Chirps from Center Ice

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

Category Archives: WBS

Brad’s Backup

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 13, 2011

Announced today that the Pittsburgh Penguins signed goaltender Scott Munroe to a one year NHL contract. It is anticipated that Munroe will backup Brad Thiessen in Wilkes-Barre.

Munroe spent last year in the KHL where he appeared in 31 games and had a 9-12-2 record with a 3.03 GAA and a 0.896 SV%. Before that he spent a year with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers where he had a 19-16-3 record with a 2.52 GAA and a 0.920 SV%.

I expect Munroe to see 25-30 starts this season behind Thiessen. He will have probably the best team he has ever had in front of him, so we will see how he fares.

The bottom line at the end of the day is whether or not Scott Munroe is seen as an upgrade over Patrick Killeen and on par with what John Curry was as Thiessen’s back up with a good team in front of him. Time will tell.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Best of What’s Available

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 13, 2011

We are about two weeks into free agency and a majority of the big names are signed with new teams. I have chronicled who has signed with our East Division brethren throughout the month. For a refresher, simply scroll down on the page and click “older posts” at the bottom left.

Wilkes-Barre is still in need of ~~a goaltender and~~ ** either a power forward or a center or maybe both, depending on whom you talk to. So I decided to go through Bombulie’s list again and come up with a top ten of “best of what’s available” at the center / wing and goaltending position, in no particular order:

Name	Position	Blurb
Robbie Earl, HOU	RW	I had him on my list a few weeks ago. Speedy guy who can kill penalties and lead a rush.
John Zeiler, MCH	C	Another from my initial list. From Pittsburgh area and an ex-teammate of Geoff Walker.
Paul Szczechura, NOR	C	I’m probably the only one in Wilkes-Barre save for Bombulie or anyone on Coal Street who can spell Szczechura without having to look it up.
Tim Wallace, WBS	RW	Why not? Two different schools here. One side says if he didn’t re-sign initially he was gone, the other say the longer he isn’t signed the more likely he is to come back.
~~Carter Hutton, WOR~~	G	~~Bombulie had him at 212 on his list. Unqualified RFA. It is a guy like this that Wilkes may be pursuing and not someone like…~~ **
~~Tyler Weiman, MTB~~	G	~~Tops on this wish list from a few weeks ago. Shocked that he has not signed yet. If Pittsburgh wants to add a fourth goalie to an NHL deal to push Thiessen on the farm, he’d be the perfect fit.~~ **
Denis Hamel, ADK	LW	Ageless wonder. Started last season without an AHL team. Phantoms sign him and nearly turn their season around. 66 games and 50 points at 34 years old.
~~Barry Brust, BNG~~	G	~~We couldn’t beat Binghamton last year and it was in large part due to this guy.~~ **
Brandon Segal, TEX	RW	When you look up, “power forward” in the dictionary, Segal’s face is there.
~~Graham Mink, PEO~~	RW	~~When you look up, “power forward” in the encyclopedia, Mink’s face is there.~~ *

* – Mink signed with Hershey today. The rich keep getting richer.
** – three hours after this blog post published, the Pens went out and signed Scott Munroe from the KHL.

So there you have it. The natives are getting restless for ~~a backup goalie and~~ another winger / power forward. Nab one of these names, and I think it is safe to say that people will feel good about going into the 2011-2012 campaign.

The AHL, WBS

Dustin’s Return

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep 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

Stockpiling the Cabinet

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 11, 2011

Announced today that Pens defenseman Joey Mormina will be back in the fold for 2011-2012.

Wilkes-Barre is now stacked at the defenseman position. Thinking from top to bottom, the defensive depth chart looks something like this in my mind:

Alexandre Picard
Boris Valabik
Robert Bortuzzo
Brian Strait
Joey Mormina
Carl Sneep
Simon Despres
Alex Grant
Philip Samuelsson

Picard in my mind can stay up all season for all I care. Mormina never really put up flashy numbers from a points perspective (2-9-11 last season) but boasts a nice +/- (+17 this past season, +37 in 2008-09) so it is a quality re-signing. Also, Alex Grant and Philip Samuelsson would probably do well in Wheeling if Picard were to come down. I do not foresee Simon Despres being sent to Wheeling.

Elsewhere:

Washington / Hershey:

Patrick Wellar and Julien Brouillette. Wellar is a re-signing, but was a key member of that Hershey blueline. Brouillette is a non-vet defenseman from Lake Erie.
Christian Hanson. There was a grass roots effort here in Wilkes-Barre to sign Hanson, a Pittsburgh native and a center. Since everyone here in Wilkes-Barre wanted him and Hershey signed him, stings a little.

Ottawa / Binghamton:

Lee Sweatt. Defenseman from the Vancouver organization from last year. Bingo has defensemen leaving like rats to a sinking ship, so bodies on the blueline are a necessity.
Tim Conboy. Another defenseman. Played with Portland last season. Before that was with Carolina / Albany (when they were the River Rats)

As noted earlier, Pens prospect camp opens tomorrow. I have a list of players attending and brief thoughts on Eric Tangradi, Keven Veilleux, Nick Petersen and Simon Despres. Scott Stuccio is there and will be updating the masses. If an interesting tidbit arises, I will have thoughts here.

The AHL, WBS

Prospecting

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on July 11, 2011

Penguins prospect camp opens tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Here is a list of who was invited:

Forwards:

Josh Archibald
Jessey Astles
Beau Bennett
Stefan Fournier
Brian Gibbons
Jared Gomes
Tom Kuhnhackl
Nick Petersen*
Bryan Rust
Zack Sill*
Eric Tangradi*
Paul Thompson*
Dominik Uher
Keven Veilleux*
Scott Wilson
Scott Zurevinski

Defensemen:

Andrew Blazek
Nicholas D’Agostino
Simon Despres*
Alex Grant*
Scott Harrington
Reid McNeill
Joe Morrow
Joe Rogalski
Philip Samuelsson*

Goaltender:

Patrick Killeen*
Maxime Lagace
Rob Madore

I am not going to pretend to know something about all of these guys. I did add asterisks next to those you can expect to see in Wilkes-Barre at some point this season.

It’s a fish or cut bait season for Eric Tangradi. He either ends the season in the NHL with Pittsburgh, or is traded. Tomorrow is his first step. Same can be said for a guy like Keven Veilleux. He has to learn how to figure it out or else guys like Paul Thompson could jump ahead of him on the depth chart.

A guy I think is going to have a great camp is Nick Petersen. He did not look out of sorts in his 23 game apprenticeship with Wilkes-Barre last season.

If a kid like Simon Despres is as much as a pedigree as he has been hyped to be, then watch for him to have a big camp also.

Scott Stuccio will be at camp this week and will likely be proving updates throughout. I am going to keep an eye on it and it anything is recappable, I will run it here.

WBS

Free Agent Frenzy Update

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep 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