Comments Off on Pens sign Defenseman Boris Valabik
Posted by nafsnep on July 3, 2011
I showed up late to a 4th of July party today because right when I was leaving to go, the Penguins announced that they have signed Boris Valabik to a 1 year contract.
Valabik, you will remember, was the 6’7 giant on defense for the Chicago Wolves when they defeated the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in six games in 2008.
It is a veteran signing. He will probably spend most of his time, if not all, in Wilkes-Barre. If you are content with a body on D then this is great news. If you are more analytical towards the signing and want to delve deeper into the numbers then read on.
Valabik hasn’t scored a goal since 2008-09 when he was with the Chicago Wolves. He has a grand sum total of 13 assists in AHL games since. If my math is correct, he is a -2 in those AHL games also, a sum total of 76 games since. Now, in 50 NHL games for the Atlanta Thrashers in 2008-09, he had 5 assists and was a -14. (source: HockeyDB)
These numbers are a bit concerning. There are speedy wingers in the AHL East division. Probably the most speedy in the entire AHL. I am not saying it’s a bad signing, I am just saying that I’d like to know more in what the thought process is bringing Valabik in. We / I may never know.
Bombulie had a blurb about it. Jonathan references two memorable fights which involved Valabik I went out and found:
and this one, more well known to the main stream:
Elsewhere, a very quiet day on Free Agent Movement and how it affects the East Division. Vancouver signed Bears pest Steve Pinizzotto. I’d suspect that business will pick up again Tuesday.
If anything happens tomorrow, check my Twitter feed or on the blog for a quick recap. If not, Happy 4th everyone! Stay safe.
The formatting of the way they have it over there is such that I don’t want to attempt to bring it over here, but apparently his line of business is “defender” and he is “gallant of the club” in his right. He is also the possessor of the goblet of Stanleys 2006.
Going to keep a watchful eye on the wire today. Here is another Bombulie blog update and who and what to expect in the remainder of Free Agency. Also, Bombulie has an in-print story on the newest WBS Penguin, Colin McDonald.
Day One of the NHL Free Agency Period is nearly in the books. The big NHL free agents are the hot commodities, but I kept my eyes on what went down in the AHL East Division with their parent teams. Team by team, here we go:
Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre / Scranton:
Colin McDonald from the Oklahoma City Barons. Led the AHL with 42 goals last season. This signing struck me like a Mack truck. I did not see this happening at all. I had him signing a one-way. This is big news.
Ray Shero states that this is not the market to be signing players. With about $2 million left in cap space does this mean he loads up the farm?
Washington / Hershey:
Paul Baier, a defenseman from the Rochester Americans. Fan favorite in Rochester and a Brown graduate. Not a veteran, so he solidifies them at that position.
Ryan Potulny from the Binghamton Senators. Center depth for the Bears if he doesn’t stick in Washington. Likely means the end of Andrew Gordon in Hershey.
Matt Ford from the Lake Erie Monsters. 26-16-42 for Lake Erie last season.
Michel Ouellet, who played overseas last season (ironically with the same team John Curry signed with the Hamburg Freezers) and did time in WBS many moons ago.
Elsewhere:
Edmonton signs Corey Potter. Disappointing to see Corey walk like that. Wish him well with his new team. Leaves a bit of a hole at the position but Wilkes-Barre has a plethora of talent at the position.
Hershey loses its captain, Andrew Joudrey to Columbus.
AHL observer Patrick Williams has a new job as NHL.com correspondent.
If you see any omissions from any other teams from the AHL perspective that will directly affect Wilkes-Barre, leave me a comment in the comment section. I will be back tomorrow to recap Day Two.
My thought is that Wilkes-Barre, Hershey and the heavyweights in the East Division are not done beefing up. We still need to get Brad Thiessen and Dustin Jeffrey signed. I don’t think we are done yet. Stay tuned. Business is picking up.
Comments Off on Thursday Notes 6/30
Posted by nafsnep 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.
Comments Off on Tom Sabo Traps a Penguin
Posted by nafsnep on June 27, 2011
Reports out of Germany is that Chris Collins has indeed signed a contract to play in the DEL with the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers Nürnberg for next season.
No fun with Babelfish for this one. The headline of this post is all me. Thomas Sabo is a local jeweler who bought the team from keeping it from going bankrupt.*
Best, most trusted source coming out confirming the transfer is the Augsburger Allgemeine, which is a major German regional daily newspaper published since 1945.** You can read the blurb about Collins here. (already translated to English, you are welcome)
Collins joins ex-WBS Penguin Captain Ryan Bayda and defenseman T.J. Kemp on the team next year.
Chirps from Center Ice wishes Chris Collins the best in his German endeavors.
Comments Off on The Center of Defense
Posted by nafsnep 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.
Comments Off on A Walking Case of Lerg
Posted by nafsnep on June 23, 2011
Great way to start a Thursday morning as the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins announced today that both Geoff Walker and Bryan Lerg are returning for the 2011-2012 season.
Both were signed to one year, AHL only deals.
Walker is a plugger, gritty power forward-esque type player who can fight and score goals. He is your prototypical AHLer, one who will score big goals and stand up for his teammates.
Lerg came from obscurity to legit scoring threat. He will most be remembered for this performance in March of this year:
WBS News
