Defense rotation: Friday notes (in two groups)

Two groups this morning at Wonderland, though there was already one man missing: The Sound Tigers released veteran defenseman Nick Petrecki from his tryout. “Numbers,” Brent Thompson said, “and situation, and obviously where we’re at.” Scott Mayfield cleared waivers, though the Islanders didn’t immediately announce they were sending him down; he’d be 11 defensemen to go with 18 forwards and three goalies for the moment. Edit, 5:40: Bridgeport announced this afternoon that Luke Juha is going to Missouri.

Thompson wasn’t specific on who would dress for Saturday’s exhibition game at Wonderland. “We’re going to give some guys an opportunity in games that we haven’t seen,” he said, still a little worked up over a sloppy end of practice. “There are still some question marks. We want to give guys an opportunity to stick around or move on. They’ll decide who stays.”

If you’d like to read tea leaves, the alignment today, and obviously, with five defensemen, they swapped around a bit:

Group 1
F: Morris-B.Holmstrom-Schempp
Rowe-St. Denis-Berisha
Winquist-Johnston-Markison
D: Finn-Graham
Landry-Leduc
Cullity
G: Gibson
McAdam

Group 2
F: Verhaeghe-Kearns-Nowick
Dal Colle – Fritz – Ho-Sang
K.Jones-C.Jones-J.Holmstrom
D: Lafranchise-Burroughs
Toews-Obuchowski
Juha
G: Williams
McAdam

Providence plays tonight; Milford’s Mark Naclerio centers the top line, per Mark Divver, so we’ll see if he goes back-to-back tomorrow in his backyard. Nathan Gerbe and Tanner Glass are on waivers to go down to Hartford.

Seasons elsewhere get going tonight: Sacred Heart is at West Point, and Tage Thompson and the Huskies start up with Alabama Huntsville in Hartford. And the NWHL starts its second season in Buffalo, with its first transgender player. He’ll play tonight for the Beauts.

Michael Fornabaio