I wrote a little while ago how the NHL signing period works. Typically the top flight talent goes, then, people to protect the top flight talent get signed. That’s where we are now, and the Springfield Falcons added a big protector in Kip Brennan yesterday.

Kip was a Lowell Lockmonster back when he still had junior eligibility many moons ago. During his rookie year, he got some advice and returned to the Sudbury Wolves after racking up 117 PIM in 23 contests with Lowell. I was shocked in kind of a lost puppy kind of a way when h returned to Sudbury. Shocked, because I thought he was one of the best up and coming enforcers in the AHL at the time, and sad in a lost puppy kind of a way, because we wouldn’t get to see him anymore. Over the next almost 10 years, we have seen Kip come in the Tsongas with many a different AHL team, and he’s also managed to rack up 222 PIM in 61 NHL contests with a few different clubs along the way.

I always liked Kip Brennan. He’ll give you an honest go, and I’m hoping a little rivalry grows between him and Lowell’s newest tough guy, Louis Robitaille. There are still some big names out there, most curiously, Trevor Gillies. Gillies remains unsigned at the moment which I find surprising. He was the last cut from the Carolina Hurricanes last season, but hasn’t played since December 20th when he sustained a concussion in an altercation with Paul Bissonnette. Perhaps teams are afraid of signing him, only to see him go down again. I had heard Trevor was close to a deal with Portland, which would make a lovely little New England rivalry between Brennan, Robitaille, and Gillies, and perhaps make life worth living for fight fans in the region, but that deal seems stalled. Either way, we are two weeks away from camp, and I need my math book for travel anywhere outside this house. I can almost smell the glove warmer!

The Lowell Devils get me every year. Last season they promised they’d be more up tempo, and tough…not your father’s Lowell Devils I believe was the quote. They were up tempo and decent. On Opening Night. This season, it is the press release I saw today where the Devils have signed AHL tough guy Louis Robitaille to a contract.

Louis Robitaille should be no stranger to Lowell hockey fans going back to the Lockmonster days. He was part of the three headed monster that was “Mad” Mel Angelstad, Louis Robitaille, and Darcy Verot of the Portland Pirates going back to Robitaille’s rookie year in 2003-04. Talk about a team of shit disturbers. I remember them running roughshod all over the Monsters back then. Who was going to stop them? Tomas Malec? The only guy that was tough on that 03-04 Lockmonster team was Joey Tetarenko. Verot, Robitaille, and Anglestad had the ice to do whatever they wanted back then, because no one would, or could stop them.

It was Robitaille that I enjoyed the most though. He of the Cheshire cat smile, and constantly running mouth. To say he enjoys his job as enforcer/shit disturber is to say we all like fights. It’s friggin obvious. He’s a heck of a nice guy off the ice to shoot the breeze with as well. I hope the Devils didn’t “get” me again, and I hope Robitaille is free to run around in Lowell. I am betting after his season split between the LNAH, and Italy last season, he’ll be raring to go nuts. Somehow, I think I’ve been had again.