which they have. They finished with the 2nd best goals against in the league,no arguing with that and Armour is looking good in the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised to see Willy back in a Steeler uniform before he's 20. He's a good local kid who plays hard, just needs to be more physical.

Wilgosh is weak in the corners, weak on the power play, weak on defense (your quite right that he does little skating when he doesn't have the puck = weak back checking), has a weak shot and is plain overall, well, weak.

He is a big boy (as is Jackson), but he plays small and that was the deciding factor in trading him. He is one dimensional and that made him expendable.

Jackson will lead the league in points next year when he will be on the number one line as well as the number one power play unit.

Criticizing Jackson for being the best QB on the PP in the league is asinine. Willy can only dream of being that dominant.

Bottom line: Jackson has fire in his belly, Willy does not. Nuff said.

Now i will correct your mistakes:
Wilgosh is not weak in the corners. He has'nt been knocked off his skates all year and was forced to spend time in the corners because of who his linemates were most of the year.

Wilgosh does not have a weak shot, are you kidding? He blew 3 right by armour. Im not knocking CJ's shot, but its not day and night between the two.

And weak on D? ask pleskach on your team. He came down on willy and was stopped easily by him.

You say wilgosh plays so soft, but Jackson is hardly physical, unless you consider the stickwork a tough asset.

both are good players, i think we can agree on that.

Hey Wilgosh stop pumping your own tire! Face it, your not that good. Everyone knows you still want to be in a Selkirk Uniform. NO ONE CARES! Your a third liner at best! NO one but you thinks it was a good trade so please just stop embarrasing yourself and stop writing.

Your comments are 5th rate, so take a hike.

steelers will not be soft next year they will still have the heavyweight champ michaud

yeah right considering how michaud can barely even skate...he is just there for show. Getting rid of Wilgosh and Smoke was a horrible idea, they are both able to come back next year. Not to mention how many of the guys Steel is losing after this season. Those two would deffinatley be to top point scorers next year...I can't wait to see the year that Wilgosh and Smoke are going to have next year.

Bottom line: are Willy and Smook going to get a sniff at a chamionship next year? NO WAY IN HELL

This was the year for the Steel to got for it, and they are well on their way.

The trade was about THIS year and Alexiuk and Goertzen are still playing.

wilgosh is a good player . hope the only steeler s uniform he see is well he is play agians them .. Goertzen is a big joke -d that is done in about 5 games. good for the sin bin . alexink is just a big momies boy that will be done next year so he can be at home full time with mommy . he cant wait that long.

hi .89 It's good that you call yourself bush hockey, cause that's all you know about the game.

Give Wilgosh the C next year! Pencil him in for MVP! In fact, I heard that he's going 4th round to Boston in the NHL Entry Draft coming up! Savard and Willy on the peeps!

Somebody pi$$ in your poridge this morning......or did your boyfriend cut you off ??.....by the way,shut the fuk up.

Gotta love those Bruins! go willy, go bruins.

Steel have sold their future to succeed in the here and now. Will find it very difficult to deal with their loss to the Saints this series. Will lose their top line, only have Rewicki in goal. 189.2, sounds like you hang around Ken and Ray too much, IMHO !

Yes and thats exactly what everyone said after Hughes,the Howarths,Sergerie,
Walsh, Fernandez, Kornelsen, Harris, Leslie, and so on left the steelers.
But here they are again in the div final.
Wilgosh is as soft as a pound of butter sitting in the las Vegas sun. Smook thought he would get more ice time if he got to the another team - he learnt to be careful what you wish for.
Bottom line is witout these 2 players life goes on and the steel will be back and just as strong next year.
So save your whinning about these 2 for your haidresser because no one on the team or outside 3 or 4 fans really care what you think about the 2 of them.

wilgosh and smook are very happy were they are,wilgosh shows what he can do in winkler and smook does the same in the blues as since he has been there they have done very well. If they had a goalie they would have beat the stealers 3 out of the last 6 games and he has brought great leadership to the team. Thanks we needed him

I think that everyone can agree on the last comment...blues definately needed smoke. If they can get a decent goalie I think that they might have a strong team next year!

Did they gain enough by losing Willy and Smook? You have lost and personally crushed these guys and it has to make prospects wonder what kind of future/tenure they are going to have with the team. A future prospect may consider different options if he is worried about where he will finish his career in Jr.A or even just finish the year with the same team. This reloading makes me think of the NY Rangers - lots of wages and not too many titles.

You guys do not understand 1 thing about Jr. Hockey do you? I spend more then enough time in Selkirk as I have lived here my entire life watching both the Steel and Fish.

I have personally spoken to both of these kids and have nothing but good things to say about them away from watching them play hockey.

BUT....It is public knowledge that Smuckowich asked to be traded because he didnt think he was getting enough ice time...gimme a break he was playing 2nd line and pp most of the year. When you ask for a trade in Jr. hockey you will most likely get it and low and behold he is a Blue.

Wilgosh on the other hand was told 469,000 no wait it was actually 472,000 times by the coach that he needed to play harder finish his checks and be more responsible in his own zone...did he respond to those things he was asked to do ..no he told the coach I dont play that way because I am a goal scorer and thats all I do. Now if Im the coach and i ask my son the 7 year old 469,000 times to do these things and the player says I dont play that way sooner or later I am going to give up on him and ask him to play a different sport. I dont care who you are as a hockey player thats the way the hockey world works. Do you think it different in the WHL or NHL? If you do your in a dream world.

Did the Steelers get enough for them is the next question...and on this one i really have to laugh. Who cares, Willy is gone because he thought he was a local kid that was UN tradable and didnt have to do what the coach wanted him to do. He is lucky he didnt get sent down to junior B ...just look at Wes Pawluk same situation as Wilgosh 1 year earlier, now look at Pawluk total team guy but had to learn a hard lesson in the mean time.
the bottom line is the young guys will also learn that when you play for a team like the Steelers you play for the name on the front of the sweater not the name on the back.

And ps... dont worry there are enough good young players in the Steelers system that these guys will be forgotten about in no time.

when your as dirty as 'Gosh, you do what you want, when and how you wanna do it.

Smook new he would be playing on the 4th line because they needed him to stenghten that line.Why would you brake up line that was doing so well in the begining of the season ( Dickin, Smuckowich, and Wes) the only reason why is because PAYNES were mad that anouther line was getting more points than the 1st line.The saints couldn't stop that line. Gingera should of been on the 4th line not smook, smmok had 70 point this year by playing 1/2 the time ginera did on the 1st line, we will see what he does next year without these guys.

Like i said earlier the and you are backing up exactly what i said.
Its all me,me,me, and the season ticket holders and club dont care because all we are worried about is who wants to play for the name on the front of the shirt not all the whinning.

I am a season ticket holder and supporter of the Steelers. I didn't like the Smook decisions when he was here and didn't like the trade. I have very good reason to believe that he did not ask to be traded. I would have put the "C" on him next year. He was one of the 2 or 3 hardest working kids on th team game in and game out. He would have contributed more in this series that Goertzen.

I think both trades were made because our coaches were unwilling or unable to develop defensemen. Had the coaches put a playmaking centre, that is defenseively responsible, between Wilgosh and Jackson (Hawes or Olsen) and left Smook between Pawluk and Dicken this team would have had 3 top scoring lines. The defence would have come around with good coaching and no trades. If Goertzen and Alexiuk were solid first pairing defensemen I would have agreed with the trades but Alexiuk is not strong enough and Goertzen is not fast enough.

Overall though for a team that lost 3 of last years defensemen that were expecteed to start this year, and one kid to the WHL, they have done quite well.

if you think this team would have made it this far with boyle and den ouden in the first two pairings then you clearly have no idea about hockey. trades were needed. you need to give up good players to get good players thats just how it works. the team needed defense, and there is no way the steelers would have made it this far without alexiuk and goertzen. forward position had depth, thats why wilgosh and smoky were expendable

Give it up, these trades were months ago already. Move on.

Smokey asked for the trade and got what he wanted. He wasn't getting the ice time that he deserved.

Little bit of a leap to think Boyle or Denouden would be penciled in to the top 2 pairings. Robinson, Heide, Eckel, Gagnon, Korlak, Jacobucci and Bolyle all with playing time would not be that far behind the current line up. This list is not in order of playing ability.

Selkirk needed offence and not defence against portage and they had it in willy and smook, as it sits now we got nothing for smook because gortsen is to old to play next year. Not a good trade for selkirk

Smokey --> talented but another Frycus when it came to his status with the team. Felt he was bigger than was given credit. Don't want a guy like that destroying room chemistry.

Willy --> again, talented BUT - lazy as the day is long, they couldn't find a cattle prod powerful enough to spark this kid. Woke up when he got to Winkler.

smook was great for the other players on and off the ice as his numbers showed, very unselfish and when played with different lines he brought the best out in those players he played with.

Almost every post that you put up on this site is trashing the Selkirk defence and now you say that they needed offence. If the forwards had full confidence in their defence then they wouldn't have had to go back to cover them as much. This is dumb, series is over, trades are done and unfortunately for the Steel it didn't pay off. Let's see what happens in the future.

that the steel made it to the final is because of the trades made to bring in d. yes, they ran short of offence in the end, but had more to do with over working some players, injuries because of having to play lenghty series. but one thing that no one wants to address, is the fact that there were not enough persons that wanted to play the phys. game it takes to win in the end. Portage did a fine job of making everyone, especially the D, FEAL their presence. and for those that didn't want to take part in that kind of game, it shows up in the plus/minus and pims.you may say that some took to many pims, but i say it's because they were trying and most times out numbered
during play. so, for steel land it's time to reflect and reload. wait till next year congrats to Portage.

Obviously you don't know Smokey...having played with him I know there is no way that you can say he destroys room chemistry. I can see how Selkirk would be hurt after losing him, he is a team player on and of of the ice.

and now selkirk is out....who is going to lead them next year? Hawes and Plesky won't be there to tell the coach who should be in the ice. Heide & Jackson?

Should of kept smokey instead of gingera as he will be nothing next year without Plesy and Payne, smokey atleast got all his points not on the power play, he should of got a chance not gingera and gingera didn't do the job that smokey could off see playoffs I'm not wrong

Troy would have made a great captain next year for the Steel...too bad. Very curious to see what he can bring out for the Blues.