A Few Exclusive Extra ATO Details That Didn't Make the Story on TheAHL.com

Derek Hulak (Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

I hope you got a chance to read my AHL On the Beat article today about the Texas Stars amateur tryout players. There were a few snippets that didn't make the cut in the article for whatever reason that I wanted to share with blog readers exclusively:

• I've mentioned a few times now that Devin Shore and Branden Troock were roommates during Development Camp. One other connection that Shore shared with me was that he stayed at Matt Mangene's apartment when he went on his official visit to the University of Maine three years ago.
  
  
• One of the big advocates for bringing Derek Hulak to Texas was Willie Desjardins, who also attended the University of Saskatchewan. Hulak shared that when he arrived at practice his first day, Coach Desjardins told him that he'd streamed the whole CIS championship tournament from Texas, rooting for Hulak and the Huskies.
  
  
• Hulak mentioned that Coach Desjardins won a lot of the same team awards that Hulak did to end his season at Saskatchewan. That set up a bit of a rivalry-in-jest between the two.