Regardless if you are reading this in the United States or Canada, this is the big weekend for both countries as Canada Day is Saturday and Independence Day is Tuesday. What ever you do this weekend, play it smart and play it safe.

The CHL Import Draft has come and gone, the final draft to take place during the summer season and for Lewiston, the pick was moved to Chicoutimi for their first round Euro pick next year. The deal makes sense. Chicoutimi is in full rebuild mode and will likely battle Shawinigan in the basement of the Western Division this season ahead, which means a very high pick for the MAINEiacs next June. Pending on how well the MAINEiacs do in the season ahead, we may very well need that pick for a goaltender come next offseason, since it is very unlikely that there will be one available in the late part of the first round. That will all play itself out next June in Drummondville, but something to keep in the back of your mind as time goes along.

For the rest of the league, there will be some interesting imports to watch for in the season ahead. Czechs were in demand by Q-clubs early as Halifax took Jacob Voracek with the top overall pick in the draft. The 6′ 2″, 185 lb winger had 21-38-59 numbers in 46 games for HC Kladno in the Extraliga U-20 league. Saint John selected defenseman David Stich with the fourth overall pick. The 6′ 2″, 210 lb blueliner had 9 points in 30 games for HC Plzen in the Extraliga U-20 league. Victoriaville took winger Jan Kolarik at #7, a 6′, 170 lb forward who had 35 points in 44 games for HC Vitkovice in the Extraliga U-20 league. Victoriaville would pick again one more time in the top ten with a pick traded to them by PEI at #10 and selected Morten Madsen from Sweden, a 6′ 2″, 190 lb forward who was selected in the fifth round by Minnesota in this years NHL draft.  Madsen had 42 points in 36 games for Västra Frölunda HC Indians in the U-20 Superelit league.

The big news in this draft is that Patrick Roy added a pair of Russian twin wingers to the Remparts for the season ahead, Ruslan & Roman Bashkirov. Ruslan is 6′ 0,  178 lbs and Roman is a bit shorter and smaller at 5′ 10″ and 155 lbs. Ruslan had 8 points in 6 games at the U-18 World Juniors and Roman’s numbers easily cannot be found. Anyone well versed in Russian can do a Google search and dig those out and email them to me would be great. The Russian language and I did not see eye to eye back in my days in school, and I will say the Miracle On Ice in Lake Placid had a little to do with it.

Other news from the Import draft is that Cape Breton picked up defenseman Oskars Bartulis from Moncton for the Screaming Eagles pick at #34 in the Import draft, and a second round and fourth round midget draft picks in 2007. A trade for quite the price for the Eagles, but no doubt Bartulis will add point production to the blue line for Cape Breton as he looks to improve upon his 31 points in 54 games for the Wildcats last season.

For a full rundown of all the selections in the 2006 CHL Import Draft and statistical information for most players (not Russian) just click on the provided hyperlinks.

Androscoggin Bank has affixed itself to the surname of the Colisee in a move welcomed by a few fans on the MAINEiacs message board for the influx of money that it will provide to further renovate the building. Lewiston City Manager Jim Bennett outlined the upgrades on the MAINEiacs Fan Forum which all that he listed need to happen. The one puzzling item on there is the Olympia ice resurfacer. With all do respect to Mr. Bennett as I know he reads this column and has bailed me out with lease information and what not on the aforementioned forum from time to time, but Jim… the song says “I want to drive the ZAMBONI” not “I want to drive the OLYMPIA”, but I digress. Congratulations to Androscoggin Bank on their new partnership with the City of Lewiston, and it will now give an entire new meaning for when the MAINEiacs win, they are literally taking it to the Bank.

What is on your mind this summer? Just because the rest of the Nation is engrossed in the Red Sox right now doesn’t mean I won’t talk hockey. Send me an email at psmaineiac@yahoo.com.