Chirps from Center Ice

A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Category Archives: Pittsburgh

Thursday Notes 4/7

1 Comment Posted by on April 7, 2016

Couple of things to get to before the penultimate weekend of the regular season for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins.

From Wednesday, the Penguins signed goaltender Sean Maguire to a two year entry level contract which begins this fall. In the meantime, Maguire showed up in Wilkes-Barre on an ATO. He’s recovering from a minor injury and is not expected to appear in any games this weekend for the Penguins.

Also from Wednesday, the AHL announced their All-Rookie team. I have no news to report other than that. Dominik Simon, considered a strong contender to be named, wasn’t.

From Thursday morning, Pittsburgh recalled Tom Sestito. The Penguins needed a forward and with the last two games of the regular season being against division rivals, Sestito was called up for insurance.

From Thursday afternoon, the AHL announced it’s First and Second Team All-Stars. Matt Murray, Dustin Jeffrey amd Will O’Neill were named to the second team.

The three players from the Penguins being nominated is the most in team history and the first skaters to be selected as postseason all-stars since Janne Pesonen and Ben Lovejoy in 2008-09.

The Penguins magic number to clinch is 2. Pens get in tomorrow with a win at home against Lehigh Valley or a Hartford loss in Springfield.

Gameday setup for the last visit by the Phantoms this season hits the blog Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Carter Rowney Named AHL Player of the Month

Comments Off on Carter Rowney Named AHL Player of the Month Posted by on April 1, 2016

In a well deserved nomination, it was announced by the American Hockey League on Friday that Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins forward Carter Rowney was named AHL Player of the Month for the month of March.

Rowney’s March production saw him score 7 goals and assist on 10 others. He had a career high 9 game point streak and a hat trick during March and was far and away the Penguins best player.

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Rowney told Seth after practice today…

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In other news….

— Pittsburgh recalled Oskar Sundqvist on Wednesday after learning that Bryan Rust is sidelined with a lower body injury, day to day.

— Coal Street swapped back up goaltenders Thursday. Brian Foster up while Franky Palazzese went down. Head Coach Clark Donatelli told reporters Wednesday that this was a planned move to let Foster find his swagger down in Wheeling. In March, Foster put up a 3-1-1-1 record with a .920 SV% and a 2.16 GAA. He also had a 30 save shutout.

— Will O’Neill was named the Penguins nominee of the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year. There were four other ex-Penguins also nominated, Matt Carkner (Bridgeport) Brandon DeFazio (Providence) Ben Street (San Antonio) and Ryan Craig (Lake Erie)

— Sahir Gill is on track for an April 15 return. Ethan Prow is in town but couldn’t practice because his gear got lost.

The Penguins will likely sew up a playoff spot this weekend. With the Penguins off tonight, their magic number can shrink to two if Hershey beats Hartford tonight. There is a caveat, however. A Bears win puts them back in first place over the Penguins. When I queued some of the fan base on Twitter, the results were mixed. Basically the tone being that playoff seeding is going to be paramount and that the Pens want to avoid Providence at all costs.

It ain’t supposed to be easy.

Gameday for Saturday’s home game with Bridgeport goes up on the blog Saturday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Treaty of Guent – Penguins Sign Rookie to ATO

Comments Off on Treaty of Guent – Penguins Sign Rookie to ATO Posted by on March 22, 2016

A fairly significant roster move was made Tuesday morning when it was announced that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins signed Jake Guentzel to an amateur tryout contract. (ATO)

From the release, Guentzel is a third round selection of the Pittsburgh Penguins and just finished his junior season at Nebraska-Omaha. He is foregoing his senior year and turning pro.

Here are some tweets with those familiar with Guentzel’s body of work…

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Now Seth had a cheat sheet of sorts regarding Penguin prospects tabbed to come through Coal Street to begin their professional careers in Sunday’s Citizens Voice.

From the article in regard to Guentzel…

Guentzel was drafted by Pittsburgh in the third round, 77th overall, in the 2013 NHL draft and is currently rated the organization’s No. 6 prospect by The Hockey News. At 5-foot-10, he’s undersized, but extremely skilled. In each of his three seasons at UNO, his scoring totals have gone up, culminating with a 46-point (19G-27A) performance this season. The 46 points are the 10th most in the nation this season. Current Penguin Josh Archibald was a teammate of Guentzel’s back during the 2013-14 season.

ETA: Assuming he wants to get a taste of the AHL and the Penguins think that’s a good idea, Guentzel could be on his way to Wilkes-Barre any day now. After the Mavericks started the season on record pace, they stumbled down the stretch and finished on an eight-game skid. Don’t blame Guentzel, though. In two games during the opening round of the NCHC Tournament, he recorded two goals and two assists. The Mavericks, however, lost both games to Denver — the second in double OT.

When I had heard the news this morning, I didn’t think that Guentzel would be ready to play as soon as Wednesday against the Binghamton Senators.

I was wrong.

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Guentzel was teammates with Josh Archibald at Nebraska-Omaha, so the fit is natural. He will wear number 44 when he makes his debut Wednesday.

Perhaps it was the fact that he has a nice set of hands on him that won the coaching staff over…

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Coal Street’s official blog Skating on the Susquehanna had a feature on Guentzel including his first professional media scrum and Head Coach Clark Donatelli’s thoughts on his newest player.

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In other news, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that they have signed forward Teddy Blueger to a two year entry level contract. Blueger will join Wilkes-Barre on an ATO Tuesday. It wasn’t immediately known if Blueger will play tomorrow vs. Binghamton or not. Blueger went 11-24-35 for Minnesota State Mankato this past season, leading the team in points and game winning goals. Sounds like to me, based off of what the Pittsburgh release said and what Seth wrote about him in Sunday’s paper, that the Penguins have another blue chipper for the AHL squad for the remainder of the season.

Here is a long form feature from Sean Shapiro who profiled Blueger for the website HockeysFuture.

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Oh, if you were wondering where the pun headline came from, it was the suggestion of Alan Saunders.

Honorable mention goes to Uncle Pat from Wheeling for, “The Guent is Due.”

Finally, if you don’t get the reference of the headline, here you go. Now you remember, right?

Pittsburgh, WBS

Transaction Thursday 3/10

Comments Off on Transaction Thursday 3/10 Posted by on March 10, 2016

I wasn’t expecting to have a blog entry today, but the events of the day almost require it.

The organization is finally getting healthy.

Starting up top, the Pittsburgh Penguins reassigned forward Conor Sheary to the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins today. This after word from the morning that basically everyone practiced today including injured players like Broke Beau Bennett, Eric Fehr and even Ben Lovejoy. It was a full compliment of players. 15 forwards, 8 defensemen and 3 goaltenders. Almost like the week before the regular season when the final cuts need to be made.

Then news today out of Coal Street that Oskar Sundqvist practiced in full and should be good to go for Saturday against Bridgeport. That is good news for the Penguins because getting the firepower of Sheary injected back into the lineup with Sundqvist balancing out your third or even fourth line is certainly welcome.

Defenseman Niclas Andersen is recovered from his illness and is looking like he is ready to go again for this weekends games.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry did not practice. Donatelli indicated today that he is, “getting better.”

I would guess that the braintrust feels he will be good to go as they sent Brian Foster along with forwards Derek Army and Anton Zlobin back to Wheeling today. Franky Palazzese remains up and is projected to back up Jarry in both games this weekend with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

The thought here with many is that Foster was a mess last night and Palazzese won the game for the Penguins without giving up a goal in his AHL debut. I don’t agree with that at all. The Penguins are most successful when they play in front of goaltenders not named Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry when they are successful at shot suppression. They limited Hershey to five shots in the third period Sunday in a 5-4 game in the third game in three nights for both teams. They limited Lehigh Valley to three shots in the third period yesterday playing in front of Palazzese and one shot in overtime. They need to insulate whoever the backup is to Jarry as best they can in order to have a chance at winning. It is that simple.

The Pens reassigned three to Wheeling today in what I am guessing is a sign of things to come from Pittsburgh. I would assume that you will see one more transaction at least from Pittsburgh before Saturday nights game against Bridgeport. You may even see a second. But who?

I think the Pittsburgh Penguins are at an interesting crossroads when it comes to Derrick Pouliot. Pouliot has been scratched the last two games in the NHL while the Penguins worked Justin Schultz into the rotation. Ben Lovejoy is getting healthy enough to play. In practice today Pouliot was on the fourth defensive pairing. Pittsburgh is in a fight for its playoff life amidst a battle with its Metropolitan Division brethren. Every point is crucial for them going forward so Head Coach Mike Sullivan needs to dress the best players available now that everyone is seemingly healthy again. Does the organization want to stunt the continued progress of Pouliot by burying him in the press box night after night or do they want him to play top defensive minutes?

Maybe I am grasping at air falling backwards, but don’t be surprised if you see Derrick Pouliot back in Wilkes-Barre sooner rather than later.

Who knows. Certainly I don’t or else they would be paying me to write these things. Time will tell.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS, Wheeling

Trade Deadline Wrap – Marcantuoni for Jeffrey; Warsofsky Claimed, Paper…

Comments Off on Trade Deadline Wrap – Marcantuoni for Jeffrey; Warsofsky Claimed, Paper… Posted by on February 29, 2016

Besides the news earlier today that the Penguins traded away Sergei Plotnikov for Mattias Plachta, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes were not done doing business with one another.

Pittsburgh traded away Matia Marcantuoni for Dustin Jeffrey and two ECHLers in Dan O’Donoghue and James Melindy. Marcantuoni goes to Springfield, Jeffrey to Wilkes-Barre from Springfield. O’Donoghue and Melindy from Rapid City of the ECHL to Wheeling.

Not a bad haul if you ask me for the farm from Pittsburgh. The markets were too expensive for the already cap strapped Penguins so they shored up things with the affiliates in Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling.

Regarding Jeffrey, here are a few tweets…

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Wait. What?

Apparently Oskar Sundqvist was injured this past weekend, apparently during the 3-2 loss yesterday to the Providence Bruins. I watched the whole game and nothing stood out to me regarding an injury to Sundqvist.

There were other moves today.

David Warsofsky was placed on waivers yesterday for the purposes of reassignment to Wilkes-Barre. Well, at noon today we learned that the New Jersey Devils claimed Warsofsky. That’s the second Ray Shero / John Hynes waiver claim from the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. Earlier this season the Devils claimed Bobby Farnham. Hynes saw his full share of Warsofsky, facing against the defensemen in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs and also coached him in the U.S. Development program.

More on Plachta.

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Paper moves.

According to the Penguins transaction page on theAHL.com, the Pittsburgh Penguins assigned Bryan Rust, Scott Wilson, Conor Sheary, Matt Murray and Derrick Pouliot were assigned to Wilkes-Barre thus making them eligible to play again in the AHL this season. There was an interesting twist, however. NHL teams don’t normally announce AHL paper moves on trade deadline day. They made a formal announcement on the reassignment of Conor Sheary. Pursuant to the transaction page mentioned earlier, Rust, Wilson, Murray and Pouliot were “recalled” back to Pittsburgh while Sheary remained.

That could be procedural, as NHL teams are limited now to just four callups. Teams skirt the rules under “emergency” reasons, so conceivably Sheary could return to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Time will tell, but it is fun to speculate…

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Skating on the Susquehanna has a nice summary of the days proceedings.

Elsewhere in the Division…

The Washington Capitals traded Chris Brown to the New York Rangers and in return received Ryan Bourque. Both players will report to their respective AHL teams. Bourque, joining his brother in Hershey and Brown to Hartford. Later, Connor Carrick was traded to Toronto in a deal involving NHL players.

Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley stayed quiet.

Boston / Providence got ex-Penguin Max Talbot and Joonas Kemppainen and Zac Rinaldo to the Rhode Island capital. Providence is a perfect dark horse in the Atlantic.

Springfield was pillaged, losing Corey Potter to Nashville, in addition to Jeffrey and Plachta.

Bridgeport and Portland didn’t make any moves that jumped out.

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Overall, not a bad haul for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. They lose a key defenseman and a power play quarterback in Warsofsky to waivers but gain an elite AHL scorer in Jeffrey, shore up their ECHL affiliate with O’Donoghue and Melindy and add Plachta who I am thinking the change of scenery will do him well.

So there you have it. Wilkes-Barre is setup to claw back against Herhsey and regain the Atlantic Division lead. The Penguins play the Bears twice this weekend.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS, Wheeling

Trade: Plotnikov for Plachta

Comments Off on Trade: Plotnikov for Plachta Posted by on February 29, 2016

Quick blog post to let you know that the Pittsburgh Penguins have traded away Sergei Plotnikov to the Arizona Coyotes for a conditional seventh rough draft pick and Mattias Plachta.

Trade not official yet from the teams, but it’s been confirmed on Twitter by all the heavyweights:

Made official by Pittsburgh mid-Monday morning.

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On Plachta, he’s 2-5-7 in 46 games with AHL Springfield. There is a local connection to the coaching staff in Wilkes-Barre as Plachta won the DEL Championship with Adler Mannheim last year, the same team that Jay Leach coached.

Quick scouting report on Plachta:

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Perhaps a change of scenery will help him.

If there is another move, I’ll throw a brief quip up on the blog. My AHL Power Rankings hit the blog today at noon.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Have No Fehr, It’s Sunny Tomorrow

Comments Off on Have No Fehr, It’s Sunny Tomorrow Posted by on February 4, 2016

With Eric Fehr down with what Mike Sullivan told Pittsburgh media a, “significant lower body injury” which will sideline the Penguins center for at least a month, the Pittsburgh Penguins recalled rookie center Oskar Sundqvist Thursday from Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.

Sundqvist is 5-11-16 in 39 games with the Penguins this season. He has a goals for percentage of 46.81% and an even strength goals for percentage of 50%. He’s a penalty killer and a center, which fills the role left when Fehr went down with injury.

Wilkes-Barre hasn’t made a recall from Wheeling as of this writing, but Clark Donatelli told media today he’s going to recall two players. Dominik Uher, Dominik Simon and Sahir Gill all did not practice today so if I was a betting man, I’d call up Anton Zlobin and probably Patrick McGrath. All of Wheeling’s other top scorers are either already recalled to the AHL or not on AHL deals meaning that the Penguins would need to sign the player in order for him to play here.

Or the Penguins can go beyond Wheeling and sign another ECHL contracted player from another team. I’d expect the news on a recall to come Friday morning.

Here is Seth’s post on the Sundqvist recall.

Gameday setup for Pens at Falcons hits the blog Friday at 3.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS, Wheeling

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