Ryan Kenny

NEW ULM — The West Division leading New Ulm Steel will be without one of their top players when they host second place Granite City at 7:10 p.m. Saturday.

Goalie Ryan Kenny, who has a 10-5 record along with a 2.17 goals against average and a .936 save percentage will be missing for a week.

“He left Monday for Boston and the North American Hockey League (NAHL) to join the Northeast Generals,” Steel coach Andrew Kolb said. “He is part of their orientation. He signed an affiliate with them about a month ago. He will be out there for between eight or nine days and then he will come back. He will practice a week with them and while he is there it is up to the Generals as to what they do with him. We have no say in that. He might play in a game, he might dress in a game. I think that they want to give him some minutes. He will be back next Tuesday.”

Kolb said that it is normal for players in the NA3HL to leave for a higher level of hockey for a time to see what it is like.

“You try and build a good organization at this level and to move guys on and give them that exposure,” he said. “Ryan definitely deserves the exposure that he has gotten already. When he signed that affiliate with Northeast he becomes their property. This is common for players in the [NA3HL] to go up for a week in the NAHL.”

Kolb said that it’s an important move for Kenny’s development.

“This is Tier 3 hockey –then you have the NAHL and then the United States Hockey League. We try and develop our players and move our players on to the next level. That is our number one goal. Whenever we can get a player to go up to the NAHL from our organization, it makes us feel good and look good. It is not about what I am doing or what our owner or GM is doing. Ryan deserves this. We knew this day was going to come.”

That means that Kenny’s spot in the nets on Saturday will be filled from the trio of Ryan Bellenberg (6-2; 3.92 goals against), Ben Colwell or Drew Schenkenberg who the Steel acquired from Rochester when the IceHawks released him.

The Steel are also looking at defenseman Ryan Murray who was recently released by the Minnesota Wilderness of the NAHL and visited the Steel last week.

“We are still talking to him,” Kolb said. “We had drafted him last summer and we believe that he can help our team out. It is up to him to make a decision.”