Chirps from Center Ice

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

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 24, 2011

Like that David Bowie song from the 70’s, the AHL landscape of affiliation swaps is a changin’.

I stayed tuned to the news today on the Twitter side, and it looks like everything is into place. Things can change, but I am cavalier enough and confident enough in whom I follow and whom they retweet to offer the following table:

AHL Team	Old Parent Team	New Parent Team
Rochester Americans	Florida Panthers	Buffalo Sabres
Portland Pirates	Buffalo Sabres	Phoenix Coyotes
Chicago Wolves	Atlanta Thrashers*	Vancouver Canucks
San Antonio Rampage	Phoenix Coyotes	Florida Panthers?**

* – The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and will be named the Winnipeg Jets, who will affiliate with the new, yet to be named St. John’s, Newfoundland team.

** – Tampa Bay and Norfolk are not breaking up, and San Antonio and Florida are the last teams standing without affiliations, with all other teams currently spoken for.

The AHL

The Center of Defense

Comments Off 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.

Again, these names were picked off of the Jonathan Bombulie list of the top AHL free agents. I’m playing the lottery if Wilkes-Barre nabs one of the above guys by the way.

The AHL, WBS

A Walking Case of Lerg

Comments Off 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:

Welcome back, gentlemen.

Let’s Go Pens!

video credit: WBS Penguins YouTube

WBS

Backing up Brad

2 Comments Posted by nafsnep on June 22, 2011

Keeping with yesterday, I present you my wish list for a backup goaltender based off of the AHL free agent list Jonathan Bombulie presented yesterday. As we all know, John Curry is off to Germany. Mattias Modig and Patrick Killeen are not, in my opinion, ready for the AHL backup role yet. So Wilkes-Barre is in the buyers market for a dependable backup.

Thiessen’s backup is expected to see 15-20 games next year in my opinion. Pittsburgh is molding Thiessen into Marc-Andre Fleury’s backup for 2012-2013, so they want Thiessen to see the lion share of work in net this upcoming season. This is because of the schedule reduction in the AHL from 80 games to 76 and the elimination of three games in three nights. If you are a goaltender under the age of 25, you aren’t signing on with WBS to sit behind reigning AHL goaltender of the year Brad Thiessen. So anyone 25 or younger was eliminated.

So here is my wish list, presented in no particular order:

Name	Age	10-11 Stats	Blurb
Joey MacDonald, GR	30	20 GP, 10-9-1 2.78 GAA, 0.894 SV%	Put up halfway decent numbers for a mediocre Grand Rapids team. What would have his numbers looked like if he was with us last year?
Barry Brust, BNG	27	52 GP, 29-19-2, 2.53 GAA, 0.925 SV%	Was really brought in last season to play backup, but due to injuries and such ended up being the B-Sens number one.
Tyler Weiman, MTB	27	29 GP, 15-10-2, 2.26 GAA, 0.909 SV%	Backed up All-Star Eddie Lack last year. If I was forced to choose who on this list I want the most, Weiman is it
Nathan Lawson, BRI	27	16 GP, 6-5-4, 2.90 GAA, 0.913 SV%	Was on a goaltending merry-go-round in Bridgeport and I think if memory serves was dinged up a bit. Would probably be my last option, but JB had him #43 on his list.
Matt Climie, SA	28	55 GP, 26-22-3, 2.64 GAA, 0.913 SV%	Not bad numbers considering the team in front of him finished seventh in the West Division this year.
Hannu Toivenen, RFD	27	49 GP, 21-16-4, 2.90 GAA, 0.907 SV%	Split time with Alec Richards in net on a bad IceHogs team last year. Fits the “backup goaltender” role to a tee in my opinion.
Jason Bacashihua, LE	28	42 GP, 23-16-3, 2.29 GAA, 0.917 SV%	Was Lake Erie’s number one last year on a team that took the Moose to seven games in the playoffs this year.

My guess is that Wilkes-Barre nabs one of these guys. All the other names on the Bombulie list either don’t fit the criteria, will most probably get offers overseas or as backup with an NHL team, bad news or too old in my opinion to be included on this list.

Tomorrow I will finish off the list by splitting up centers and defensemen.

The AHL, WBS

Summer Reading

2 Comments Posted by nafsnep on June 21, 2011

WBS Penguins beat writer Jonathan Bombulie dropped his annual Top AHL Free Agent list this evening. Usually limited to just the Top 50 free agents, Bombulie expanded his research to 200. A few guys signed with teams overseas, so his 200 was whittled to 192.

An absolutely terrific read and a must if you are a hardcore AHL geek like me.

I went through all 192. Then, I eliminated the defensemen, goaltenders and centers because Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre has a plethora of bodies at those positions. What was left and examined was right and left wingers. I analyzed the top 10 on the Twitter side, but I want to share this with the blog readers in case you think of Twitter what I think of Facebook.

Of note, the top four on this list here are Bombulie’s original top 4.

1	Alexandre Giroux	True tweener who has never been given a hard look at the NHL level. Just what WBS is looking for, but he may be looking NHL only or Europe.
2	Mark Mancari	Much like Giroux, is a tweener but Mancari saw more time in the NHL than Giroux. May also be looking NHL only or may defect to Europe.
3	Ryan Keller	Bingo’s captain. Depending on what Ottawa does, he could re-sign, but as Giroux and Mancari before him may be looking NHL only or overseas.
4	Andrew Gordon	Of these top four, the one guy I would love seeing in a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton uniform and one I do not see defecting overseas. Instantly would become WBS’ top prospect at forward. If I am Pens brass do I want to do this to my existing players though?
5	Colin McDonald	Scored an AHL high 42 goals this year. In today’s AHL, that kind of production will land you a one way with an NHL team someplace, I would guess.
6	Robbie Earl	Picture this speedy winger killing your penalties or leading a 2 on 1 rush.
7	Graham Mink	Lots of people around the Wyoming Valley would not mind seeing this ex-Bear around these parts. If Tangradi is considered graduated to Pittsburgh, Mink can easily fill the power forward role.
8	Brett Sterling	He is not re-signing with Wilkes-Barre in my opinion. I would be in shock if he was brought back.
9	Brian Willsie	Hershey will make a huge push to bring him back. He performed well for them this year. Of this list, probably the one player who returns to his former team.
10	Jason Jaffray	Had a cup of coffee with Pittsburgh / Wilkes-Barre years ago. He won’t sign here.

Further polishing of the Bombulie list will be had as the July 1 free agent market opens.

We will see who among the top 10, 25 and 50 Wilkes-Barre signs and for that matter what our opponents within the division do as well.

The AHL, WBS

This & That 6/20

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 20, 2011

No real updates big enough to fill out a regular blog post, so here are a bunch of one line topics in bullet format:

Andrew Hutchinson may be off to Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) which is Russia’s highest level of professional hockey. This link in Russian has the story. I’m not going to play fun with Babelfish on this one because it is not official. Those cavalier enough who want to, can.
Jonathan Bombulie caught up with John Curry on his decision to play in the DEL next season.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have a new assistant coach who is a familiar face around the Wilkes-Barre area.
The Syracuse / Anaheim affiliation doesn’t look to be going anyplace according to this tweet from Lindsay Kramer, the Crunch’s beat writer for The Post-Standard in Syracuse.
Meanwhile, the Norfolk Admirals want the Tampa Bay Lightning to stay around as the parent team. The Admirals are offering to cover some travel costs per this tweet from Mike Corcoran, who is the TBL insider for ESPN 1040 AM in Tampa, Florida.

We will see on the affiliation news. This time of year it’s still a moving target.

Finally, I was given word today that the Penguins do not credential bloggers. Therefore, I shall continue to strive to continue doing my best in bringing you Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins hockey news and views from the fan perspective.

The AHL, WBS

German Curry

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 16, 2011

John Curry is off to the DEL (same league as Steve Wagner) and signed a deal with the Hamburg Freezers according to this news on their website (all in German)

Playing “Fun with Babelfish Translate” like we love to do here at Chirps, here is the article translated from German to English:

16.06.2011 – Goal keepers John Curry for the coming DEL play time 2011/2012 under contract took Hamburg Freezers. The 27-Jährige changes from the AHL club Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to the Elbe and the back number 36 will carry. At the end of the past season „Hap of “cross-beam Memorial Award for the lowest Gegentorschnitt of a goal keeper Duos in the American Hockey League (AHL) was lent to the American of the Harry.

„John Curry was one of our first class candidates, it stood for a long time above on our list. We are glad that it decided for Hamburg Freezers “, so director of sport Stéphane Richer. „John belonged to his crew over years to the franchise of the Pittsburgh Penguins, was master goal keeper in the AHL with Wilkes Barre and regularly many plays won. It is very mobile, fast-reacting and fights with spectacular parades around each disk. We order in the coming play time now over a strong and ambitious duo. Niklas is kept further at the side of John to mature and according to ice age. We are glad that the cadre enjoys already now so well completely actual priority now the obligation of a further defender. “

After on 27 February 1984 in Shorewood (Minnesota/USA) born Curry of 2003 – 2007 years for the University OF Boston in the NCAA between the posts and apart from the Meistertitel also the choice stood to the player of the yearly 2007 to celebrate was allowed, the goal keeper changed to the Pittsburgh Penguins. At their farm team, the 180 cm large and reached 84 kg heavy Americans matured the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins equal in its premiere season to the master goal keeper and with its crew the final around the Calder Cup. Besides John Curry with the USA participated in Germany Cup and failed only in the final because of Switzerland.

In the following play time it gave its NHL debut, which penguin with 5:3 could to Cup winner Pittsburgh on 26 November 2008 for the coming Stanley win. Up to the end three further employments in that followed the season 2010/2011 national Hockey League, in addition the 27-Jährige stood in altogether 210 AHL portions for Wilkes Barre on the ice. After the play time run off Curry as well as its team colleague Brad Thiessen received the Harry „Hap of “cross-beam Memorial Award and won with the Eastern of all star the AHL all star Classic 2011. John Curry regards the Penguins record as most main round (to 103/2007 – 2011) and Playoff victories (18/2007 – 2011) altogether as well as during a main round (33/2008 2009).

„For me the step is to Europe a large challenge “, like that John Curry. „I developed in the last four years in the AHL very well and am now ready to be able to fill out such a important position in Hamburg. The Freezers arranged the feeling for me to want to really take me under contract – I would like to pay these intensive efforts back gladly with many employment and good achievements! “

Interesting that another NHL team didn’t take a pass on Curry for one more year. His time with Pittsburgh was up, he was not ever going to crack the triumvirate of Fleury-Johnson-Thiessen in net, but I am a bit stunned to see Curry just run off to Europe like that.

This all but solidifies the fact that Brad Thiessen will be signed by Pittsburgh before July 1. An AHL veteran goaltender will need to be signed by Wilkes-Barre as I do not see Patrick Killeen or Mattias Modig being relevant in Wilkes-Barre in the fall unless it is an emergency condition.

As with the news with Steve Wagner from last week, we here at Chrips from Center Ice wish John Curry well in his German endeavors.

WBS

← Older posts

Newer posts →