Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: WBS

2015-16 Preseason Schedule Announced

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on August 6, 2015

Coal Street announced a four game preseason slate Thursday against three opponents. Here are the details:

Wednesday, September 30 at home against Lehigh Valley at 7:05
Friday, October 2 at home against Albany at 7:05
Saturday, October 3 in Hershey at 7:0
Sunday, October 4 in Allentown against Lehigh Valley at 5:00.

Venues are Mohegan Sun Arena for both Penguins home games, GIANT Center against Hershey and PPL Center against Lehigh Valley.

Ticket information will be announced at a later date.

Now, go back in your pool.

WBS

Fosters. Australian for…Who?

2 Comments Posted by nafsnep on August 3, 2015

Knowing that Jeff Zatkoff is going to be Marc-Andre Fleury’s NHL backup and the uncertainly of carrying a sophomore goalie in Matt Murray and a rookie goalie in Tristan Jarry, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins were in the market for a veteran goaltender.

There are a few names left on the Top 100 AHL Free Agent Big Board that rolled out last month. Familiar names like Rob Zepp and David Leggio and AHL veterans like John Muse, but the Penguins went in a different direction.

They signed Brian Foster.

Yes, dear reader, I had vaguely or never heard of him either. You can check out his hockeyDB page here and find that he has all of 20 games of AHL level or higher experience. The numbers are, to put it plainly, not good. The numbers in the ECHL are pedestrian at best as well.

My reaction on Twitter was met with, “well, maybe it’s a WBS signing that is really meant for (the ECHL affiliate) Wheeling.” I don’t think so. I think if it were, then it’s Wheeling that announces Foster’s signing and WBS signs him under emergency conditions only. Your goaltending tandem heading into the home opener set for October 17 in Wilkes-Barre appears to be Matt Murray and Brian Foster, barring the extraordinary.

My guess is that Pittsburgh wants Murray and Jarry to be 1A options in goal as they continue to develop. Since Wheeling doesn’t share a dual affiliation with Montreal anymore, they can have Jarry start down in the ECHL while Murray gets the load of starts in the AHL. If Jarry sets a pace at the ECHL level that Murray set in the AHL, then you probably see a swap of Foster for Jarry in the future.

Now, back to summer.

WBS

Penguins Acquire Three 7/28

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 28, 2015

Out of nowhere Tuesday, Pittsburgh announced the signing of a player and a trade for two more.

Eric Fehr was signed to a three year deal. You may remember Fehr as a Hershey Bear / Washington Capital. He’ll add center depth in Pittsburgh. He’s coming off of surgery and probably won’t be ready to start the season.

Brandon Sutter for Nick Bonino and Adam Clendening from Vancouver. Bonino is a full time NHLer, while Clendening is a depth defenseman that has played in the AHL’s Western Conference with the Rockford IceHogs and Utica Comets. Clendening was on the Comets team that went to the Calder Cup Finals against Manchester.

It’s a great move all the way around for the Pittsburgh organization because it adds much needed depth to the Pittsburgh Penguins which means some tweener NHLers like Bryan Rust, Oskar Sundqvist and Scott Wilson are competing for one or two final spots in Pittsburgh with the loser ticketed for Wilkes-Barre and top line minutes. It’s a win-win.

I think the possibility that we see Adam Clendening in a Wilkes-Barre jersey is high. I’ll go ahead and add him to the 2015 Offseason Moves List.

Nothing else of importance going on in the AHL to note so if you’ll excuse me, I am going back to enjoy my summer.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

Uher Re-Signs / New Beat

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 17, 2015

News from Friday was that Dominik Uher re-signed with Pittsburgh. Uher was the last of the qualified restricted free agents to re-sign with Pittsburgh. I think that Uher pushes for a spot on Pittsburgh’s roster, but ultimately gets sent down to Wilkes-Barre again. It would be cool if he were paired on a line with Dominik Simon, who was a 2015 Pittsburgh draft pick ready to make the jump to North America. If Wilkes-Barre were to sign another Dominik and they all played on one line, someone would dub that line, “Dominik Cubed.” or something silly like that. If the line failed to produce, you could re-name the line, “Domin-Ohs.”

Or something.

Anyway, we found out today who Jonathan’s replacement is going to be at The Citizens’ Voice. His name is Seth Lakso. He’s coming over from the Charlotte Checkers beat for The Charlotte Observer. I’m sure he’ll introduce himself to the Penguins fans in due time. If you’d like to get a jump on following Seth, you can do so @SethLakso on Twitter. His first day on the Wilkes-Barre beat will be August 9.

Have a nice weekend.

WBS

Farnham / Seymour Re-Sign 7/13

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 13, 2015

Pair of signings today.

Coal Street re-upped Clark Seymour to an AHL pact today. Seymour is heading to Pittsburgh Tuesday to partake in Development Camp 2015 and was already listed as part of the camp when the rosters were announced about a week ago, so the signing comes as no surprise. Seymour could and should challenge for a spot in Wilkes-Barre come the Fall. Alan Saunders took a stab at defensive parings:

[tweet https://twitter.com/ASaunders_PSN/status/620656449316716544]

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The other news today was that Pittsburgh signed Bobby Farnham to a one year deal. Lots of debate as to the use for a player like Farnham. Bottom line is, with Farnham being waiver eligible now and fighting and grit and sandpaper and whatever other kind of adjective you want to use to describe a player of Farnham’s caliber being phased out, I see Farnham as more of a minor leaguer than I do a full time, every day NHLer.

Question as to whether or not Farnham clears waivers if he’s placed on them, I don’t see that as an issue at all.

The 2015 Offseason Move List has been updated.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Local Kids, Guaranteed Dates, Dumo Gets Paid

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 9, 2015

Just a quick blurb to clean up some news that has been out there…

– Penguins signed Shavertown native Patrick McGrath to an AHL deal on Wednesday. McGrath appeared in two games for the Pens last season and spent most of his professional time with Wheeling of the ECHL. He told Tom Venesky in the papers that he is gunning for a spot in Wilkes-Barre in the Fall.

– Will McGrath be on the opening night roster? You only have 100 more days to find out. Coal Street announced that Saturday, October 17 will be the home opener. The AHL opens shop on their 80th season on October 9, so it is a good chance that the Penguins open up their season on the road. The schedule should be announced some time in August.

– Other guaranteed home dates as handed down by Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza are December 12, January 9, January 30, February 13 and March 26. All Saturday dates.

– Brian Dumoulin re-signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins today. He was a qualified restricted free agent. The only other outstanding unsigned qualified restricted free agents are Beau Bennett, Bobby Farnham and Dominik Uher. Dumoulin will make $1.6 million over the life of the two year contract or $800k a year. It’s a one way deal. He’s waiver eligible so I consider him graduated to full time NHL work.

The Offseason Moves List has been updated to reflect the McGrath addition and the Dumoulin re-signing.

Enjoy your summer.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Jay Leach Named Assistant Coach 7/7

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 7, 2015

Announced today that Jay Leach will join Mike Sullivan behind the bench in the Fall for the 2015-16 Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins season. Leach was named Assistant Coach today.

Leach, a defenseman by trade, was an assistant coach in Germany this past season and won the Deutsche Eishockey Liga championship.

Here’s his rap sheet…

– 499 games in the AHL during a 12 year career.
– Served as captain in four AHL cities; Providence in 2005-07, Lowell in 2008-09, Worcester in 2010-11 and with the Albany Devils in 2012-13.
– Extremely bright, hard working individual as a player.
– Not the most famous person living in his house.

Tom Venesky from the Times-Leader had some tweets…

[tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/618548321502765056] [tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/618548565233766400] [tweet https://twitter.com/TLTomVenesky/status/618548912497012736]

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I was thinking about this on my ride in from work today, the Penguins could be an even better team than they were last season and season prior, if that makes any sense and is even possible. Everything looks great on paper in July, but I have no reason to believe that come October, November, December and beyond that the Penguins will be a strong, competitive hockey team.

In other news, Pittsburgh announced their development camp roster today. Jonathan Bombulie was kind enough to put together capsules on the players involved that you can check out here.

The Top 100 names from the AHL Free Agent Big Board are nearly wiped clean. I will continue to run the board at the top of the blog for a few more days / week or so and will continue to update is as players sign.

Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I am.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

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