Chirps from Center Ice

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

Which Street is it on? Ben Street

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 14, 2011

Wilkes-Barre is active in the transactions pages lately as the team tweeted this afternoon that it has come to terms with forward Ben Street on a one-year AHL contract.

Team presser here.

Wilkes-Barre seems to be re-loading a bit, having re-signed team captain Ryan Craig yesterday. Look for AHL goaltender of the year Brad Thiessen to re-sign very soon as well as defenseman Corey Potter. Then, come July 1 when free agency begins, another big name crop of hired guns.

Yep, business is picking up.

WBS

Oh Captain, My Captain

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 13, 2011

Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Forward and Captain Ryan Craig has re-signed with Pittsburgh today. It is a one year, two-way contract.

Big re-signing for WBS. I am expecting another crop of big name free agents to be signed by Wilkes-Barre after July 1. Now that we already have our Captain locked up, we can focus on adding pieces to make us as good or better than last year.

Business is picking up.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pittsburgh, WBS

New Found Land

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 10, 2011

As expected, the AHL is going back to St. John’s, Newfoundland for the 2011-2012 season as it was announced this morning.

The yet to be named AHL team will serve as the top affiliate to the yet to be named Winnipeg NHL team.

They have already put up a website and a Twitter feed which you can follow. As soon as I get anything on a beat writer I will add it to the link section on the right.

In other news…

Bombulie posts an excellent piece bringing his readers (including me) up to date on AHL events and news which affect WBS.
The boys over at Pens Fans 4 Ever sat down and talked to jack-of-all-tradesman Scott Stuccio. An insightful read to say the least.
Louis Robitaille has retired. Fellow AHL blogger and Albany Devils fan Tracey Lake has some good thoughts regarding the announcement.

120 days away from Opening Night! (Ugh, hurry up, time!)

The AHL, WBS

Auf Wiedersehen, Steve Wagner

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 9, 2011

Steve Wagner is off to Germany according to this release (in German) from the Adler Mannheim Eagles of the DEL. (German Hockey League)

Whenever I get to translate hockey press releases from another language to English I always jump at the opportunity. So translated from German to English, here goes:

Eagles take Steve Wagner under contract

09. June 2011

The eagles took the American Steve Wagner under contract. On 6 March 1984 born defender changes of the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to the eagles.

Wagner denied the past one and a half seasons with the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL and completed in this time 101 plays. During the season 2009/10 it changed of Peoria Rivermen to the league competitor.

Steve Wagner denied into the NHL 46 plays for the pc. Louis Blues and obtained thereby four gates and prepared eight further. In the AHL completed it altogether 241 plays for the two clubs Peoria Rivermen and Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins specified above.

Wagner signed an a annual contract with the eagles.

Wagner leaves behind a Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins team in which he played 69 regular season games going 5-23-28 and a +16. He will most be remembered in the minds of many in Wilkes-Barre for his Game 6 playoff performance in Round 1 against the Norfolk Admirals, where he recorded a hat trick.

I would like to thank good friend Siena Slusser for the information which led to this news.

We here at Chirps from Center Ice wish Wagner the best in his German endeavours.

WBS

Congratulations

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 7, 2011

Congratulations are in order to the Binghamton Senators, winners of the 2010-2011 Calder Cup Playoffs in the AHL’s 75th year of existence.

The East Division’s fifth place team who crossed over into the Atlantic Division and vanquished the Manchester Monarchs in seven games in Round 1, six games needed to defeat the Portland Pirates in Round 2, a four game sweep of the Charlotte Checkers in the Eastern Conference Finals for Round 3 and defeated the Houston Aeros in six games tonight in Game 6 by a 3-2 score tonight via two power play goals in the third period.

It is the city’s first ever Calder Cup in 29 years of being a tenant to an AHL franchise.

Robin Lehner, who by all accounts will most likely be back in between the pipes next year for the B-Sens, was named playoff MVP.

Congrats to the city of Binghamton, one of my favorite cities to visit on the road. Now, they become the team to beat next year.

The AHL

Hynes / Nasreddine Extended 6/7

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 7, 2011

Good news out of Pittsburgh today advising that Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins Head Coach John Hynes and Assistant Coach Alain Nasreddine were signed to multi-year extensions today.

Pittsburgh presser here. Wilkes-Barre’s here.

No brainer here. Coach of the Year with the best team. Hynes was in his first year of professional head coaching, was given a dynamite team and ran wire-to-wire from the beginning of the AHL regular season to the end of it. Best record ever in the history of the franchise. Sent five guys to the All-Star Classic in Hershey. If Pittsburgh didn’t re-sign he and Nasreddine there would have been many unhappy people.

So far, you have Zach Sill the grinder who has some offensive polish and Nick Johnson who is a proven scorer at this level back for next year. With the young core of existing players and the promising freshmen coming in next year, now that the coaching staff is in place good things are happening on Coal Street.

And the summer and free agent frenzy hasn’t even started yet. I hate to abuse this term, but get your popcorn ready.

Go Penguins.

Pittsburgh, WBS

Monday Notes 6/6

Comments Off Posted by nafsnep on June 6, 2011

Not much these days to tweet about. This is the last week of AHL hockey as Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals is tomorrow. The Binghamton Senators can close out the Houston Aeros with a win tomorrow in Texas. If the Aeros win, Game 7 will be played Thursday from the Toyota Center.

Why these Calder Cup games are not on television, is beyond me.

Elsewhere, as per Dmitry Chesnokov, Pens goaltender Alexander Pechurskiy is headed back to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Per Chesnokov, he is headed to Metallurg Magnitogorsk who owns his rights.

Finally, Hershey announced today that they re-signed Boyd Kane for another year to another AHL deal. Kane has scored 48 goals in the past two seasons. However, Kane was a 2-1-3 and a -7 vs. WBS this year in 9 games.

Let’s Go Pens!

The AHL, WBS

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