Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

Thursday Notes 6/30

Comments Off on Thursday Notes 6/30 Posted by on June 30, 2011

On the eve of the free agent frenzy, I decided to run just a few notes I have kept my eye on these past few days.  So here we go again in bullet format:

  • The Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers Nürnberg made the Chris Collins signing official on their website. It’s a very quick blurb.
  • The affiliations are all set for the AHL in 2011-2012. As we had it on Friday, you can see the listings here.
  • Michael Fornabaio from the Connecticut Post has a handy list of all restricted free agents not sent Qualifying Offers at his blog. Some NHL names whose time in the AHL is done and some high impact AHL tweeners who could make a big splash in a new city.
  • Playing off of the above list, Jonathan Bombulie fine tuned his free agent list and included those who did not receive qualifying offers.
  • Some news which can indirectly affect the Hershey Bears goaltending situation as it would appear from this tweet that Semyon Varlamov is off to the KHL. What this could mean is that Braden Holtby could be the back-up to start the season in Washington.
  • In keeping up with players to come through the WBS pipeline someday, defenseman Joe Rogalski was traded from the Sarnia Sting to the Soo Greyhounds. Jesse Marshall from Faceoff Factor tweeted me on what this means for Rogalski. Also, according to Seth Rorabaugh from Empty Netters, Tom Kuhnhackl is going to stick with his junior squad, the Windsor Spitfires, for another season.
Finally, the AHL gave its member teams six guaranteed dates this week. Wilkes-Barre has not yet announced their dates. But from what I have seen on the Twitter side from them they are looking to package the announcement on the dates with an announcement on Pensfest II. Stay tuned on that, as I will have something up here on that fairly soon, maybe as early as today.
The AHL, WBS

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Comments Off on Ch-ch-ch-changes Posted by on June 24, 2011

Like that David Bowie song from the 70’s, the AHL landscape of affiliation swaps is a changin’.

I stayed tuned to the news today on the Twitter side, and it looks like everything is into place. Things can change, but I am cavalier enough and confident enough in whom I follow and whom they retweet to offer the following table:

AHL Team Old Parent Team New Parent Team
Rochester Americans Florida Panthers Buffalo Sabres
Portland Pirates Buffalo Sabres Phoenix Coyotes
Chicago Wolves Atlanta Thrashers* Vancouver Canucks
San Antonio Rampage Phoenix Coyotes Florida Panthers?**

* – The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and will be named the Winnipeg Jets, who will affiliate with the new, yet to be named St. John’s, Newfoundland team.

** – Tampa Bay and Norfolk are not breaking up, and San Antonio and Florida are the last teams standing without affiliations, with all other teams currently spoken for.

The AHL

The Center of Defense

Comments Off on The Center of Defense Posted by on June 23, 2011

(Note: If this is your first visit to the blog today, read the news about Geoff Walker and Bryan Lerg first)

Keeping with my winger wish list from Tuesday and my backup goaltender wish list from yesterday, here is my wishlist for center and defense for the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins when the puck drops on the thirteenth season in October.

This is a scarce list. Reason being is that the Penguins are stacked with defensemen and centers already. You want to add to the already loaded corps if you are the Pens. So here goes presented in no particular order…

Centers:

Name Last Years Team Blurb
Jeff Taffe Rockford IceHogs The Ex-WBS Penguin would be welcome back with open arms after being on bad teams (Rochester / Rockford) prior to his last stint here.
Trent Whitfield Providence Bruins Believe it or not, but Wilkes-Barre made a large push at the trade deadline to acquire Whitfield. Now it has all summer…
John Zeiler Manchester Monarchs He’s from Pittsburgh, has NHL experience and played with Geoff Walker in ManchVegas. Why not?
Greg Rallo Texas Stars Had 26 goals last year at center for the Stars. No center in Wilkes-Barre had more than 19 (Ryan Craig)

Defensemen:

Name Last Years Team Blurb
Corey Potter WBS Penguins The thought here is he returns if he doesn’t get a better offer from some other team.
Troy Milam Norfolk Admirals Offensive defenseman. Led all Admirals in goals against Wilkes-Barre last year.
Nathan Paetsch Manitoba Moose Can play up front or in back. Could he be a power play quarterback? NHL experience too which can come in handy if PIT’s D corps gets depleted.
Shawn Belle OKC / Lake Erie Physical hulk of a defenseman whom, despite never seeing him play in person, I have always been intrigued by.

Again, these names were picked off of the Jonathan Bombulie list of the top AHL free agents. I’m playing the lottery if Wilkes-Barre nabs one of the above guys by the way.

The AHL, WBS

Backing up Brad

2 Comments Posted by on June 22, 2011

Keeping with yesterday, I present you my wish list for a backup goaltender based off of the AHL free agent list Jonathan Bombulie presented yesterday. As we all know, John Curry is off to Germany. Mattias Modig and Patrick Killeen are not, in my opinion, ready for the AHL backup role yet. So Wilkes-Barre is in the buyers market for a dependable backup.

Thiessen’s backup is expected to see 15-20 games next year in my opinion. Pittsburgh is molding Thiessen into Marc-Andre Fleury’s backup for 2012-2013, so they want Thiessen to see the lion share of work in net this upcoming season. This is because of the schedule reduction in the AHL from 80 games to 76 and the elimination of three games in three nights. If you are a goaltender under the age of 25, you aren’t signing on with WBS to sit behind reigning AHL goaltender of the year Brad Thiessen. So anyone 25 or younger was eliminated.

So here is my wish list, presented in no particular order:

Name Age 10-11 Stats Blurb
Joey MacDonald, GR 30 20 GP, 10-9-1 2.78 GAA, 0.894 SV% Put up halfway decent numbers for a mediocre Grand Rapids team. What would have his numbers looked like if he was with us last year?
Barry Brust, BNG 27 52 GP, 29-19-2, 2.53 GAA, 0.925 SV% Was really brought in last season to play backup, but due to injuries and such ended up being the B-Sens number one.
Tyler Weiman, MTB 27 29 GP, 15-10-2, 2.26 GAA, 0.909 SV% Backed up All-Star Eddie Lack last year. If I was forced to choose who on this list I want the most, Weiman is it
Nathan Lawson, BRI 27 16 GP, 6-5-4, 2.90 GAA, 0.913 SV% Was on a goaltending merry-go-round in Bridgeport and I think if memory serves was dinged up a bit. Would probably be my last option, but JB had him #43 on his list.
Matt Climie, SA 28 55 GP, 26-22-3, 2.64 GAA, 0.913 SV% Not bad numbers considering the team in front of him finished seventh in the West Division this year.
Hannu Toivenen, RFD 27 49 GP, 21-16-4, 2.90 GAA, 0.907 SV% Split time with Alec Richards in net on a bad IceHogs team last year. Fits the “backup goaltender” role to a tee in my opinion.
Jason Bacashihua, LE 28 42 GP, 23-16-3, 2.29 GAA, 0.917 SV% Was Lake Erie’s number one last year on a team that took the Moose to seven games in the playoffs this year.

My guess is that Wilkes-Barre nabs one of these guys. All the other names on the Bombulie list either don’t fit the criteria, will most probably get offers overseas or as backup with an NHL team, bad news or too old in my opinion to be included on this list.

Tomorrow I will finish off the list by splitting up centers and defensemen.

The AHL, WBS

Summer Reading

2 Comments Posted by on June 21, 2011

WBS Penguins beat writer Jonathan Bombulie dropped his annual Top AHL Free Agent list this evening. Usually limited to just the Top 50 free agents, Bombulie expanded his research to 200. A few guys signed with teams overseas, so his 200 was whittled to 192.

An absolutely terrific read and a must if you are a hardcore AHL geek like me.

I went through all 192. Then, I eliminated the defensemen, goaltenders and centers because Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre has a plethora of bodies at those positions. What was left and examined was right and left wingers. I analyzed the top 10 on the Twitter side, but I want to share this with the blog readers in case you think of Twitter what I think of Facebook.

Of note, the top four on this list here are Bombulie’s original top 4.

 

1 Alexandre Giroux True tweener who has never been given a hard look at the NHL level. Just what WBS is looking for, but he may be looking NHL only or Europe.
2 Mark Mancari Much like Giroux, is a tweener but Mancari saw more time in the NHL than Giroux. May also be looking NHL only or may defect to Europe.
3 Ryan Keller Bingo’s captain. Depending on what Ottawa does, he could re-sign, but as Giroux and Mancari before him may be looking NHL only or overseas.
4 Andrew Gordon Of these top four, the one guy I would love seeing in a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton uniform and one I do not see defecting overseas. Instantly would become WBS’ top prospect at forward. If I am Pens brass do I want to do this to my existing players though?
5 Colin McDonald Scored an AHL high 42 goals this year. In today’s AHL, that kind of production will land you a one way with an NHL team someplace, I would guess.
6 Robbie Earl Picture this speedy winger killing your penalties or leading a 2 on 1 rush.
7 Graham Mink Lots of people around the Wyoming Valley would not mind seeing this ex-Bear around these parts. If Tangradi is considered graduated to Pittsburgh, Mink can easily fill the power forward role.
8 Brett Sterling He is not re-signing with Wilkes-Barre in my opinion. I would be in shock if he was brought back.
9 Brian Willsie Hershey will make a huge push to bring him back. He performed well for them this year. Of this list, probably the one player who returns to his former team.
10 Jason Jaffray Had a cup of coffee with Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre years ago. He won’t sign here.

Further polishing of the Bombulie list will be had as the July 1 free agent market opens.

We will see who among the top 10, 25 and 50 Wilkes-Barre signs and for that matter what our opponents within the division do as well.

The AHL, WBS

This & That 6/20

Comments Off on This & That 6/20 Posted by on June 20, 2011

No real updates big enough to fill out a regular blog post, so here are a bunch of one line topics in bullet format:

  • Andrew Hutchinson may be off to Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) which is Russia’s highest level of professional hockey. This link in Russian has the story. I’m not going to play fun with Babelfish on this one because it is not official. Those cavalier enough who want to, can.
  • Jonathan Bombulie caught up with John Curry on his decision to play in the DEL next season.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have a new assistant coach who is a familiar face around the Wilkes-Barre area.
  • The Syracuse / Anaheim affiliation doesn’t look to be going anyplace according to this tweet from Lindsay Kramer, the Crunch’s beat writer for The Post-Standard in Syracuse.
  • Meanwhile, the Norfolk Admirals want the Tampa Bay Lightning to stay around as the parent team. The Admirals are offering to cover some travel costs per this tweet from Mike Corcoran, who is the TBL insider for ESPN 1040 AM in Tampa, Florida.

We will see on the affiliation news. This time of year it’s still a moving target.

Finally, I was given word today that the Penguins do not credential bloggers. Therefore, I shall continue to strive to continue doing my best in bringing you Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins hockey news and views from the fan perspective.

The AHL, WBS

New Found Land

Comments Off on New Found Land Posted by on June 10, 2011

As expected, the AHL is going back to St. John’s, Newfoundland for the 2011-2012 season as it was announced this morning.

The yet to be named AHL team will serve as the top affiliate to the yet to be named Winnipeg NHL team.

They have already put up a website and a Twitter feed which you can follow. As soon as I get anything on a beat writer I will add it to the link section on the right.

In other news…

  • Bombulie posts an excellent piece bringing his readers (including me) up to date on AHL events and news which affect WBS.
  • The boys over at Pens Fans 4 Ever sat down and talked to jack-of-all-tradesman Scott Stuccio. An insightful read to say the least.
  • Louis Robitaille has retired. Fellow AHL blogger and Albany Devils fan Tracey Lake has some good thoughts regarding the announcement.

120 days away from Opening Night! (Ugh, hurry up, time!)

The AHL, WBS

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