Chirps from Center Ice

Still a couple of moves going on in the AHL East. I’m on stay-cation this week and need a distraction from the pool, cigars and warm weather (well, I am inside in an air-conditioned environment)

Caps / Bears:

– Signed Pittsburgh native Matt Clackson. He was 1-1-2 with the Chicago Wolves last year and had 193 PIMs. He was eighth in the AHL in penalty minutes last season. Will he replace Joel Rechlicz’s role? Bigger question: will he fight Steve MacIntyre?

– Signed depth guys Scott Wietecha and David Vallorani. They were Caps prospect camp invitees.

Senators:

– Signed goaltender Nathan Lawson. Lawson was 58 on the big board and hasn’t had a save percentage less than 0.913 in the AHL in the past four seasons. He’ll back up Robin Lehner.

– Looks like Ottawa / Binghamton is done making moves. They join Tampa Bay / Syracuse as teams done adding guys in offseason.

Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre / Wheeling:

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The 2012 Offseason Moves list has been updated.

The Penguins, either the ones in Wilkes-Barre or Pittsburgh, announced the re-signing of three players today. Joey Mormina, Carl Sneep and Keven Veilleux are back and hopefully in Veilleux’s case most especially, better than ever.

Nice to have Mormina’s veteran presence back for another year for what could otherwise be seen from an outsiders point of view as a young blue line coming into 2012-13.

Prospect camp is off an running. Here are excellent write-ups and analysis from @LGP_Netwolf: Day 1 (Tuesday) and Day 2 (Wednesday)

Our rivals to the south re-signed Zach Hamill and lost Joel Rechlicz to Phoenix / Portland.

That’s all there is today. Latest always @nafsnep on Twitter.

Rare that news affecting WBS breaks when most of us (including me) are sleeping. But that is exactly what happened last night. Philippe Dupuis, number 64 on Jonathan Bombulie’s big board, has signed with the Penguins.

Dupuis is a center and looks like the classic “tweener” player in that he spent 42 games at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies and went 15-16-31 and a +12. He played 30 games with the Maple Leafs and was scoreless and a -2.

Here’s the breakdown from the aforementioned Bombulie, who apparently is more of a night owl than I, because there is a depth chart included in his posting.

Elsewhere around the East Division and the AHL…

The Bears signed Mathieu Beaudoin to a contract on Tuesday. He was an AHL All-Star with Texas a few years ago and No. 153 on the big board.

The Senators signed Hugh Jessiman Tuesday. No. 122 on the big board. Interesting that this will be Jessiman’s first stint in the AHL Eastern Conference as he has spent much of his career bouncing around in the Western Conference.

Matt Smaby stays with Anaheim on an NHL contract, but since the affiliation switched he will probably end up in Norfolk. I mention this because Smaby was on a contract to Tampa Bay a few years ago and did time in Norfolk before. By the way, he was No. 82 on the big board.

The dark horse pick for next season should be the Worcester Sharks. They signed Alex Stalock, Danny Groulx, Matt Irwin, Bracken Kearns and Jon Matsumoto. All, at one point in their careers, were AHL All-Stars.

Thursday Afternoon Update: Ryan Schnell inked with St. John’s and Syracuse signed Eric Nielson and Jared Nightengale. Also, Pittsburgh announced their prospect camp roster for next week. Notables include Simon Despres, Philip Samuelsson, Brian Gibbons, Zach Sill and Paul Thompson. Patrick Killeen was left off the list, which I find highly intriguing.

You can’t win a Stanley Cup or a Calder Cup on July 1 or August 1. But signing the right guys on a day like today, the groundwork is laid for the path to potential championships.

For the Penguins, it was the signing of four new players and the return of another:

–> Goaltender Jeff Zatkoff. An AHL All-Star with the Manchester Monarchs this season who went 21-17-1 with a 0.920 SV% and a 2.49 GAA in 44 games splitting duties in net with Martin Jones. Zatkoff signed a two year contract. Here’s a tweet from The Goalie Guild:

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With the tandem of Thiessen-Zatkoff in net for Wilkes-Barre next season, Wilkes-Barre is looking stout in net.

–> Forward Riley Holzapfel. From Jonathan Bombulie:

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It was pointed out that Holzapfel had a career high in points with a career low in games played. Perhaps a bigger role played, ala Bryan Lerg from Springfield to Wilkes-Barre?

I asked Alex, who runs the Syracuse Crunch fan blog Chairman How’s Glorious Army, about Holzapfel. Here’s what she had to say:

As hard as Holzapfel’s name is to say and spell is exactly how hard he works. He was exciting to watch, helped to pump up listless forwards. He was a pleasure for media guys to talk to, and just seemed to enjoy playing the game. You also got the feeling that his head was in the business–there was no sign of any real allegiance to STJ, even though they were a better team when we got him. He should have been (upset) — went from the top to the bottom, basically — but he never once showed any negativity…I was floored when ANA didn’t qualify him. He should be a quality grab!

–> Defenseman Dylan Reese. Number 59 on Jonathan Bombulie’s big board of AHL Free Agents. Played with the Islanders / Sound Tigers last year. A local Pittsburgh product. Really good defenseman and someone who could be the number one call up on defense next year for the Penguins if need be.

–> Steve MacIntyre returns for another year. Hopefully, Hershey’s Joel Rechlicz and he see the same ice together at some point and trip the light fantastic.

–> Center Warren Peters. More from Jonathan:

Bombulie also had this to say regarding the Peters signing, perhaps reading the tea leaves:

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Whew. What a day.

Analysis: Nice pickups by the Pens today for the AHL farm team. By no means does this guarantee anything Calder Cup-wise, so you won’t see me getting my hopes up like I did two years ago when Pittsburgh brought in Brett Sterling. I am not going to tell you how to be a fan, but planning a Calder Cup route in Wilkes-Barre is just premature thinking.

Elsewhere: Pretty quiet day for the rest of the AHL’s East Division. André Benoit is returning to Ottawa / Binghamton. Hershey is eerily quiet. Norfolk / Syracuse were quiet also.

Alumni watch: Ben Street signs with Calgary. From Paul Thompson’s twitter feed, it looks like Brandon DeFazio is off to the New York Islanders. DeFazio, not to be outdone, tweeted congratulations to Bryan Lerg for signing possibly with the Colorado Avalanche.

Of note, neither DeFazio or Lerg signing were made official as of 9 pm Wilkes-Barre time.

Day Two is always the better day in terms of signings that help AHL clubs. Twitter is where you will find reactions from me on the latest and Facebook on analysis, if there is any to be had, over the 140 character limit on Twitter. Then a blog post right here later in the day recapping the days events.