The Augusta Lynx's Thanksgiving weekend plans suffered a blow Wednesday when nine Canadian players were ruled ineligible because of a ruling by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Lynx will be without forwards Brian Passmore, Joe Pereira, Dan Sullivan, Nicolas Corbeil and Ryan Lang and defensemen Phil Cole, Martin Lapointe and Steve LeCuyer until the team's petition for temporary employment for these players in the United States is approved. Forward Doug Wright was also ruled ineligible, but is on injured reserve and was unlikely to play this weekend anyway.
The Lynx play tonight at Gwinnett before coming home to play Greenville on Friday and Charlotte on Saturday.
"It's out of our control," coach Bob Ferguson said. "It's a government thing. After (Sept. 11) you have to respect how thorough they are with things."
The team learned late Tuesday that their petition was denied, and with the help of the ECHL, refiled, but Immigration Services couldn't process the paperwork by the end of the business day Wednesday. Ferguson said non-American players have a 30-day window from the start of the season to get their paperwork processed, and that window has closed.
The Lynx are left with Americans Jason Wolfe, Eric Lundberg, Ken Scuderi, Lee Jacobson, Shan Fisher, Treavor Peterson, Jake Riddle, Paul Kelly and Sam Ftorek, and Canadians Joel Stepp, Trevor Cunning and Colt King. Ferguson said Stepp's paperwork was submitted by the NHL's Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Cunning's by the ECHL's Pensacola Ice Pilots. He said he thinks King has dual citizenship.
The Lynx hope the paperwork will go through in time for the weekend's games, but Ferguson said he had six players - including former Lynx John Whitwell - signed up to play tonight.
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