Chirps from Center Ice

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

Deep Farming

Comments Off on Deep Farming Posted by on July 27, 2011

Wilkes-Barre announced this afternoon that they have signed Brandon DeFazio and Andrew Hotham to AHL deals.

Hotham is a defenseman who saw American League action with Rochester last year for six games. In 109 games at St. Mary’s University in Canada playing in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport, he scored 34-114-148. He was also named Atlantic University Sport’s most valuable player.

DeFazio, you recall, played here in WBS for two games when half the forwards were up in Pittsburgh when the Penguins had all those injuries.

In July, it looks like both of these guys are destined to continue developing in Wheeling this fall and add depth to Wilkes-Barre should they need to be called upon.

Keep chirpin’. Go Penguins!

WBS, Wheeling

Center of Attention

Comments Off on Center of Attention Posted by on July 26, 2011

Announced this afternoon that Pittsburgh has signed Jason Williams to a one year, two-way contract today.

He is a veteran of 447 NHL games and is 30 years old. Looks like, to me, to be a depth signing here on the farm for Wilkes-Barre / Scranton.

You can examine his numbers over here at hockeydb.com and make your own assumptions as to whether or not Williams is an upgrade to the departed Tim Wallace who signed with the New York Islanders last week.

Chirps from Center Ice would like to thank Mr. Williams for breaking up the monotony of the slow news cycle which is the summer months on a hockey blog.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Catching Up

Comments Off on Catching Up Posted by on July 21, 2011

Here are a couple of things that have happened in the past week I wanted to cover…

  • Tying off the loose ends from last weeks prospect camp, the fellows over at Faceoff Factor had a nice recap of the Saturday scrimmage.
  • The League announced its Ellery Award winners. It is an award given for outstanding media coverage in three different areas: Print, radio and television. Tim Leone (@timleone) won for his impeccable coverage of the Hershey Bears beat. Grady Whittenburg won for his work on radio. Jamie Staton from a TV station in Manchester NH won for his work on TV. If I chose a career in media, these are men I would want to emulate. Congrats to all.
  • A couple of points defending the unbalanced schedule in the AHL from a Bears blog and from 100 Degree Hockey in Texas covering the Texas Stars. I could ramble for hours on the case for and case against on the topic. I will let you draw your own conclusions.
  • Anaheim and Syracuse are at it again this week in adding another body. This time it’s Mark Bell, who hasn’t seen North American ice since 2008-09.
  • Tim Wallace signed a contract today with the New York Islanders. It was time for Wallace to move on after coming out of nowhere undrafted five years ago. It’s going to be hard to root against Wallace no matter where he may end up. Quality human being, Wallace is.
  • Bombulie with some nice words and stats regarding Wallace.

That should bring you up to date with what has been going on in the AHL, East Division and on the farm here in Wilkes-Barre.

Keep chirpin’. Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL

Which Way to Denver?

Comments Off on Which Way to Denver? Posted by on July 20, 2011

So I wake up this morning, drive to work and fire up Bombulie’s blog only to find out that the Penguins have signed a kid by the name of Denver Manderson.

Who? Exactly. I have no idea who he is let alone have I ever heard of the name.

Jonathan had an entry on him. From the looks of things, it looks like Manderson was the setup guy for Penguins draft pick Beau Bennett. He also had some astronomic numbers playing with the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League.

Faceoff-Factor’s Jesse Marshall (@jmarshhh) who is a prospect genius of course heard of Manderson and had some quality information he tweeted last night:

  • Manderson and Bennett were great at Pencticton. Manderson can play.
  • Manderson got injured then Bennett took off to the prospect he is today. Prefacing the injury, the thought was Bennett was so good because of Manderson.
  • He is an underrated talent.
I have no idea where he projects. Could be Wheeling, could be Wilkes-Barre. This article confirms him attending Wilkes-Barre’s camp then has him in Wheeling. We’ll see.
WBS

Gimme Five and Pensfest

Comments Off on Gimme Five and Pensfest Posted by on July 19, 2011

Today the Pens finally gave us the news we have been waiting for.

Pensfest 2011 will be held at the Ice Rink at Coal Street on Friday, August 19. At Pensfest, Joey Mormina and Ryan Schnell will be on hand for autographs and pictures. Also, the new third jersey will be on display. In addition, season ticket holders can pick up their tickets for Black and Gold Game II.

The Pens also gave us the five guaranteed dates we all have been waiting for also. They are as follows:

  • Saturday, October 8, 2011
  • Friday, December 2, 2011
  • Saturday, December 17, 2011
  • Saturday, December 31, 2011
  • Friday, January 20, 2012

Opponents will be announced in a few weeks when the League releases the schedule.

Keep chirpin’. Go Penguins.

WBS

I Will Follow…

3 Comments Posted by on July 18, 2011

Nothing going on at all in WBS land or much in the East Division in the last two days.

If you haven’t figured me out by now, I love the AHL. I follow all the teams. If the team has a beat writer, I follow them. If they have radio guy, I follow. If they have a blogger, I follow. I already follow beat writers on this list and bloggers / fans on this list. But would like to expand the horizon and am in need of some help in finding people in the following AHL markets:

  • Lake Erie
  • Manchester
  • Rockford
  • Springfield
  • Worcester

Scarce list, I know, as most people have embraced Twitter. If you know of anyone, please let me know either on Twitter, in comments or via e-mail.

The AHL

Crunchy Bears

Comments Off on Crunchy Bears Posted by on July 15, 2011

Had to come up with a snazzy blog title to get you caught up on AHL moves in the East Division. Syracuse and Hershey were the only ones who have made moves since the last time I updated. So here goes:

Washington / Hershey:

  • Jacob Micflikier and Daren Machesney. The latter is a bit of a surprise, but the former is an agitator. He had a career high in points with the Charlotte Checkers (29-32-61) and adds scoring to an already loaded Bears front line. Machesney looks like the third goalie for the Bears. They will have Braden Holtby as number one, Dany Sabourin as number two. Perhaps Machesney signs and ECHL deal and is sent to the Bears affiliate in South Carolina? Surely the Bears won’t carry three goaltenders, right?
Anaheim / Syracuse:
  • Mathieu Carle. Crunch fans I follow seem to believe that this is an upgrade to their blue line. It would appear as if Syracuse is having itself a nice little offseason. Carle’s +19 was third on the Hamilton Bulldogs last year.

For those wondering about development camp, there hasn’t been any updates as to who has been impressive, who has done what or anything really. There will be a scrimmage Saturday then camp breaks. That’s about it.

The AHL

← Older posts

Newer posts →