The Nashville Predators have reassigned Cody Bass back to the Milwaukee Admirals. This news follows the Admirals signing of Matt White to a PTO contract late last night and Stevie Moses being placed on unconditional waivers by the Predators yesterday morning.
Bass played in a pair of games in his recent NHL call up with the Predators. He didn’t register a point and averaged just underneath seven-minutes of ice time between his two appearances.
If you are looking at the AHL Transactions page for the Admirals you’ll probably be confused to see Moses’ name and the term “recalled from loan by Nashville” after it. That could just be the AHL’s way of deleting him from the Admirals roster or perhaps he has to report to Nashville before clocking out of his NHL contract on unconditional waivers. Either way, I don’t really expect to see him back in Milwaukee.
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Per ECHL Transactions, the Milwaukee Admirals have signed forward Matt White from the Manchester Monarchs of the ECHL to a PTO contract. This news comes at the midnight hour less than twelve-hours removed from the report that Stevie Moses has been placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators.
White enters the Admirals locker room having never played a game at the AHL level. His career started with the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League (USHL). In his last season with the Lancers he was named the USA Hockey Junior Player of the Year (2009-10). He played with the Lancers for three-seasons before making the leap up to play at the collegiate level with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. His college playing career also lasted for three-seasons and he would join the Los Angeles Kings ECHL affiliate the Ontario Reign to start his professional playing career as an undrafted free agent signing for the 2013-14 season.
Following White’s first pro playing season he left ECHL hockey and went overseas to play for Olimpija Ljubljana in Austria. That experiment was short lived and he returned back to the Kings’ ECHL affiliate after a less than two-month stay abroad. He’s remained part of the Kings ECHL setup all the way through to this season when the Kings swapped their affiliate’s league standing this summer as part of the AHL Pacific Division movement. His 2015-16 season has been spent with the Manchester Monarchs.
In total, White has 158 games of ECHL experience and produced 139 points (60 goals, 79 assists). His brief professional stint in Austria wasn’t too poor, either. He logged 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 11 games with Olimpija Ljubljana.
White is tied for the fifth most points scored in the ECHL this season with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) in 19 games for the Monarchs. As far as bringing momentum with him his month of November was terrific. He had only scored an assist in 4 games during October. In a hectic 15 games played in November he picked up the rest of his points total after not scoring in the first game of the month. Quite impressive. The hope now for the Admirals and for White is to have that same level of play spill into the AHL.
Are you surprised or excited that the Milwaukee Admirals have made a PTO signing of someone new rather than a familiar face such as a Zach Budish or a Gary Steffes?
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It appears that Stevie Moses will be heading back to Russia to play with SKA of the KHL after the Nashville Predators placed him on unconditional waivers Thursday morning. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
It appears the Stevie Moses experiment is about to come to an end. Elliotte Friedman reports that the forward has been placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators.
Steve Moses on unconditional waivers. Must be going back to KHL
At the time I didn’t give too much thought on the matter because, well, Moses was still here in North America playing AHL hockey with the Milwaukee Admirals. As it turns out that report was a sign of smoke and today we see the fire behind it.
Moses was signed by the Predators in early-April on the heels of a dazzling season playing for Jokerit in the KHL. He lead the league in goal scoring in the KHL last season with 36 goals in 60 games. He didn’t make the Predators roster out of camp while his comparable winger that was already in the system, Viktor Arvidsson, did. Even with starting his season off in the NHL Arvidsson would return to the Milwaukee Admirals and outshine Moses in the scoring department at the AHL level. It was clear that the offensive production that the Predators were hoping to see replicated one-season after tearing up the KHL wasn’t happening. Moses scored 8 points (2 goals, 6 assists) in 16 games for the Admirals while generating less than 2 shots on goal per game.
For me, this was always going to be a low-risk and high-reward signing. I didn’t understand why you would need a Moses when you already had an Arvidsson, a Miikka Salomäki, or a Kevin Fiala waiting in the wings – literally. But, after some thinking, this was a depth move that generated great in-house competition in pre-season camp reminding everyone, including Moses, that spots on the roster are earned and not inherited based on reputation, status, or where you were selected in the draft.
It was clear listening to Moses during his interview on Penalty Box Radio three-weeks ago that he was accountable for what was going on. It’s well worth listening to that full-interview because he was open and honest about what was going on all the way down to when he violated team rules and was suspended for a game by the coaching staff. He was upset with himself for how things were going and battling to do what he could to contribute to the Admirals as best he could.
While plenty would look directly at the goal column for Moses I would say that watching him play with the Admirals has been enjoyable. Just because a goal scorer isn’t scoring doesn’t mean his play shutdown in other areas of the ice. His defensive work rate was arguably better than his offensive work rate. If the Moses experiment stops here it goes down for most as a failure. I mark it as its labeled. It was an experiment.
What did you think of Stevie Moses’ time under the Nashville Predators banner? With Moses now expected to be gone: what do the Milwaukee Admirals do as far as bringing in forward depth? Are you concerned that the Admirals are getting so thinned out that the success of November is about to tank?
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Kevin Fiala is one of the top prospects in the Nashville Predators organization. He is 19-years old and still in the process of learning to be a professional hockey player. That process has seen highlight reel goals and moments of frustration. Why should anyone expect any less from someone of his age? (Photo Credit: Stephanie Moebius)
Remember when you were 19-years old? You were living in your third different country due to your job. You were learning an additional language to cooperate with a prospective career. There were hundreds of thousands of eyes watching you, mouths critiquing you, and the weight of that getting more and more as you were struggling with your job.
You don’t remember doing that? That’s fair enough. I can’t say that my teenage years exceeded much further than a summer vacation to see family in England for a month’s time twice in the space of three-years. I didn’t even need to learn Welsh to make sure I was touching all based of who I could be communicating with. If anything, my teenage years were probably spent with the highs and lows that high school and early college years bring. There is tremendous pressure placed on you to get going in life, working while additionally working elsewhere, succeeding without sleeping, and wondering if all the time and effort being put down has you in over your head.
Kevin Fiala was 16-years old he moved away from his native Switzerland to play for the Malmö Redhawks junior playing academy in Sweden. He played played in two-different age ranges for both club (J18 and J20) and country (U17 and U18) in the 2012-13 season. The very next season, at the age of 17-years old, he was playing senior level hockey in the top tier of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) with HV71. His incredible ability, as well as climbing the ladder as quickly as he did in European hockey, made him a high-end prospect in the 2014 NHL Draft. The Nashville Predators claimed him in the first round with the eleventh overall selection. And he would leave HV71 mid-season in 2014-15 to officially start his North American playing career.
When Fiala first came to Milwaukee earlier this year my mind was firstly picturing Filip Forsberg, what he did in Milwaukee, and then what he was doing at the time during his rookie season with the Nashville Predators.
I then also remembered the amount of hype and want to of the Nashville fan base that wanted Forsberg up immidiately despite some less than polished performances that he was having while with the Milwaukee Admirals in 2013-14. Guys such as Vinny Saponari and Simon Moser produced some fairly comparable offensive numbers and I never considered myself all that blown away watching Forsberg in-game. The same could not be said when Fiala arrived.
It took Fiala six-games with the Admirals before getting his first goal as a North American pro hockey player. Mark Van Guilder caught him with the home run feed and Fiala’s skill did the rest off a nasty looking breakaway backhander. He wasn’t done that night, either. Although it wasn’t as flashy he showcased his killer instinct for the back of the net by playing right on the goal mouth where he picked up a rebound off Michael Leighton.
It seemed Fiala was quickly taking to the North American game. He looked explosive, creative, and played with an aggressive edge that reminded me of how Miikka Salomäki just had the ability to get under people’s skin just because he was coming at them shift-after-shift so hard. When you combine that all with highlight reel goals, amazing individual efforts to compete until the final seconds of a game, an NHL Debut, and even a game of playoff hockey at the NHL level all in such a narrow window while in his North America pro debut season – it creates confidence not only in the player but everyone connected to the organization. This is why the Predators drafted him. He’s climbing the ladder this fast, this young, and he’s capable of being better.
It’s no doubt that this was all in the mind of Fiala when he said the following to Predators GM David Poile at season’s end:
“At the end-of-the-year meetings when [Head Coach] Peter Laviolette and I are talking to players, we’re usually the ones doing 90 percent of the talking,” Poile said. “So we did the talking to Kevin and then he says, ‘What do I need to do, I’m going to be playing for the Nashville Predators next season. I’m not going to [AHL affiliate] Milwaukee, I’m going to be playing [in Nashville].’” ~David Poile
He wanted no part of the Milwaukee Admirals and AHL hockey. And, you know what Milwaukee readers, that isn’t a bad thing. Not one bit. That’s the sort of confidence and competitive fire you should want out of a talented young prospect such as Fiala. He was committed to being an NHL player all off-season long. In his eyes, Milwaukee was not going to be an option for him. He was going to be in Nashville, on opening night, as an NHL caliber hockey player.
The highly skilled wing roll isn’t a part of the Predators roster that fills the ship like the heard of defensemen that the team has on-hand. When Fiala turned up for pre-season camp the positional battles for a roster spot looked as if he was up against: Austin Watson, Colton Sissons, Miikka Salomäki, Viktor Arvidsson, and Stevie Moses. When the curtain came up on the 2015-16 NHL season in Nashville it was Watson and Arvidsson dressed in gold and navy while the rest were stationed in Milwaukee.
All that build up. All that momentum. All that off-season work came to a thunderous stop. Fiala’s career trajectory plateaued for the first time in his playing career. Predators head coach Peter Laviolette provided the following explanation as to why he was cut from pre-season camp and assigned to begin his season with the Admirals.
“It’s difficult. He’s a young player. He’s going to be a terrific player for us. We’ve got 23 spots on the roster that we can take players in, and at this point, this is where we felt we needed to be. The best thing for him is to just play in games in a North American style, counted on in all situations. It’s really a similar path that Filip Forsberg took. A lot of times we try to give a player or two in the National Hockey League that they can take a road similar to or that their game should be like. His path should be pretty close to Filip’s. That’s a good path. Filip developed, he learned a lot and when he got here, he was ready to make a difference. I think the biggest thing for Kevin right now is he just plays games and really starts to learn the North American game.” ~Peter Laviolette
Fiala’s season was starting where he stated he wasn’t going to play, Milwaukee. On the curtain jerker of the 2015-16 AHL season he didn’t even register a shot. It took him five-games to get a point and twelve-games before picking up his first goal of the season. He was playing sluggish and, jump-cutting into present tense, is still playing sluggishly. The explosiveness of last season is gone. The competitive fire that saw him battling until the final seconds of a game has veered off course from being a positive to being more of a detriment.
On November 5th, the Admirals rolled on into Iowa with their forwards already suffering. Vladislav Kamenev was serving the last of his two-game suspension for a boarding incident. Moses was slapped with a violation of team rules, suspended by the team for the game, and didn’t even travel with the Admirals to play against the Iowa Wild. On Fiala’s second shift of the game he was careless with the puck, turned it over, and forced Juuse Saros to bail him out. Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason made a point then and there to bench him for the rest of the game.
“We made a decision to not play him at that point. Kevin knows what happens and everyone knows what happened. It’s just a learning experience. It’s something that young guys go through. He’s going to have to go through it and he’ll be better off in the end.” ~Dean Evason
Fiala would be a healthy scratch the next night as both Kamenev and Moses returned to further drive the point home. The trouble on Fiala at that point was being careless on the ice in general. He was getting caught making individualistic plays and it was costing the team. Not many are fans of the plus/minus rating but, following his return game from being benched, he was a -8 player.
The frustration levels were mounting and it would lead to a two-game suspension from the AHL. What for you ask? Was it a boarding major and a game-misconduct? No, far from any sort of physical altercation yet visible enough that the officials knew how to call it.
AHL Rule 75.5 (ii): Any player who uses obscene gestures on the ice or anywhere in the rink before, during, or after the game. The referee shall report the circumstances to the President of the League for further disciplinary action. Any player assessed a game misconduct under this section shall automatically be suspended for the next two (2) regularly scheduled games of his team.
Fiala was the target of the Lake Erie Monsters wrath from the moment he collided into goaltender Joonas Korpisalo. Was it intentional? Was Fiala caught up battling for position on a drive to the net? All that goes out the window when it comes to the players policing the game and he had a target on his head no matter what.
The play was judged to be a charging minor and at that point Fiala worked up his frustrations into an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. With nineteen-seconds left in the game Fiala was finally given the Monsters’ wrath when Brett Gallant targeted him with a check to the head. Fiala was left stunned on the ice for a bit as Gallant immediately needed to answer for his crimes with Cody Bass. The loopy Fiala made his way towards the Admirals bench to subsequently get to the locker room. Rather than take the high road he flipped off the Monsters bench to pick up the unsportsmanlike conduct major and game-misconduct.
Jump ahead to the Admirals most recent game, a 3-2 loss to the Manitoba Moose, where there was yet another example of frustration getting the better of Fiala.
The Admirals were on a power-play and Fiala was on the puck attempting to skate into the attacking zone down the left wing. He was whistled offside on the play. Fiala’s head was down, he heard a whistle, and threw a puck down the boards as you would before skating off on a line change. There is just one problem. The puck nearly hit the official that blew the play dead. It doesn’t exactly paint a pretty picture and he was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct minor which ended the Admirals power-play opportunity.
In short, it was an action made out of frustration. He let a simple, frequent in game occurrence get the better of his judgement. He was offside. Skate back. Take the faceoff right next to the attacking zone. And keep the power-play going. Instead, the entire team suffers because one-player is upset.
Did he intentionally fling the puck at the official? I can’t really answer that but my guess would be he meant to hit the boards with the puck in anger due to the offside decision but the official just happened to be right there. Intent or not it’s an avoidable moment in a hockey game.
I believe where fans’ frustrations this season sit with Fiala aren’t to do with him being a bad player or a bad person but due to the fact that it is so clear that a player of his abilities is beating himself right now. What’s important to keep reminding yourself in regards to Fiala is that for all that talent and potential he is still like you and I when we were all 19-years old. He’s human. He makes stupid mistakes and can get angry when things don’t go right. A competition such the game that hockey provides, physically and mentally demanding, only compounds the pressure resting on a teenager’s mind that he missed the mark he had set for himself this summer. What he needs to know. What fans need to know is this. Him going through all of this is more normal than it is abnormal.
When looking at the amount of Admirals players up in Nashville do yourself a favor and see how long those players developed and matured as individuals here in Milwaukee. Pekka Rinne is a pretty good one, right? He was here for three-seasons. Watson? He was a member of the Admirals for three-seasons. Anthony Bitetto was playing with the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL this exact same time period three-years ago. Becoming an NHL caliber player. Becoming a level-headed adult. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and a lot of character building lowlights that can lead to a stronger, smarter, better player and person. This is what Fiala is going through right now. When you remember how old he is – why should anyone be all that surprised he’s experiencing some rough patches?
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“Dear Nashville. Stop breaking all your players. Sincerely, Dean Evason. PS. Remember, don’t ever feed Miikka after midnight.” /probably (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
If you were to look past all the injuries and amount of bodies cycling throughout the organization right now I feel like last night’s 3-2 loss from the Milwaukee Admirals really boils down to two key turnovers in the neutral zone that lead directly to the Manitoba Moose winning that hockey game.
Turnover #1. The first goal for the Moose was a direct result of a turnover off a failed Trevor Murphy pass. He was attempting to get the offensive push rolling North but instead his pass hit neutral zone traffic and went South – very South – very fast. The puck kicked back so hard that it got behind the last line of defense, which was Murphy, and sat in the Admirals defensive zone just waiting for Matt Halischuk to pounce on it for a breakaway goal.
Turnover #2. What would go down as the game-winning goal came from another mishap in the neutral zone. Conor Allen skated up on the play and was ahead of the puck carrier Frédérick Gaudreau who was battling with Scott Kosmachuk just as he was crossing into neutral ice. As Gaudreau and Kosmachuk battle shoulder-to-shoulder Allen remained stationary and a puck stealing rush from John Albert allowed for a rapid fire two-on-one with Victor Bartley back defending and Matt Fraser out on the left wing. Bartley defended the pass across to give Marek Mazanec a clear one-on-one with Albert off the right wing. Mazanec made the initial save but Bartley wasn’t able to race in and help Mazanec recover in time and Albert was able to pop in his own rebound opportunity.
If those neutral zone mistakes are limited it’s a different game. The Admirals played somewhat sloppy in the contest but they were easily the more structured team on the ice. Even with those mistakes made the Admirals should have made more from the power-play chances that the Moose kept presenting them. The Admirals went 1/8 on the power-play last night with a goal also coming moments after a power-play ended. There should have been more damage done from all those disciplinary mistakes made from the Moose. It just never really came to be and I think it could be summed up in the first period when the Admirals let a four-on-three power-play go to waste.
It’s a shame really. You could point to the depleted roster being an issue with players having to adjust on the fly with new faces being introduced last night. But they should have won that game despite that being the case. The Admirals beat themselves in that game more than the Moose won it and that’s were frustration gets in.
The good news? If this is really the way things are going to be, with so many players banged up in Nashville, then this little gap between games for the Admirals is a huge plus to get people back on the same page. The Admirals don’t play again until Saturday night. More roster moves will probably occur with the news that Mike Fisher was hurt in last night’s Predators game as well as Jamie Devane in last night’s Admirals game. Milwaukee is stretched so thin that PTO contract signings of ECHL level talent is a must. Could Zach Budish and Gary Steffes be next in line on the familiar faces PTO signing extravaganza? Time will tell but the reality is the team that played last night has some learning up to do. It’s nothing drastic. They just need to gel back together as the roster breaks apart is all.
Before last night’s game I was able to a set of pre-game interviews with Dean Evason, Juuse Saros, Vinny Saponari, and the aforementioned Bartley. If you didn’t hear those you can listen to them right here. After the game I spoke with almost the exact same crowd but with the added bonus of Adam Payerl providing his commentary on the game. Here is what the team had to say following last night’s defeat to the Moose.
Comments on the comments? Should Nashville require yet another forward is Reinhart the best option to step into a Fisher role? If Reinhart goes up, Cody Bass remains in Nashville, and Devane isn’t fit for the weekend set of games it would leave the Admirals needing to sign two forwards in order to field a roster to play. Who do the Admirals look to sign on a PTO contract and should they stick with familiar faces or look for a more explosive offensive option that could be hiding at the ECHL level waiting to ignite the AHL?
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The Milwaukee Admirals lost 3-2 against the Manitoba Moose Tuesday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. It is the second successive defeat to the Moose in Milwaukee this season by a 3-2 scoreline. A depleted Admirals roster did what they could but were unable to capitalize on several power-play opportunities presented to them. They went 1/8 on the power-play tonight in the loss.
“We absolutely gave them all three-goals,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “It’s such a frustrating game. They’re a good team. They’ve got good players. And they’re going to earn their chances to score goals. If you give them more chances than they earn then you’re likely not going to have success on that night.”
For the second time this season the lowest scoring offense in the AHL took a 2-0 first period lead in Milwaukee.
The game’s opening goal came off of a neutral zone turnover when a Trevor Murphy outlet pass hit traffic, got in behind him, and sent former-Admiral Matt Halischuk off on a breakaway where he’d score five hole for his second goal of the season. Both times that he has scored have come against the Admirals.
The second tally for the Moose came from a netfront redirect by Thomas Raffl for his first career goal at the AHL level. A hard point shot by Brenden Kichton rifled down through the slot low before getting a piece of Raffl to fool Marek Mazanec in net for a 2-0 first period Moose lead.
The Admirals were handed four power-play chances to work with in the first period. It felt as if the Moose didn’t want the lead with so many penalties taken one after the other. On the third power-play chance a craft piece of passing teed up Max Görtz to score his third goal of the season. Vladislav Kamenev initiated the scoring chance when he sent a quick pass down low in the left wing to Frédérick Gaudreau. From where Gaudreau was stationed he somehow managed to get a pass through traffic to hit Görtz on the opposite wing for a one-timer that Eric Comrie could reach on the post-to-post save attempt.
It didn’t go down as a power-play goal but the Admirals equalized right after another Moose penalty in the second period. Trevor Murphy unloaded a slap shot from the center point and it hit off the leg of Kichton. Comrie sold hard on the Murphy shot and was out of position for the puck rebounding off his own defenseman when Kevin Fiala unleashed a hammer of a shot into the open net to record his second goal of the season.
For the second time in the game a neutral zone puck hop lead to a goal for the Moose. Gaudreau was caught fighting for position in neutral put was pickpocketed by the on-sweeping John Albert who only had Victor Bartley and Marek Mazanec in front of him. Bartley was protecting the pass across for a two-on-one with Matt Fraser on the left wing but Albert held on, shot, and collected his own rebound off Mazanec to score his first goal of the season.
It was already worth noting in the second period with a 3-2 Manitoba Moose lead that they’re best offensive performance in a game was to score three-goals in a game. They had done it six times from seventeen games on the season entering tonight. One of those games includes the previous meeting against the Admirals in Milwaukee.
There was then a gasp of a quick answer goal for the Admirals from Max Reinhart moments after the Moose took the lead. It was instantly waved off. The puck appeared to float up in the air and get deflected by one of a few sticks swinging to knock the puck down. As the replay would show, the officials got the play spot-on as the puck did deflect off of Reinhart’s stick before fluttering into the goal. His stick was well high of the crossbar for a clean cut no goal decision.
With 1:27 left in regulation Mazanec hit the bench to bring the extra attacker on and, following an icing call on the Moose, the Admirals burned their timeout with 1:17. Time would sadly run out in regulation before anything could get done and for the second time this season the Admirals fall to the woeful Moose 3-2 on home ice.
“I thought for zone time we probably had 80-20 to them,” said Victor Bartley. “We did a good job keeping of keeping pucks going low to high and getting them through. Forwards did a good job of sticking behind their defensemen through the neutral zone. And, you know what, we had four or five breakaways which could have changed the game so credit to their goalie for playing as well as he did. We just have to tighten things up and capitalize on our chances.”
Ramblings: Since the Milwaukee Admirals last played it felt like all the roster moves in the history of ever took place starting on Monday: The Nashville Predators reassigned Juuse Saros to the Admirals, Predators defenseman Victor Bartley cleared waivers and was assigned to the Admirals, the Admirals then reassigned Brandon Whitney and Garrett Noonan to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, the Predators recalled Cody Bass Tuesday morning from the Admirals, and that forced the Admirals into signing a former-Admiral in Vinny Saponari to a PTO contract on loan from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL. Tonight’s line combinations were: Fiala-Gaudreau-Görtz, Åberg-Kamenev-Moses, Payerl-Reinhart-Saponari, Devane-Girard-Pendenza, Allen-Oligny
Näkyvä-Aronson, Bartley-Murphy.
Thoughts on tonight’s game? Does this result have more to do with the Admirals losing bodies left and right or can you tip your cap to the Manitoba Moose? With the Admirals having so many power-play chances and coming up with little results from them – was that the real story of this game?
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After taking home the illustrious Admirals Roundtable “Admiral of the Month” Award for November it was only fitting for Viktor Arvidsson‘s outstanding performance this month to be recognized by the league itself. Arvidsson was just announced as the CCM/AHL Player of the Month for November.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League announced today that Milwaukee Admirals right wing Viktor Arvidsson, San Diego Gulls defenseman Brandon Montour and Toronto Marlies goaltender Garret Sparks have been selected as the league’s award winners for November..
Arvidsson, the CCM/AHL Player of the Month, tallied six goals and eight assists for 14 points in 11 games for Milwaukee during the month, helping the Admirals move to the top of the Central Division standings.
Milwaukee put together a 10-game winning streak to open the month, with Arvidsson finding the scoresheet in each contest. He had an assist in a 3-0 win at Iowa on Nov. 5 and scored a goal in a 3-1 victory over Lake Erie on Nov. 6 before assisting on the game-winning goal in a 3-2 overtime decision at Rockford on Nov. 7. Arvidsson tallied the game-winner again in a 3-1 triumph at Charlotte on Nov. 14, then notched his first multi-point game of the season with a goal and two assists vs. Chicago on Nov. 18. He had two assists in a 3-1 win over San Diego on Nov. 21, then extended his scoring streak to 13 games – the longest in the AHL this season – with a pair of goals in Milwaukee’s 6-3 victory over San Antonio on Nov. 24. Arvidsson finished the month in the NHL, skating for Nashville on Nov. 28 vs. Buffalo.
A fourth-round selection by the Nashville Predators in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, the 22-year-old Arvidsson has totaled seven goals and 10 assists for a team-leading 17 points in 14 games for Milwaukee, while adding one goal in five NHL games for Nashville. He is tied for second in the AHL with six power-play goals this season. The 22-year-old native of Skelleftea, Sweden, earned a spot on the AHL All-Rookie Team in 2014-15, recording 22 goals and 33 assists in 70 games for Milwaukee.
In recognition of his achievement, Arvidsson will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Admirals home game.
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Nashville, Tenn. (December 1, 2015) – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced Tuesday that the club has recalled forward Cody Bass from Milwaukee (AHL).
Bass, 28 (1/7/87), has four points (4a) and a team-leading 45 penalty minutes in 19 games this season for the Admirals. The 6-foot-0, 205-pound native of Owen Sound, Ontario, native has appeared in 49 career NHL games with Ottawa (where he was a teammate of Mike Fisher) and Columbus – most recently with the Blue Jackets in 2013-14 – posting five points (2g-3a) and 71 penalty minutes.
Ottawa’s third choice, 95th overall (fourth round), in the 2005 Entry Draft, Bass helped the Binghamton Senators win the 2011 Calder Cup as AHL champions, in addition to winning the 2011 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award as presented annually to the AHL’s man of the year for service to his local community. He logged 247 Ontario Hockey League games with Mississauga and Saginaw from 2003-07, amassing 124 points (40g-84a) and 371 penalty minutes, and helped Canada earn a silver medal at the 2005 Under-18 World Championship.
The Nashville Predators are set to play the Arizona Coyotes tonight at 7 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena (TV: FOX Sports Tennessee; Radio: 102.5 The Game). Tuesday’s game is a Nissan Tuesday where fans can purchase a pair of Upper Bowl tickets for $60, or a pair of Lower Bowl tickets for $120, and receive a free Gold car flag. Tickets to Tuesday’s contest are limited and available by visiting NashvillePredators.com or by calling 615-770-7800
This has been quite a wild last day as far as roster transactions are concerned.Lots of activity up, down, and around. It all leads to this latest move which leaves the Admirals forward group so thin that the only recourse was to sign someone on loan to a PTO contract.
For those that don’t know: this is not the first rodeo in the NHL for Bass. In his career Bass has already played a total of 49 games with the Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets. He last played NHL hockey during the 2013-14 season and it was only for one game back on 1/26/14. In his NHL career Bass has 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists), a plus/minus rating of -3, and 71 penalty minutes.
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Uniform colors so identical that the Charlotte Checkers can’t tell the difference between which team is which. At least that was the case on their YouTube account for game highlights until I intervened. (Photo Credit: Jeff Hanisch)
The Milwaukee Admirals current record is 13-5-1-0 (27 points). They have the same amount of points and an equal points percentage (0.711) as fellow Central Division opponents the Lake Erie Monsters but are one-game better in the regulation wins department.That doesn’t just put the Admirals in the lead of the Central Division but the entire Western Conference. They sit third in the entire league behind the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (0.889) and Toronto Marlies (0.738).
As for the Manitoba Moose, they’re trending more on the lower end of the AHL spectrum as far as their record, points, points percentage, and league standing are concerned. The Moose have a 4-11-1-1 (10 points) with a 0.294 points percentage. They’re second from the bottom in the Central Division, Western Conference, and AHL all thanks to the Iowa Wild and their dreadful 0.217 points percentage.
So why are the Moose struggling so much? Why could they be heading into Milwaukee with a 3-7-0-0 record in their last ten-games? Simple. They can’t score goals.
The Moose have the lowest scoring offense in the AHL this season and the second lowest scoring team next to them is still 11 goals better off. It’s staggering. The Moose have scored a league low 29 goals from 17 games. They have been shutout in three-games this season and have yet to score more than three-goals in a game this season.
Sadly, one of those games in which they scored three-goals in a game came the first time that they played against –and beat– the Admirals. The lackluster Moose were able to get out to a two-goal lead inside of seven-minutes of the first period. The Admirals battled back to knot things up by the first intermission but the Moose hammered 20 shots on goal and picked up the game-winner in the second period while surviving an 18-4 shot disparity in the third period. It was the Moose’s first win of the season. They had lost the previous six-games straight prior to that.
The Moose currently have three players with double digit points: J.C. Lipon, 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists)… Brenden Kichton, 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists)… Chase De Leo, 10 points (2 goals, 8 assists)…
In net the Moose are heavily leaning on Eric Comrie while Connor Hellebuyck currently plays topside with the Winnipeg Jets. Sure, the record (wins and losses) isn’t going to look good in net for a team that isn’t scoring goals but credit where credit is due the goaltenders have been battling hard for the Moose. Comrie has a 2.43 goals against average and 0.927 save percentage. Those numbers are nearly identical to Hellebuyck’s this season and both have a pair of wins between them.
What are your expectations for tonight’s game? Could the Admirals fall to the Moose again? Who needs to step up offensively while so many bodies are up in Nashville?
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TOE DRAG CITY IS BACK. (Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
According to the ECHL Transactions Wire the Milwaukee Admirals have signed Vinny Saponari to a PTO contract on loan from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL. Saponari played with the Admirals during the 2013-14 season.
Saponari played college hockey with Boston University before ending up with Northeastern University. After his collegiate career came to an end he signed on to an ATO contract with the St. John’s IceCaps who are now known as the Manitoba Moose. The next season he played for the Cincinnati Cyclones and worked his way up to the AHL level with the Admirals. In the 2013-14 season in Milwaukee Saponari amassed 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists) in 58 games. He spent last season under the Hartford Wolf Pack banner but mainly spent the bulk of his season in the ECHL with the Greenville Road Warriors. He would stay there for this season and went through the PTO contract sequence twice already: with the Portland Pirates and then with the Lake Erie Monsters not more than two-weeks ago.
What’s interesting about the current predicament for the Admirals is that they literally have to sign players from the ECHL to PTO deals at the given moment if so much as one forward is banged up. Austin Watson, Miikka Salomäki, Colton Sissons, and Viktor Arvidsson are all in Nashville with the Predators. Meanwhile in Cincinnati injuries are a plenty with Jaynen Rissling currently dinged up and Eric Robinson quite possibly out for the season due to a knee injury.
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