(Photo Credit:  NESN)

Perhaps expecting another four guys being called up to the Predators at some point this week (I kid, I kid), the Admirals have acquired Zach Hamill, on loan from the Florida Panthers.

Hamill is a 24 year old center who was drafted 8th overall by the Bruins in 2007.

This is his third AHL team this season, as he was previously traded from Washington to Florida for forward Casey Wellman.

In 66 games this season between Hershey and San Antonio, he was good for 16 goals and 24 assists, with six of those goals coming on the power play.  Those six power play goals make him now the team leader in that category for the Admirals.  And those 40 points are one off the team lead of Taylor Beck.

Tony Uminski, from the AHL beat of the My San Antonio blog, called him a “career set the table guy with a pass first mentality.”  So maybe he’s a playmaker kind of guy that will give us flashbacks to Cal O’Reilly.

Boston fans?  Don’t remember him nearly as fondly.

For a scathing report card grade from the 2011-12 season, and equally scathing reader comments, here’s an article from Boston’s version of the On The Forecheck blog….it’s on SBNation and it’s called Stanley Cup Of Chowder.

Tough crowd.  To give a guy an F-…..wow….how bad does a player have to be to get an F-?  I don’t think we’ve ever given out an F- in our mid-season report cards!  (Although Jamie Lundmark sure was tempting….quitter). Hamill split time with Providence and Boston in the 11-12 season.  Good enough to earn an NHL paycheck for a chunk of the year.  And the evaluation puts, I think, an extraordinarily high emphasis on points per game.  Counting stats are counting stats, and I’m sure expectations were super high for him as a high draft pick….but unless he steals candy from babies in his free time, I get the sense that the failing grade was more drafter’s remorse than season evaluation.   Maybe the rest of his game was dreadful?  I don’t know.  Never seen him play.  But I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.

(The same blog gave him a C+ at mid-season…)

Dan Weiss, the play-by-play guy from the San Antonio Rampage offered this insight via twitter:  “Good on the PP. Creates a lot working off the half wall. Not as effective 5-on-5 as we thought he would be.”

So he’s here now.  He’s a healthy body, a former WHL scoring champ, with 322 games of AHL experience, who can hopefully provide a bit of an offensive spark for this team down the stretch.  We’ll take it.