Portland Poised for Profit

The Platoon have taken significant steps to solidify their position within the upper eschelons of the HBMHL this off-season.

In the first move, Dan Hamhuis was acquired from the Hitmen of Las Vegas for 4th liners Maxime Talbot and Todd Marchant. In addition, the Platoon pick up a 2nd Rounder in the upcoming 2011 Rookie Draft. "Anytime you can acquire a top pairing defenceman by only giving up 4th liners, you have to go for it. We are excited to have Danny on board and hope to pair him up with Kevin Bieksa to form one of the premiere shut down pairings in the league. We'll start the season with them together and see how that goes. We will miss the energy that Maxime and Todd provided our line up, especially on the PK, but we feel that the addition of Danny Hamhuis just flat out makes us a better team."

Shortly after announcing the Hamhuis acquisition, GM Morrison held a second news conference to announce another blockbuster deal that sees the team trade the trio of Dustin Byfuglien, Guillaume Latendresse and Cam Barker to the Los Angeles Devils to acquire goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. "We had a gaping hole to fill at the goaltender position and we feel with the acquisition of Marc-Andre we will have a strong tandem at that position for years to come. Kari Lehtonen and Marc-Andre give us a tremendous one-two punch that should give us a chance to win every game we are in. That is all that we ask of that position. The rest is up to our forwards to create and capitalize on scoring chances. There is a chance we could have acquired a quality 'tender in the draft, but we saw this opportunity to solidify this position now, allowing us to stay true to form and select the best player available with our pick, regardless of position. We gave up a lot in this deal, but frankly, talks with Barker and Latendresse were not going well and it is unlikely we would have been able to bring them under contract. We wish each of them well with their new team."

This season will see the Portland Platoon moved to the Western Canada Division, after re-alignment was necessitated by the move of the Alberta franchise to Las Vegas to become the Hitmen. "While we relish the challenge of competing within the Western Canadian Division, we do have some concerns regarding our increased cost of travel, mostly due to cross border delays. The Commissioner and I do not yet see eye-to-eye on compensation for the costs of re-alignment. This was a league-imposed move over which we had no input but we will be affected directly. The league imposes relocation fees on franchises that choose to relocate but doesn't have a clear policy on compensation for franchises affected by those decisions."

While Morrison seems miffed at the additional financial burdens imposed by the relocation, he seems genuinely excited upbout the team's prospects for the 2011-2012 season.