Here's Your Alaska Aces Season-Opening Roster

Returning center Luke Erickson -- gone.

Sort-of-returning goaltender Kevin Nastiuk -- gone.

Sort-of-returning defenseman Alexander Hellstrom -- really gone, since he's apparently eventually headed back to Sweden.

Today at 11 a.m. ADT was the ECHL deadline for teams to submit their season-opening rosters, and the Alaska Aces released Erickson and Nastiuk and saw Hellstrom reassigned.

Erickson last season bagged 21 goals for the Aces and was the league's deadliest shootout sniper (5 attempts, 5 goals), but didn't fit in first-year coach Brent Thompson's plans. With John Lammers penciled in as the No. 1 center and Alexandre Imbeault as No. 2 center, Thompson said he didn't see Erickson as a No. 3, or checking line, center.

Nastiuk and Hellstrom each played briefly for the Aces last season.

The Aces placed seven dudes on various injured-reserve lists. On the 21-day IR are winger Jason Ryznar (broken hand); winger Justin Johnson (broken hand); new center/winger Curtis Fraser (recovering from a dislocated shoulder in an AHL training camp), the former UAF skater and third-year pro whose experience is almost all in the American Hockey League; third-year forward Tomas Kana (shoulder); and rookie center Nick Mazzolini (knee).

On the 7-day IR: Returning defenseman Lee Green.

On the 3-day IR: Returning winger Brett Hemingway.

That leaves the Aces with the following 19-player active roster (teams are allowed a 20-man active roster) that fits under the league salary cap of $11,800 per week:

Goaltenders (2): Sebastian Dahm, Scott Reid.

Defensemen (7): B.J. Crum, T.J. Fast, Tyson Marsh, Derick Martin, Bryan Miller, Ryan Turek, Nick Tuzzolino.

Forwards (10): Patrick Brosnihan, Scott Burt, Jack Combs, Lance Galbraith, Colin Hemingway, Alexandre Imbeault, John Lammers, Chris Morehouse, Anthony Peluso, Matt Stefanishion.

Expect more roster movement in the next month, particularly when that huge crew on the 21-day IR. There will be movement, too, when Peluso returns to the Peoria Rivermen, Alaska's AHL affiliate, later this month.

(Look for more on this subject in Thursday's dead-trees edition of the ADN).

In the meantime, feel free to put on your player personnel/general manager's hat and let us know how you would have gone done things differently. Just remember -- Dahm, Fast, Turek, Brosnihan, Kana and Peluso are all either on AHL or NHL contracts, which means they've been assigned here by the parent St. Louis Blues or Peoria and therefore are roster locks.