Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: Pittsburgh

A “Bad” Addition

Comments Off on A “Bad” Addition Posted by on July 13, 2011

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost both Mike Rupp and Eric Godard to free agency this summer. Rupp signed a few weeks ago with the New York Rangers and Eric Godard signed yesterday with the Dallas Stars. That is a lot of tough muscle lost in two guys.

Ray Shero responds last night by signing Steve MacIntyre. Who is Steve MacIntyre? For the past couple of years arguably the baddest man in the American Hockey League.

Jonathan Bombulie from the Penguins Insider had a YouTube compilation of some of MacIntyre’s battles. If you look at MacIntrye closely in some of the videos, it doesn’t even look like he breaks a sweat against the meatheads he is clubbing.

A couple of thoughts on this signing: 1) I don’t see MacIntyre ever being sent to Wilkes-Barre, 2) If he does, he will have no problem clearing. The game is evolving beyond goonery and fights every game. MacIntyre is part of a dying breed of guys who all they know how to do is fight and skate. 3) If he ever gets sent to Wilkes-Barre, he’ll provide no offense and may generally be a liability on the ice even strength. That doesn’t mean that I won’t stand and cheer if he were to pummel Hershey’s Joel Rechlicz in a fight.

Late Edit: Perhaps if MacIntyre were ever to be sent to Wilkes-Barre he could take Ryan Schnell under his wing. The teanm announced this morning that Schnell will be returning. Good news.

You can also follow MacIntyre on Twitter, @Smacker33

Keep chirpin’. Go Penguins.

Pittsburgh, The AHL

Dustin’s Return

Comments Off on Dustin’s Return Posted by on July 12, 2011

Announced today that Dustin Jeffrey was re-signed to a two-year contract.

First year of the contract is a two-way contract and the second is a one-way.

Big debate on the Twitter side whether Jeffrey needs to clear waivers in order to be sent down.* There are a lot of factors. Age, years of service, injury, etc. I have no idea if he needs to clear.

Finally, please vote if you haven’t already in the poll to the upper right of your screen. Thank you, and Go Penguins!

* – edit: He does.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Free Agent Frenzy Update

Comments Off on Free Agent Frenzy Update Posted by on July 6, 2011

Business is slowing down a bit as the pieces for next year are slowly falling into place. Monday things were pretty quiet. Tuesday and today some minor moves, here they are:

Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre / Scranton:

  • Alexandre Picard. No, not number 37 on Bombulie’s list, Alexandre Picard from the Montreal Canadiens. He was signed to a two way deal. Bombulie speculated that Picard could very well be sent down to Wilkes-Barre because of the fact that Pittsburgh has all seven defensemen back from last year all on one-way contracts. I also saw on Twitter that Picard could be brought into Wilkes-Barre to mentor young defensemen like Robert Bortuzzo, Brian Strait, Philip Samuelsson and Simon Despres. If so, that would be huge.
  • You know about Brad Thiessen re-signing from yesterday. Penguins color guy Scott Stuccio caught up with Brad today. You can also follow Scott on Twitter now @ScottStuccio
Anaheim / Syracuse:
  • Bryan Rodney. You may remember him as the Charlotte Checkers captain from last year. Our blogging pals over at Chairman How’s Glorious Army have more on Bryan Rodney.
  • Jean-Francois Jacques. You may remember Jacques here in Wilkes-Barre when we split the affiliation with Edmonton. J-F hasn’t seen AHL ice in a few years, but he is on a two-way so he could get sent down so it’s worth noting here.
Tampa Bay / Norfolk:
  • Eric Nielson and Cory Conacher. Depth guys signed to AHL contracts.
  • Tom Pyatt. Another NHLer for the most part last year signed to a two-way contract. If he gets sent down, look out. I am really impressed with the Admirals off-season acquisitions.
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Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Thiess in the Crease

Comments Off on Thiess in the Crease Posted by on July 5, 2011

Pittsburgh announced today that 2010-2011 AHL Goaltender of the Year Brad Thiessen will be back “in the crease” in 2011-2012.

The rest of the East Division has been put on notice.

Let’s Go Pens.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Who is the New Guy?

Comments Off on Who is the New Guy? Posted by on June 26, 2011

The NHL Draft was this past weekend. I am no draft guru of any kind, so if you are looking for me to provide you with draft analysis on winners and losers you have come to the wrong place.

Anyway, the Pens drafted five guys this past weekend. Here, you can find info on all five in this one tidy blog post.

In the first round, the Pens went with defenseman Joe Morrow from the Portland Winterhawks out of the Western Hockey League. (WHL)

  • Pittsburgh had a nice Q & A with Morrow (in it’s Penguins Report, you have to scroll a bit to see it and it is not really a Pittsburgh interview, but rather a media scrum Q & A)
  • The draft experts over at Faceoff Factor have the scouting report on Morrow.
  • Bombulie with a blurb about the logic on taking a defensemen when it would appear the cupboard is stacked with depth and talent at the position.
In day two, the Pens selected another defenseman in Scott Harrington from the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League in round two. In round five they selected Dominik Uher, a center from the Spokane Chiefs from the WHL. In the sixth round they selected Josh Archibald, a high-schooler from Minnesota who plays left wing. In the seventh and final round the Pens selected Scott Wilson, a center from Georgetown out of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.
  • Here are capsules on those four from the Pens website.
  • Bombulie again, with blurbs on the four as well as a nice thumbnails on all five players drafted.

Whether or not the above five will ever be relevant in Wilkes-Barre remains to be seen. A lot can happen in between draft day and when the decision is made to sign these guys.

Meanwhile, on more pressing matters, the deadline for Restricted Free Agents to get qualifying offers is tomorrow at 5. Dustin Jeffrey, Joey Haddad, Brad Thiessen and Tyler Kennedy are Pittsburgh’s RFAs. Nothing official I have seen anywhere on these guys re-signing with Pittsburgh…yet. If these guys do not get offer sheets from Pittsburgh by 5 tomorrow they then become unrestricted free agents. If I were to guess the order of importance as to who gets offers is as follows. 1) Dustin Jeffrey, 2) Brad Thiessen, 3) Joey Haddad, 4) Tyler Kennedy.

We will see. Stay tuned.

Pittsburgh

Oh Captain, My Captain

Comments Off on Oh Captain, My Captain Posted by on June 13, 2011

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Forward and Captain Ryan Craig has re-signed with Pittsburgh today. It is a one year, two-way contract.

Big re-signing for WBS. I am expecting another crop of big name free agents to be signed by Wilkes-Barre after July 1. Now that we already have our Captain locked up, we can focus on adding pieces to make us as good or better than last year.

Business is picking up.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

Hynes / Nasreddine Extended 6/7

Comments Off on Hynes / Nasreddine Extended 6/7 Posted by on June 7, 2011

Good news out of Pittsburgh today advising that Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Head Coach John Hynes and Assistant Coach Alain Nasreddine were signed to multi-year extensions today.

Pittsburgh presser here. Wilkes-Barre’s here.

No brainer here. Coach of the Year with the best team. Hynes was in his first year of professional head coaching, was given a dynamite team and ran wire-to-wire from the beginning of the AHL regular season to the end of it. Best record ever in the history of the franchise. Sent five guys to the All-Star Classic in Hershey. If Pittsburgh didn’t re-sign he and Nasreddine there would have been many unhappy people.

So far, you have Zach Sill the grinder who has some offensive polish and Nick Johnson who is a proven scorer at this level back for next year. With the young core of existing players and the promising freshmen coming in next year, now that the coaching staff is in place good things are happening on Coal Street.

And the summer and free agent frenzy hasn’t even started yet. I hate to abuse this term, but get your popcorn ready.

Go Penguins.

Pittsburgh, WBS

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