Chirps from Center Ice

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

Gibbons is Back (or) Gibbons’ Back

Comments Off on Gibbons is Back (or) Gibbons’ Back Posted by on July 29, 2013

Announced today by Pittsburgh was the re-signing of restricted free agent Brian Gibbons. It’s a one year deal.

Gibbons has put up 30 points in his last two seasons in Wilkes-Barre. He’s probably the fastest skater on the team.

Gibbons reminds me of Tyler Kennedy. Flashes of brilliance, but never consistent.

The headline for this blog entry serves two purposes. One, to inform the reader that Brian Gibbons is indeed back for another year of Penguins hockey and two, what the opponent will hopefully see when the, “Brian Gibbons Breakaway of the Game™” appears in a future Chirps from Center Ice post game blog recap.*

The 2013 Offseason Moves List has been updated.

Some other Page Twos:

— A feature piece on the Richards brothers, who are both on their way up to the NHL. Teddy to Pittsburgh, Josh to Dallas.

— Link through the link, but Eric Hartzell is going to be paid handsomely next season.

— ECHL affiliate Wheeling re-ups with Pittsburgh – Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.

— Ottawa loves their Karlsson’s.

If anything else rolls out of the tumbler this week, I’ll have words on it. The last week of July is like a desert island for hockey news. It’s the half way point to the start of meaningful hockey again. Hopefully there’s schedule news sometime soon.

WBS

Thursday Mop Up

Comments Off on Thursday Mop Up Posted by on July 25, 2013

The signing of Peter Mannino yesterday shoved these minor topics to the back of the line. So here they are in the Thursday Summer blog update:

— Here’s Jonathan’s takeaway from the prospect / development camp from last week. Worth your time if you are always looking around the corner for the next crop of bodies to come through Wilkes-Barre.

— Washington re-signed Nicolas Deschamps.

— There’s a report out there that Scott Darling has a deal to play for the Milwaukee Admirals next season. Darling was a Wheeling Black Ace last season for Wilkes-Barre and backed up Brad Thiessen in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. the Binghamton Senators.

— Adam Payerl’s name showed up on the NHL.com site the other day. Sooner or later, I’ll be blogging about Payerl’s call up to Pittsburgh. But for now, he is going to be a valuable piece for Wilkes-Barre in the Fall.

— Corey Cowick re-signed with Ottawa. Cowick split time on the Southern Tier between Elmira of the ECHL and Binghamton.

I haven’t heard anything about the release of the AHL schedule, any preseason schedule for the Penguins or the venue for the AHL All-Star Classic yet. Twitter will have it first, then Facebook then here.

Have a great weekend if news worth blogging up doesn’t happen before or during then.

The AHL, WBS

The Curse of the Mannino*

Comments Off on The Curse of the Mannino* Posted by on July 24, 2013

Announced today was the news that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins have signed Peter Mannino to a contract for the 2013-14 campaign.

Mannino played 20 games for the Manchester Monarchs last season. He filled in sparingly for the Monarchs as Martin Jones saw the lions share of work in Manchester last season in goal.

The signing is an interesting one at best, as Pittsburgh just signed Eric Hartzell to an NHL contract. Unless there’s a competition in camp, one would project that Hartzell starts the season in Wheeling, likely starting every game he possibly can to get pro experience. I can’t see the Penguins carrying three goalies (Jeff Zatkoff being the other goalie not mentioned yet)

However, the move does make some sense in regards to the young, fairly inexperienced Wilkes-Barre blue line projected for the Fall. You now have two veteran goaltenders to backstop all the youth.

Mannino was a member of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2008-09, and their play-by-play voice Phil Giubileo chirped in with the following:

–

I do have other things in the hopper that I want to off in a future blog post. Just minor moves in and around the East Division. If no other news breaks (which I don’t expect it to) that will all roll in the Thursday Summer blog update.

* – No malice intended with this headline. You’ll probably see it again in a future game recap.

WBS

Wilkes-Barre Hartzell’s Eric

Comments Off on Wilkes-Barre Hartzell’s Eric Posted by on July 20, 2013

Well it looks like we have our goaltender for the future.

Today, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced a two year contract for Eric Hartzell. It’s actually a re-signing, as Hartzell was with Pittsburgh after his Quinnipiac Tigers reached the Frozen Four Finals in Pittsburgh earlier this year.

Outside of that, I’m not going to pretend to know anything about the kid. He’s following the footsteps of John Curry and Brad Thiessen, that is, undrafted goaltenders that Pittsburgh signs which end up in Wilkes-Barre.

Seth Rorabaugh from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a Q&A with Hartzell worth checking out. Also, Mike O’Brien had some audio from the Day 4 of Penguins development camp with Hartzell worth a listen too.

Sorry for the terrible attempt at a headline. It’s the off season for creativity too.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Mikkelson is a Penguin

1 Comment Posted by on July 19, 2013

Pittsburgh announced the signing of D Brendan Mikkelson today.

Sound familiar? He is. He’s been a certified Penguin killer. He had a big year for Syracuse this past year and killed the Penguins as a member of the Portland Pirates in 2008 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Bombulie suggests he fills the role of Dylan Reese. He figures that Wilkes-Barre could do well to get another defenseman to fill the role Joey Mormina played.

Mikkelson was #35 on the Bombulie / Cignoli Big Board. Described as a “capable depth defenseman, solid in the AHL and can fill in at the NHL level.”

That certainly helps, as eluded to yesterday by Mike O’Brien, the Wilkes-Barre blue line is very young.

So you have Chris Conner (#34 on the Big Board) Nick Drazenovic (#24) and Andrew Ebbett (#26) signed for potential Wilkes-Barre service in the Fall. In my opinion, a modestly strong offseason for the Penguins.

I updated the 2013 Offseason Moves List.

Elsewhere….

— Here’s another entry from Mike O’Brien on development camp with audio.

— Eric Majeski’s Day 4 writeup on development camp.

— The NHL schedule is out. I saw some of you commenting about how late the schedule was this year. Me? The AHL schedule won’t be out until some time in August.

— The Pittsburgh Penguins will play in the newly formed, “Metropolitan Division” which some scoffed at the ridiculousness of the name. May I suggest that the AHL’s East Division be renamed the, “Interstate 81 Division.”

Have a great weekend.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Odds and Ends

Comments Off on Odds and Ends Posted by on July 18, 2013

It’s hot in Wilkes-Barre. Officially a heat wave. Close your eyes, you think it’s the desert.

That desert also applies to the blog world.

There is not a lot out there right now. In fact, I wouldn’t even classify this as a blog post. But here’s what I scraped together though. Let’s go in the division first:

Tampa Bay re-signed J.T. Brown and Mark Barberio. Seems the Crunch are bringing back everyone they can.

Anaheim re-signed Mat Clark. Clark appeared in a team high 71 games for the Admirals last season.

Binghamton re-signed Mike Hoffman, and also extended head coach Luke Richardson and his staff.

The Bears aren’t done yet.

Pittsburgh development camp is ongoing. As always, the venerable Eric Majeski had his thoughts on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.

Mike O’Brien made it to Pittsburgh today and had a feature on the future of defense.

Chirps from Center Ice turned three on Monday. Here’s to three more years. Thank you for reading.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

It’s the Finnish Line for Brad Thiessen

2 Comments Posted by on July 15, 2013

Brad Thiessen is moving on to Finland.

After an illustrious four year career with the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins compiling a regular season record of 88-49-12-6, 2.47 GAA and a .906 SV% and a playoff record of 18-16, 2.31 GAA and a .924 SV% Thiessen is heading to HIFK in the Sm-liiga, which is the highest level of professional hockey in Finland. HIFK is a team located in Helsinki, which is the largest city and the capital of Finland.

While not surprising, the writing was on the wall from the start of the season for Thiessen with the arrival and play of Jeff Zatkoff.

Thiessen undoubtedly will go down as one of the best goaltenders to come through Wilkes-Barre and will be never forgotten for his historic Game 6 performance vs. the Providence Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals this year.

I am sure I am not alone in wishing Brad Thiessen the best in his future endeavors.

WBS

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