Day One of the NHL Free Agency Period is nearly in the books. The big NHL free agents are the hot commodities, but I kept my eyes on what went down in the AHL East Division with their parent teams. Team by team, here we go:
Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre / Scranton:
- Colin McDonald from the Oklahoma City Barons. Led the AHL with 42 goals last season. This signing struck me like a Mack truck. I did not see this happening at all. I had him signing a one-way. This is big news.
- Bombulie with a quick blurb.
- Ray Shero states that this is not the market to be signing players. With about $2 million left in cap space does this mean he loads up the farm?
Washington / Hershey:
- Paul Baier, a defenseman from the Rochester Americans. Fan favorite in Rochester and a Brown graduate. Not a veteran, so he solidifies them at that position.
- Semyon Varlamov was traded to Colorado.
- Ryan Potulny from the Binghamton Senators. Center depth for the Bears if he doesn’t stick in Washington. Likely means the end of Andrew Gordon in Hershey.
- Matt Ford from the Lake Erie Monsters. 26-16-42 for Lake Erie last season.
- Sean Collins re-signed.
Ottawa / Binghamton:
- Signed Alex Auld, thereby guaranteeing Robin Lehner to start the year in Binghamton as the Senators wanted.
- Francis Lessard re-signed.
Tampa Bay / Norfolk:
- J.T. Wyman from the Hamilton Bulldogs. Number 108 on the Bombulie list.
- Michel Ouellet, who played overseas last season (ironically with the same team John Curry signed with the Hamburg Freezers) and did time in WBS many moons ago.
Elsewhere:
- Edmonton signs Corey Potter. Disappointing to see Corey walk like that. Wish him well with his new team. Leaves a bit of a hole at the position but Wilkes-Barre has a plethora of talent at the position.
- Hershey loses its captain, Andrew Joudrey to Columbus.
- AHL observer Patrick Williams has a new job as NHL.com correspondent.
If you see any omissions from any other teams from the AHL perspective that will directly affect Wilkes-Barre, leave me a comment in the comment section. I will be back tomorrow to recap Day Two.
My thought is that Wilkes-Barre, Hershey and the heavyweights in the East Division are not done beefing up. We still need to get Brad Thiessen and Dustin Jeffrey signed. I don’t think we are done yet. Stay tuned. Business is picking up.
WBS News
Chirps from Center Ice 
Hey Jason, I am a follower of you on Twitter. Colin is actually my cousin. His mom Suzanne is a native of Kingston. Very exciting day for our family today, as we have been season ticket holders since day 1 of this team.