Chirps from Center Ice

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

Still Moving / Shaking

Comments Off on Still Moving / Shaking Posted by on July 16, 2012

Still a couple of moves going on in the AHL East. I’m on stay-cation this week and need a distraction from the pool, cigars and warm weather (well, I am inside in an air-conditioned environment)

Caps / Bears:

– Signed Pittsburgh native Matt Clackson. He was 1-1-2 with the Chicago Wolves last year and had 193 PIMs. He was eighth in the AHL in penalty minutes last season. Will he replace Joel Rechlicz’s role? Bigger question: will he fight Steve MacIntyre?

– Signed depth guys Scott Wietecha and David Vallorani. They were Caps prospect camp invitees.

Senators:

– Signed goaltender Nathan Lawson. Lawson was 58 on the big board and hasn’t had a save percentage less than 0.913 in the AHL in the past four seasons. He’ll back up Robin Lehner.

– Looks like Ottawa / Binghamton is done making moves. They join Tampa Bay / Syracuse as teams done adding guys in offseason.

Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre / Wheeling:

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https://twitter.com/MarvinHotham/status/224921411498680321

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The 2012 Offseason Moves list has been updated.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

That’s Benn, With Two N’s

Comments Off on That’s Benn, With Two N’s Posted by on July 13, 2012

Pittsburgh announced the signing of Benn Ferriero Friday morning. Ferriero is number 23 on Bombulie’s big board. He is a point per game guy at the AHL level and looks like a “tweener” player: top six in Wilkes-Barre, bottom six / checker in Pittsburgh.

I asked Worcester Sharks fan Darryl Hunt about Ferriero today on Twitter. Here’s what he had to say:

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I try to keep a level head on the blog and on Twitter and Facebook when it comes to the Penguins chances on anything, be it a game, a playoff series, anything.

It’s hard to not think that Wilkes-Barre is in the top two or three discussion of teams that can win a Calder Cup next season.

Hardly a guarantee. Just a casual observation. You don’t win Cups in July.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Old Faces, Same Places

Comments Off on Old Faces, Same Places Posted by on July 11, 2012

The Penguins, either the ones in Wilkes-Barre or Pittsburgh, announced the re-signing of three players today. Joey Mormina, Carl Sneep and Keven Veilleux are back and hopefully in Veilleux’s case most especially, better than ever.

Nice to have Mormina’s veteran presence back for another year for what could otherwise be seen from an outsiders point of view as a young blue line coming into 2012-13.

Prospect camp is off an running. Here are excellent write-ups and analysis from @LGP_Netwolf: Day 1 (Tuesday) and Day 2 (Wednesday)

Our rivals to the south re-signed Zach Hamill and lost Joel Rechlicz to Phoenix / Portland.

That’s all there is today. Latest always @nafsnep on Twitter.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Witless Tuesday

Comments Off on Witless Tuesday Posted by on July 10, 2012

No witty headline today. I very much apologize and hope you will read on…

Penguins in the news are Carl Sneep, re-signing per his Twitter feed and Geoff Walker signing with the Colorado Avalanche. The 2012 Offseason Moves tab / list has been updated accordingly.

Development camp is underway in Pittsburgh. Mike O’Brien will be on the scene tomorrow and will tweet updates and blog on the WBS website.*

Bears / Capitals:

– Signed Ryan Stoa, number 60 on the big board.
– Announced an exclusive ECHL affiliation agreement with the Reading Royals.
– Ex-Bear Christian Hanson joins Chris Bourque in Boston / Providence. Hanson was 40 on the big board.

Admirals / Ducks:

– Signed Corey Elkins, who was overseas last year and before that played with the Manchester Monarchs.

Binghamton / Ottawa:

– Signed Tyler Eckford, 70 on the big board, offensive defenseman and was an All-Star with Albany a few years ago.

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So, as you can see, I am scraping along here. The AHL Marketing Meetings are underway in Rochester. I’d really love to know what those guys discuss in those meetings.

* – According to Mike’s Facebook status.

The AHL, WBS

Friday Catchup 7/6

Comments Off on Friday Catchup 7/6 Posted by on July 6, 2012

Couple of things to catch up on because if I leave these go, they may already be stale by the time I blog again:

–> I touched on this in the afternoon “update” of yesterdays entry, but Pittsburgh announced its prospect camp roster for next week. Names familiar to Wilkes-Barre fans include Simon Despres, Brian Gibbons, Philip Samuelsson,  Zach Sill and Paul Thompson. Left off the roster was Patrick Killeen. I am openly wondering why. The Penguins invited three goaltenders I have never heard of, but not Killeen. Beginning of the end for him? I hope not. He really hasn’t been given a chance yet.

–> Here’s a nice article the WBS Penguins tweeted late Friday about the depth of the farm club here in Wilkes-Barre and the successes of the Penguins at the AHL level. I firmly believe that the Penguins are attracting the bigger names because of the success and the amenities / facilities afforded to the prospects coming up in the system. All that is missing is that elusive Calder Cup.

–> Syracuse is still adding bodies. Matt Taormina takes the drive southeast from Albany to Syracuse and will provide depth at defense. Tampa Bay signs goaltender Anders Lindback, which means that we can expect at least in the short term Calder Cup Champion Dustin Tokarski back in net with Riku Helenius backing up.

–> Congrats to the AHL’s Ellery Award winners. This is essentially the version of MVP for print, radio broadcasting and television.

–> Finally, I was doing some tinkering “under the hood” of the blog and noticed that Chirps from Center Ice has been viewed more than 70,000 times. Thank you to everyone who reads and interacts with me here, on Twitter and on Facebook. It is really appreciated.

Have a great weekend.

The AHL, WBS

While You Were Sleeping…

Comments Off on While You Were Sleeping… Posted by on July 5, 2012

Rare that news affecting WBS breaks when most of us (including me) are sleeping. But that is exactly what happened last night. Philippe Dupuis, number 64 on Jonathan Bombulie’s big board, has signed with the Penguins.

Dupuis is a center and looks like the classic “tweener” player in that he spent 42 games at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies and went 15-16-31 and a +12. He played 30 games with the Maple Leafs and was scoreless and a -2.

Here’s the breakdown from the aforementioned Bombulie, who apparently is more of a night owl than I, because there is a depth chart included in his posting.

Elsewhere around the East Division and the AHL…

The Bears signed Mathieu Beaudoin to a contract on Tuesday. He was an AHL All-Star with Texas a few years ago and No. 153 on the big board.

The Senators signed Hugh Jessiman Tuesday. No. 122 on the big board. Interesting that this will be Jessiman’s first stint in the AHL Eastern Conference as he has spent much of his career bouncing around in the Western Conference.

Matt Smaby stays with Anaheim on an NHL contract, but since the affiliation switched he will probably end up in Norfolk. I mention this because Smaby was on a contract to Tampa Bay a few years ago and did time in Norfolk before. By the way, he was No. 82 on the big board.

The dark horse pick for next season should be the Worcester Sharks. They signed Alex Stalock, Danny Groulx, Matt Irwin, Bracken Kearns and Jon Matsumoto. All, at one point in their careers, were AHL All-Stars.

Thursday Afternoon Update: Ryan Schnell inked with St. John’s and Syracuse signed Eric Nielson and Jared Nightengale. Also, Pittsburgh announced their prospect camp roster for next week. Notables include Simon Despres, Philip Samuelsson, Brian Gibbons, Zach Sill and Paul Thompson. Patrick Killeen was left off the list, which I find highly intriguing.

Pittsburgh, The AHL, WBS

Free Agency Update – Day 2

Comments Off on Free Agency Update – Day 2 Posted by on July 2, 2012

I’ve decided to scrap the “NHL” part of the headline because I am really not “covering” the NHL per se, simply wrapping up who did what where for their AHL farm clubs.

Pittsburgh was quiet. One other team in the East Division wasn’t. Here we go:

–> The Hershey Bears have returned fire. They re-signed Kevin Marshall and also brought in Garrett Stafford. Stafford was number 54 on Jonathan Bombulie’s big board. He is an offensive defenseman, power play quarterback type of player.

Nathan Mallett is a San Antonio Rampage fan and has seen a lot of Stafford in Texas. Here’s what he freely offered when seeing the news:

https://twitter.com/RampageNate/status/219797078744895488

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–> The Bears then dropped another big bomb by bringing in Jeff Taffe, Jon DiSalvatore, Alex Berry and Steve Oleksy to AHL only contracts today. DiSalvatore was #11 on Bombulie’s big board and Taffe was #12. Berry and Oleksy were not rated. DiSalvatore was the Houston Aeros captain and an all-star this year. Bombulie had this to say about him:

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Taffe, as you know, is a premier top line center. DiSalvatore could put 20 goals in his sleep.

Analysis: It’s an arms race. Hershey is a contender every year, as is Wilkes-Barre. Neither team is going to sit and watch the parade go by.

Bombulie also has a recap of the Bears signings today. He notes that WBS has three open vet spots available. Starting my own rumor with this next tweet. I would personally defy my own logic and start buying streamers to haul off of roofs for the Calder Cup parade if WBS went out and signed this guy, who apparently is a free agent:

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I probably have a better chance of growing a full head of hair again than seeing Keith Aucoin in a Penguins jersey. But, I can dream, can’t I?

Elsewhere:

–> Want to know more about the guys Pittsburgh signed yesterday? Click here.

–> Wheeling sent qualifying offers Chris Barton, Cody Chupp, Paul Crowder, Cam Fergus, Denver Manderson, Tim Priamo, and Zack Torquato. I’m not polished on how things work in the ECHL. I also think that Crowder signed in Europe.

–> The Syracuse Crunch revealed a new logo today.

–> Ex-WBS Penguin Chris Conner signed with the Phoenix Coyotes. The Coyotes minor league affiliate is the Portland Pirates.

–> Brandon DeFazio and Colin McDonald signed with the New York Islanders today. Ben Street signed with Calgary. Still no official news on Geoff Walker and Bryan Lerg, but it looks like Colorado for them.

–> Jonathan noted in today’s update that Wilkes-Barre has lost its top five scorers from last year. That fact takes a bit of the shine off of all the good news, no matter how you look at it.

–> The 2012 Offseason Moves Chart has been updated accordingly.

Still waiting on Norfolk, Syracuse and Binghamton to make some noise. As always, Twitter and Facebook have the latest and the blog will be updated as news warrants.

Not AHL, The AHL, WBS

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