Chirps from Center Ice

The Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins made the worst kept secret official Thursday afternoon when they announced that Garrett Wilson was named playing captain for the 2018-19 season. Chris Summers will serve as the alternate and they will rotate the third “A”.

Good on Wilson, who is seen as a leader on and off the ice.

Wilson joins a number of ex-Penguins to wear the, “C” around the AHL. Colin McDonald is captain in Lehigh Valley, Kevin Porter in Rochester and yesterday the Milwaukee Admirals named Jarred Tinordi their captain.

Philip Samuelsson signed on with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Samuelsson led AHL defenders in +/- last season and this is a big time get for the reigning, defending, undisputed Atlantic Division Champions in Lehigh Valley. Wilkes-Barre sees the Phantoms twice in October.

That’s all. If something breaks later I’ll have a blurb. If not, tonight is opening night in the AHL. I will be playing around with the new AHLTV streaming that the League touted this summer on the computer, my iPhone and Apple TV.

EDIT: Tristan Jarry was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre by Pittsburgh on Friday afternoon. Interesting decisions ahead now for the coaching staff on Coal Street regarding who to start in goal and who to cut. In my opinion, at least in the short term, the answer is simple. It’s John Muse. Peters will be assigned to Cincinnati of the ECHL (who have his rights) sometime next week when the ECHL’s regular season gets going a week from now. When in doubt, go with the guy(s) with the NHL contracts.

Oh, and on the subject of ex-Penguins as Captains elsewhere in the AHL, Derrick in the comments below reminded me of Paul Thompson and the Springfield Thunderbirds. Add another name, as Cal O’Reilly was named captain of the Iowa Wild in advance of their opener Friday with the Manitoba Moose.

Gameday setup for Saturday’s opener hits here Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!