The Blog has been out of the office for a few days, mostly at home whining about his old man's back, and in that time several dudes with Alaska connections have turned up with new jobs.

Former UAA winger Mitch Bruijsten, unceremoniously sent home from the WCHA playoffs last spring for failing to meet his academic responsibilities, which sounds an awful lot like not going to class, is back in his home country, The Netherlands, where he will play for the Geleen Smoke Eaters, which is a pretty cool name, though the league he will be playing in is very low-level pro.

In any event, former Alaska Aces defenseman Ryan Turek, who had moved on to (now-defunct) Victoria and then ECHL Utah, has landed with the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays. File this one under small world: South Carolina was the club that beat Turek and the Aces in Game 7 of the 2009 Kelly Cup Finals at Sullivan Arena.

Former UAF winger Kyle Greentree, who owns 131 AHL goals and four NHL games, is headed to Medvescak Zagreb of Croatia, which if memory serves plays in the Austrian league. He's hooked up with all kinds of former Alaska connections: former Aces Curtis Fraser and Alex Leavitt, former Las Vegas Wranglers Adam iller and Michael Ouzas, former Bakersfield and UAF center Adam Naglich, former Utah d-man Andy Sertich and coach Marty Raymond, who Aces fans no doubt remember getting exposed for texting his bench from the upper reaches of Sullivan Arena while serving an ECHL-imposed suspension. Good times.

In other signings, former UAF defenseman Aaron Gens signed with ECHL Evansville. And former ECHL MVP Kevin Baker, late of ECHL Stockton, has signed with the ECHL's Orlando Solar Bears, where one of his teammates will be former Aces center/winger Ryan Cruthers.