Thursday, June 12, 2008

Esposito back in his hometown

As expected, Angelo Esposito was traded from the QMJHL Quebec Remparts to the newest franchise, the Montreal Juniors last weekend.

From the Montreal Gazette:

As a kid growing up in Town of Mount Royal, this is not how Angelo Esposito dreamed it would go down.

His introductory meeting with the Montreal media would have been held at the Bell Centre, not at a club on Crescent St., and he would be putting on the famed bleu-blanc-rouge of his beloved Canadiens as photographers' flash bulbs clicked around him.

Instead, Esposito was at Newtown yesterday afternoon trying on the burgundy and white colours of the Junior de Montréal, who acquired the 19-year-old's rights in a blockbuster deal that landed the transplanted major-junior hockey franchise a marquee, homegrown talent for its maiden season in the city.



Sometimes a change of scenery does players a lot of good. Maybe Esposito can get back on the right development path with the Montreal Juniors. They probably don't need to worry about losing him to the NHL this fall though, as he doesn't look ready to make that jump just yet.

He would need to want it incredibly bad, which is questionable given that he's still harboring so much hope of playing for the Canadiens:

"I obviously always dreamed of playing for the Montreal Canadiens, and hopefully that can happen one day, or maybe it will," said Esposito, quickly catching himself so he didn't upset his bosses in the Atlanta Thrashers organization.

I asked Thrashers Asst. GM Larry Simmons last weekend if Esposito would be signed before training camp. It's not an urgent thing of course, since he doesn't have to be signed until June 2009. Simmons thought perhaps he would be, but the Thrashers were letting the issue wait for now because Esposito has the same agent as Luc Bourdon, who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago (Kent Hughes).

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