Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: The AHL

Fertilize the Farm

Comments Off on Fertilize the Farm Posted by on September 19, 2012

Slowly realizing that I am going to blogging up a team which plays in the highest level of professional hockey in North America this October. Due to the turmoil going on with the NHL lockout, a lot of forlorn hockey fans will be turning their eyes to the American Hockey League this fall. I’m hoping that those same fans of the Penguin variety bookmark this blog as I’ll be blogging up the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins all season long, NHL lockout or not.

Also, shout out to all of my other AHL fan bloggers for being the place to go for pro hockey this fall, barring an 11th hour Hail Mary by the NHL and NHLPA.

Anyway, gobs of talent headed to the AHL this fall. Here’s a list (basically for my own reference) of NHL send downs for every team in the AHL East Division. Please note that these lists do not include eligible players who are likely to sign AHL deals later this month. (i.e. for WBS, Eric Tangradi, Brad Thiessen, Steve MacIntyre)

Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre

Beau Bennett
Brian Gibbons
Tom Kuhnhackl
Jayson Megna
Adam Payerl
Zach Sill
Paul Thompson
Dominik Uher
Keven Veilleux
Philippe Dupuis
Benn Ferriero
Riley Holzapfel
Warren Peters
Trevor Smith
Simon Despres
Brian Dumoulin
Reid McNeill
Joe Morrow
Philip Samuelsson
Carl Sneep
Alex Grant
Dylan Reese
Patrick Killeen

Note: I expected all of these names to play in Wilkes-Barre at some point during this upcoming season sans lockout.

Washington / Hershey

Mike Carman
Stanislav Galiev
Garrett Mitchell
Danick Paquette
Mattias Sjogren
Matt Clackson
Zach Hamill
Ryan Potulny
Ryan Stoa
Brett Flemming
Tomas Kundratek
Dmitry Orlov
Cameron Schilling
Dustin Stevenson
Kevin Marshall
Patrick McNeill
Garrett Stafford
Brandon Anderson
Philipp Grubauer
Braden Holtby
Dany Sabourin

Note: Braden Holtby back with the Chocolate and White. Look for him and Dany Sabourin to tend the nets in Hershey with Brandon Anderson and Philipp Grubauer getting bounced down to ECHL Reading.

Tampa Bay / Syracuse

J.T. Brown
Cory Conacher
Brett Connolly
Danick Gauthier
Alex Hutchings
Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn
Vladimir Namestnikov
Ondrej Palat
Richard Panik
J.T. Wyman
Mark Barberio
Radko Gudas
Dmitry Korobov
Charles Landry
Dan Milan
Riku Helenius
Pat Nagle
Dustin Tokarski

Note: Large core group of last years Norfolk team going to be running amuck in the Salt City.

Anaheim / Norfolk

Frederik Andersen
Igor Bobkov
Josh Brittain
Mat Clark
Marco Cousineau
Corey Elkins
Emerson Etem
Jordan Hendry
Peter Holland
Matt Kennedy
Ryan Lasch
Hampus Lindholm
Brandon McMillan
John Mitchell
Kyle Palmieri
Devante Smith-Pelly
Sami Vatanen
Chris Wagner

Note: Anaheim prospects were trending upward late last season in Norfolk. Look for that trend to continue on Hampton Roads this Fall.

Ottawa / Binghamton

Andre Benoit
Jared Cowen
Stephane Da Costa
Tyler Eckford
Eric Gryba
Nathan Lawson
Jakob Silfverberg
Mika Zibanejad

Note: This list is is shorter because Ottawa never announced who they were sending to Binghamton. Here’s a list of Binghamton’s training camp invitees.

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Should be a fun first couple months of the season, with the eyes of the North American hockey world turned to the American Hockey League.

The AHL, WBS

Let’s Do The Waive

Comments Off on Let’s Do The Waive Posted by on September 14, 2012

NHL teams sent the calvary to their AHL clubs this afternoon on the eve of the NHL lockout. Here’s the TSN list of today’s send downs.

Pittsburgh waived Dylan Reese, Philippe Dupuis, Trevor Smith, Alex Grant, Warren Peters, Riley Holzapfel and Benn Ferriero.

Expected to sign AHL deals to Wilkes-Barre / Scranton are Eric Tangradi, Brian Strait, Robert Bortuzzo, Jeff Zatkoff and Brad Thiessen.

The AHL announced a rule today that you had to be on last years Clear Day list in order to be sent to your AHL club. All the above names I just mentioned are on the list so there will be no issues.

Here’s Jonathan Bombulie’s take on the proceedings today. Note the depth chart. Carl Sneep on the 5th D pair? Joey Mormina on the 6th? That’s some depth.

Edit: I keep forgetting that Tom Venesky from The Times-Leader has a blog. Here’s his entry from yesterday. His note about the uncertainty of Keven Veilleux is disconcerting.

Turning my attention south, Washington sent 21 guys to Hershey. Biggest name on that list in my mind is one Braden Holtby. He makes the Bears a heck of a lot better than they were (as if they weren’t already good to begin with).

Without a lockout, the AHL maybe has 8 or 10 teams which are truly elite. With a lockout, that number bloats to 12-15. The Penguins in my mind are without a doubt on that first list, but they just received a ton of company this afternoon.

In other news…

–> Here’s a couple of articles on what a lockout will do for the AHL.

–> My blog pals PensFans4Ever had a great interview with Joe Ernst, who is the Vice President of Hockey Operations for the ECHL.

–> I played radio with my good friend Bob Howard from the Power Play Post Show. I’m about forty minutes in. If you can, listen to the whole thing. Bob puts a ton of work into his show and I really appreciate him having me on again this year.

Have a great weekend.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

The Sweet Smell of Potpourri

Comments Off on The Sweet Smell of Potpourri Posted by on September 12, 2012

I just have a few things to blog about as they have been boiling in the blog kettle for a couple of days now. Here you go:

–> Jonathan Bombulie has some blog competition. No, not me, I don’t consider myself competition. Tom Venesky from The Times-Leader. Here’s the link. I have also added Twitter-less Tom to the blogroll to the left.

–> The confusion over the long term status of Nick Petersen is no more. He was placed on $125 unconditional waivers Tuesday, and cleared Wednesday. His days in a Penguins jersey are over. I’m not going to speculate here as to what happened to Petersen’s demise, because simply I don’t know.

–> The aforementioned Bombulie has been doing work regarding rookie Q & A blog updates. Here’s Joe Morrow, Dominik Uher, Jayson Megna and Tom Kuhnhackl.

–> Pittsburgh signed Derrick Pouliot and Olli Maata to entry-level contracts today.

–> I mentioned last week the new Penguins video board that will debut at Mohegan Sun Arena this October. The Penguins posted pictures. Here they are:

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(Photo credit: @WBSPenguins twitter feed)

–> The Arena itself is expanding by 20,000 square feet. It’ll be a two year phase-in adding dining options.

–> Tim Leone from the Harrisburg Patriot-News ran a Q & A feature of his own recently. His interviewee should be a familiar voice to Penguins fans.

31 days to the Penguins first regular season game in Binghamton, NY. The AHL Previews are coming together nicely as well. Stay tuned to the blog, Twitter and Facebook for more information as to when those will be rolled out!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

PHOTOS: 2012-2013 Wilkes-Barre Third Jersey

Comments Off on PHOTOS: 2012-2013 Wilkes-Barre Third Jersey Posted by on September 7, 2012

Yours truly attended PensFest this afternoon. Normally the Penguins give fans at the ‘Fest a look at the third jersey for the upcoming season. I took some pictures of them. Pictures take up a lot of space, so click through the jump to see:

Read more of this post

The AHL, WBS

2012-2013 AHL Center Ice Season Ticket Prices

Comments Off on 2012-2013 AHL Center Ice Season Ticket Prices Posted by on September 6, 2012

Here’s the yearly look at what a center ice ticket will cost you for one season in the AHL. I’m going in alphabetical order this year. The Canadian teams are presented as is, figure out the conversion rate to the U.S. Dollar if you want to take it that far.

Here you go:

Abbotsford – $1,184

Adirondack – $790

Albany – $630

Binghamton – $555

Bridgeport – $1,026

Charlotte – $896

Chicago – $720 (38 games for the price of 30, with a bunch of cool benefits)

Connecticut – $898.70

Grand Rapids – $836

Hamilton – $570

Hershey – $645

Houston – $1,026

Lake Erie – $950

Manchester – $760

Milwaukee – $690

Norfolk – $600

Oklahoma City – $1,100

Peoria – $779

Portland – $570

Providence – $580

Rochester – $456 (existing season ticket holders get them for $418)

Rockford – $680

San Antonio – $779

Springfield – $684

St. John’s – $1,156.34

Syracuse – $580

Texas – $850

Toronto – $1,178 or $988

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton – $800

Worcester – $550

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Wilkes-Barre’s tickets are a little pricey when compared to the rest of the league collectively and $155 more than any other team in the East Division. The Penguins will tell you that you get to park for free, and that is figured into the overall price of the ticket. I’d still like to get more of a breakdown as to why they are as high as they are compared to the other division teams and the AHL as a whole. If I ever do, I’ll have a follow-up here on the blog.

The AHL

On Tangradi, Bortuzzo, Grant and Strait

Comments Off on On Tangradi, Bortuzzo, Grant and Strait Posted by on August 30, 2012

I figured there is a faction of the people who frequent this blog (read: Hi Mom!) that don’t use Twitter and Facebook and didn’t see the news that Pittsburgh made official today the re-signing of forward Eric Tangradi, defensemen Robert Bortuzzo, Alex Grant and Brian Strait.

So now you know.

Not surprised about the signings. Relieved to hear about Grant because depending on who you talked to there was a chance that he wasn’t going to re-sign here. (or simply balderdash)

Just saw something regarding Sidney Crosby possibly playing in Europe if (when) there is a lockout in the NHL. Perhaps this is my blind homerism shining through, but why not the AHL? Forget about waivers and whether he is allowed to play or not. If there is a will, there is a way. Not that Crosby riding busses to Hershey and Binghamton would ever happen. (it wouldn’t)

Moving on…

My blog pals at Sweetest Hockey on Earth have a photoblog of the new Bears colors. Did some research on fan reactions on the color changes and it’s about an 80/20 split for vs. against.

But for other signings, teams changing colors or otherwise, have a nice Labor Day weekend!

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Updating Old News

2 Comments Posted by on August 29, 2012

Two things were brought to my attention yesterday:

1) The Penguins have added a bunch of additions to the promotions list I blogged about last week. Now included are things like “Go Green” night, a Penguins scarf giveaway and something called Social Media Night. I’m social media. Wonder what this is about? Will find out quick as it is Friday, October 26 vs. Rochester.

2) Mohegan Sun Arena is apparently getting a new scoreboard and LED ribbon stripping between the lower and upper levels. That article was from May. Don’t know how I missed this.

A couple of housekeeping items outside of Coal Street…

— The Norfolk Admirals have a new ECHL affiliate in the Fort Wayne Komets.

— Hershey’s got a new look. This video explains it. The mascot Coco trimmed down, too.

Heard a flock of geese over the Chirps from Center Ice headquarters clucking it up, undoubtedly flying south for the summer. Hockey is getting close.

The AHL, WBS

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