Chirps from Center Ice

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

Prospecting

Comments Off on Prospecting Posted by 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 Agency Catchup 7/9

Comments Off on Free Agency Catchup 7/9 Posted by on July 9, 2011

A couple of moves which could affect the East Division in the Fall. Off we go…

Tampa Bay / Norfolk:

Ottawa / Binghamton:
Anaheim / Syracuse:
  • Jeff Deslauriers. Used to play in Wilkes-Barre during the split affiliation with Edmonton a few years back.

With Andrew Gordon, Bryan Rodney, J-F Jacques, Deslauriers signed and Brian McGrattan back in the fold, the Crunch look like they are going to play dark horse this year in the East Division.

Elsewhere, the boys over at PensFans4Ever caught up with newcomer Colin McDonald.

Tomorrow, I will be running a brief blurb on development camp for the Penguins, which begins Monday. Be on the look out for that Sunday afternoon.

EDIT: No, I won’t. The Pens moved the date up a day to Tuesday. I was going off of this article. So to preserve the freshness of the blog post, I too, will be moving it up a day to Monday afternoon.

The AHL

Free Agent Frenzy Update

Comments Off on Free Agent Frenzy Update Posted by 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

Thiess in the Crease

Comments Off on Thiess in the Crease Posted by on July 5, 2011

Pittsburgh announced today that 2010-2011 AHL Goaltender of the Year Brad Thiessen will be back “in the crease” in 2011-2012.

The rest of the East Division has been put on notice.

Let’s Go Pens.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Shake It Up

Comments Off on Shake It Up Posted by on July 5, 2011

It was announced today by the AHL that there will be divisional realignment for next season. Every team will be clustered in a five team division, three divisions to a conference.

League press release here.

Wilkes-Barre remains in the East Division but loses Charlotte, Albany and Adirondack. The Checkers move to the Western Conference and the Devils and Phantoms move to the newly titled “Northeast Division.” The Pens divisional opponents remain the Norfolk Admirals, Hershey Bears, Binghamton Senators and Syracuse Crunch.

Bombulie had pre-alignment speculation up over at the Penguins Insider earlier this morning.

Playoff format goes to what the NHL has with the division winners getting the top three seeds then four thru eight based off of points. Round one of the playoffs is a best-of-five and then after that best-of-seven.

Highly speculated but not announced was the elimination of inter-conference opponents. If that is truly the case then you can say bye-bye to playing the Checkers entirely who are now in a division with the Chicago Wolves, Milwaukee Admirals, Peoria Rivermen and Rockford IceHogs. The league will release the schedule matrix later this summer. Scuttlebutt is they want to move to a balanced schedule, which would eliminate playing Western Conference teams entirely.

This alters the Free Agent Watch a bit as we no longer have to worry about what Charlotte, Adirondack and Albany sign. But, it likely means more games against the Bears, Admirals, Senators and Crunch.

Finally, please take a moment to vote in my latest poll at the top right. I am interested in how you get to this blog on a daily basis. Thank you in advance!

The AHL

Ticket to Peoria

Comments Off on Ticket to Peoria Posted by on July 4, 2011

Reported late last night, Brett Sterling is off to the St. Louis Blues / Peoria Rivermen.

Rivermen beat guy Dave Eminian caught up with Sterling.

Held out hope that Sterling would return to Wilkes-Barre on account of unfinished business. Every players dream is to play in the NHL. Sterling’s best chance in his mind is in St. Louis right now so we wish him the best of luck in his endeavors in the Gateway to the West.

The AHL

Free Agent Frenzy Day 3

Comments Off on Free Agent Frenzy Day 3 Posted by on July 3, 2011

Much lighter day today. Off we go…

Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre / Scranton:

Washington / Hershey:
  • Danny Richmond. Richmond has always been my goat on defense. I never cared for what he offered. Richmond also eats up the last veteran spot on the Bears blueline. Questionable signing from the 11-time Champions in my “I have never played hockey before” opinion. But what do I know.
Tampa Bay / Norfolk:
Elsewhere:
  • Jeff Taffe to Minnesota / Houston. Would have loved to have seen Taffe return, but he gets a great opportunity to get to play with the Wild.
  • Alexandre Giroux to the Columbus Blue Jackets / Springfield Falcons. At least it’s not in the East. Giroux gets a hefty payday too.
If anything happens on the Fourth of July, I will have it here or on Twitter. If not, stay safe!
The AHL

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