Chirps from Center Ice

No, I won’t give you the Powerball numbers for the next drawing.

Monday morning, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins sent an innocuous tweet teasing a player signing later in the day.

Me, being the fun loving wise guy that I am, responded with the following tweet.

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About ninety or so minutes later, my premonition came true.

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Absolute heist by General Manager Bill Guerin and Head Coach Mike Vellucci. It’s an AHL only deal.

Dustin Tokarski’s resume:

• Two time Calder Cup winner.
• Undefeated in regular season and playoffs last season with the Charlotte Checkers after a mid-season trade with Hartford.

I had him at #46 on the AHL Big Board, and probably in hindsight criminally underrated there. He was the one “wish list” signing that I wanted for Wilkes-Barre with the Vellucci connection and the need for the Penguins to go out and sign a veteran AHL goalie.

On my 2019 Offseason Moves List I have a small chapter dedicated to “Needs” – Let’s Review…

• Veteran goaltender for Alex D’Orio. Can’t risk losing Tristan Jarry, who is under contract but now must pass through waivers in the Fall, as a backup. I think what happens with Jarry in the summer (trade likely) sets the table for July 1 with the plan in Wilkes-Barre in the Fall.

Check. It doesn’t come any better than a two time Calder Cup winning goaltender in Dustin Tokarski. What happens with Tristan Jarry is now irrelevant because you have an enormous insurance policy here in Wilkes-Barre to mentor incoming rookies Alex D’Orio / Emil Larmi.

• High impact AHL scorer. The Penguins lacked offensive firepower last season in a big way. Ethan Prow led the team in points, but that’s not really his job to score points. Pittsburgh needs to set up Wilkes-Barre with one or two proven veteran scorers. I joke about players like Chris Bourque, but a player of his caliber would be a perfect fit to compliment the Sam Lafferty’s and Anthony Angello’s already coming back for next year.

Check. I had Andrew Agozzino in my top ten on the AHL Big Board. 60 points with AHL Colorado and a special teams ace. Joseph Blandisi will return as well, with incoming rookies like Kasper Bjorkvist. Scoring shouldn’t be a problem on most nights.

• One or two defensemen in case one of Chris Summers or Kevin Czuczman don’t re-sign. Blueline is looking really, really young next season from here in May 2019.

Check. Czuczman re-signed, Zach Trotman did too and you have a first round pedigree in P-O Joseph turning pro with the returning Dave Warsofsky.

Try to find holes. All three zones (goal, forward, defense) look solid. You have a head coach that just won a Calder Cup with a team in Charlotte which was a buzzsaw. True, you have to negotiate a 76 game season with call-ups, injuries, trades and the like, but the rebuild looks about done and it looks a lot better than it did before.