Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins will have a new, yet familiar voice handling play by play duties in their 20th season in October 2018.

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Coal Street announced Monday morning the logical and best man for the job, installing Nick Hart as the new play-by-play broadcaster/media relations director for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

In addition, Jason Spess was named manager of team services. Spess served as assistant general manager of the Toyota SportsPlex for the past two years and was an assistant coach with the Wheeling Nailers last season.

From the release…

“Mike did a tremendous job during his seven year tenure in Wilkes-Barre, not only behind the microphone, but behind the scenes handling the team services functions for the club,” said CEO Jeff Barrett.  “We are also happy to hand these new duties to Nick and Jason, who have worked tirelessly for the team over the past several years.”

O’Brien is leaving to pursue other opportunities in Boston, Massachusetts.

In other news…

— Gage Quinney signed an NHL deal with his hometown Vegas Golden Knights. If he doesn’t stick in the NHL, he’ll skate in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves next season.

— Tom Sestito is moving on.

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I do not necessarily think that Sestito is done playing hockey. We will have to wait and see where Tom ends up.

Finally, the 2018 AHL Free Agent Big Board is being constructed and again this year I am going to crowd source this. If you are interested in contributing, please contact me either on the blog or through Twitter, @nafsnep – many hands will do for clean and light work.

That’s all for now.