[Chief Rum]

I was really impressed witht he numbers he put up, but I'm not familiar with how close American college hockey approximates NHL hockey (what kind of "conversion" I can expect). I saw Kunitz's signing and I was really excited with the numbers he put up, since we can always use good offensive options like that.

In my experience, guys from the American college system can often make the jump fairly quickly, often making an impact in their first year in the NHL. Two Duck examples that come to mind is Kariya and MacDonald. Kariya, of course, had the talent anyway, though, and he took a year off to play with the Canadian junior national team, so it's hard to tell with him. But MacDonald made the jump directly and made an impact last year right away.

The most well-known I can immediately recall of a successful jump was by Drury when he went to the Avs a few years ago.

Would you care to give me a rundown on what I can expect from Kunitz? I don't follow college hockey much (we don't have many teams out here in California, lol...). What is his upside? His best skills? How soon do you think he can make an impact?

I know he's already invited to the September camp.

Chief Rum