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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
CHL skaters coming to a PlayStation near you
BRANDON -- Tyler Seguin is going to play in the NHL next season -- one way or another.
The Canadian Hockey League announced Friday that junior players like Seguin -- and all 60 teams that make up the Western and Ontario Hockey Leagues and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League -- will be included in the new version of the popular EA Sports NHL video game.
That means Seguin -- who is expected to go first or second in next month's NHL entry draft -- will have to brush up on his off-ice game. "I'm not too good at NHL but I have been pretty good at Call of Duty," Seguin said during a news conference Friday afternoon. "With this coming out, I hope to get a little bit better at the video game."
Seguin is in Brandon for today's CHL awards ceremony, where the high-scoring Plymouth Whalers centre is up for three of the 10 major awards, including player of the year and top prospect of the year.
The debate continues over whether the Edmonton Oilers, who own the first overall pick, should use it to select Seguin or left-winger Taylor Hall of the Windsor Spitfires, who has been impressive this week in helping lead his club to a berth in Sunday's Memorial Cup championship final.
Seguin, who's been watching the Memorial Cup on TV with his Whalers an early-round playoff casualty, was asked to make his case that he should be the top pick overall.
"I think one of my biggest strengths shown over the last two years was my improvement level," Seguin said. "I came into the OHL ranked ninth, so I wasn't one or two. And I just kept getting better and better with the help of my coaches and the Whalers.
"And then this year, I was never really in the spotlight. And once that pressure got put on me... I think I showed the qualities in a player that could go on to the next level."
Either way, both 18-year-olds are about to become millionaires and, in all likelihood, NHL players next season. Their junior teammates, meanwhile, will get a virtual taste of the NHL next season in an agreement between EA Sports and the CHL that will see the junior leagues integrated into NHL 11.
Fans who purchase the video game for either PlayStation 3 or XBox will be able to play with all 60 teams that make up the CHL, including the names and likenesses of all roster players. The teams will play in their authentic jerseys and buildings and there will be a feature that will allow game players to stage a Memorial Cup of their own.
Ron Robison, WHL president, said the CHL and its players will not receive any remuneration in exchange for their four-year commitment to cooperate with EA Sports.
paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 22, 2010 D3
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