Thunder ready to train

The Las Vegas Thunder opens training camp Friday at the Santa Fe Ice Arena with a pair of two-hour workouts. The practices, which are free to the public, start at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The Thunder welcomes 44 players to camp, but only eight are holdovers from last year's 33-39-10 team Reigning IHL most valuable player Patrice Lefebvre and captain Joe Day are back. So are forwards Trevor Roenick, Russ Romaniuk and Chad Wagner, defensemen Keith McCambridge and Andrie Srubko and goaltender Konstantin Simchuk.

The Thunder plays its first exhibition games against the Long Beach Ice Dogs in Omaha, Neb., on Sept. 25 and 25. The only Thunder preseason home game will be Oct. 3 against the Utah Grizzlies at the Santa Fe. Las Vegas' regular-season opener is Oct. 10 against the Houston Aeros at the Thomas & Mack Center.

In other Thunder news:

Petr Nedved will join the Thunder within the next few days as he continues a contract dispute with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Nedved, 27, played three games with the Thunder late last season before being deemed ineligible by an independent arbitrator because he played four games with Sparta Prague -- a high-level team in the Czech Republic -- in March.

Nedved is a three-time 30-goal scorer in the NHL.

A clause in his Thunder contract will enable him to rejoin the NHL if the Penguins re-sign him or trade his rights to another team.

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