This organization has provided some truly special stories in recent years. What can make them that much better is that they hit across all levels: Cincinnati, Milwaukee, to Nashville.

The recent NHL debuts for Mike Liambas and Frédérick Gaudreau were tremendous success stories. They were both undrafted players that achieved ECHL status and earned their chance to play in the NHL for the Nashville Predators. Mark Van Guilder played 387 games professionally between the AHL and ECHL before finally earning his one NHL game at 30-years old.

With the current stockpile of talent situated in Milwaukee there are even more potential success stories just waiting for the call from Nashville. And I believe I have another unsung player on the cusp of following the likes of Van Guilder, Gaudreau, and Liambas in suiting up for the Predators. That man is Adam Payerl.

Before quickly pointing out that Payerl has already achieved the dream of playing in the NHL its very much worth understanding the journey he has been on to get back.

When Payerl was at his over-age season of junior hockey with the Belleville Bulls he was a free agent invitee to the Columbus Blue Jackets camp in the hopes of getting signed. He did well enough to get into pre-season games for them but they didn’t lock him up do a deal. Instead, he returned to the OHL and produced a career best 47 points (22 goals, 25 assists) in 61 games. What the Columbus organization skipped over was Pittsburgh’s to gain.

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Payerl to a three-year entry level contract following the end of his final junior playing season in 2011-12. During his first pro season he had spells between the AHL and ECHL but mainly stuck around with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Something that he’d do until the end of his entry level contract in 2014-15. Being with that team, as a young up and coming forward, provided an opportunity to be around one of the AHL’s best players and leaders: Tom Kostopoulos.

“He is a great guy,” smiled Adam Payerl when speaking of Tom Kostopoulos. “He was huge in my development for sure. He was just a great guy on and off the ice. A good guy that I tried to learn a lot from and soaked in everything he talked about. He always had little pointers and habits. You were always watching and learning from him.”

The standout moment for Payerl’s time in the Penguins organization was getting his chance to contribute at the NHL level. It was at the end of his sophomore season as a pro when the Penguins recalled Payerl. He made his NHL debut on 4/6/14 on the road against the Colorado Avalanche.

“That was a pretty surreal experience,” said Payerl. “I have a lot of fond memories. It was only half a week but I played a couple games, met them on the road in Colorado. I played pretty well, actually. I had a handful of chances. I probably should have had a goal but [Semyon Varlamov] was playing a pretty good game.”

With his family watching on in attendance Payerl and the Penguins won a 3-2 shootout that night over the Avalanche. Payerl played sixteen shifts for 9:33 of ice-time while on a grind line with Craig Adams.

“It was pretty anxious the night before,” commented Payerl of the build up to his NHL debut. “I had a hard time falling asleep – pretty anxious. I was pacing around my hotel room. The rest of the team wasn’t there yet because they had played the night before in Minnesota. So, I got to Colorado before they did. I was in the hotel that night watching the clock waiting for bed time to come and for the next day. Once the first couple of shifts are out of the way I kind of got in a rhythm and it felt like another game. But, when you’re on the bench, you look around and there’s 20,000 people. It’s pretty surreal.”

Payerl’s NHL time wound extend one more game. That contest took place in Pittsburgh against the Detroit Red Wings in a game that also was decided in a shootout. The Penguins took that one as well. After that game Payerl would go back down to the AHL where he would play out the rest of his entry level contract with the Penguins organization. When it came time to work out what was next the Penguins opted to not re-sign Payerl and he became a free agent.

“It was kind of mixed feelings leaving there,” said Payerl. “It was kind of bittersweet because I had good experiences there but then I left. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go.”

Summer of 2015 was a long one for Payerl. The wait for another NHL contract came and went. Then the wait to field AHL contracts came and went, as well. Payerl quickly set his sights on signing an ECHL deal with the idea of fighting his way back to an AHL spotlight. He signed an ECHL contract with the Cincinnati Cyclones. One of the perks of joining the Cyclones is being afforded the opportunity to join the Milwaukee Admirals Training Camp and get a chance to audition for an AHL opportunity.

“Every year we try to help Cincy out with bringing a couple guys that they feel have a shot at playing for us at some point,” said Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason. “It’s a nice recruiting thing for Cincinnati to have the ability to say you can come to the American Hockey League training camp – and [Payerl] was one of the guys.”

From the moment Payerl arrived to Admirals Training Camp ahead of the 2015-16 season he looked like a perfect fit with the Admirals group. He had a very professional approach to both the on and off ice aspects of the game. He was also impressing the Admirals coaching staff for how hard he was competing day-to-day.

“The first practice we were really impressed of how he played the game,” said Evason. “How he skated, how he shot the puck, his skill level, and then getting in the couple of games that he did we decided right away that we wanted to get him under contract. It was almost immediate that we knew he was going to be on our team.”

Payerl’s time with the Cincinnati Cyclones for the 2015-16 season never happened. He started the season with the Milwaukee Admirals on a professional try-out contract and quickly earned a standard AHL contract. At the time he was scoring a point every other game, 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in 8 games, and that included scoring a game-winning overtime goal and an assist in his Admirals debut.

As the 2015-16 season progressed the decision for the Admirals to bring in Payerl looked better and better with every game. He could play in all situations. He was very polished defensively. And, for Payerl, he was reaching offensive production that he hadn’t been able to hit since his time in junior hockey.

In Payerl’s time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton he scored 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) in 130 games. In Payerl’s 2015-16 season with the Admirals he scored 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) in 74 games. It was an all-around game and effort level that simply wasn’t ignored on the Nashville Predators. Come the end of April 2016, Payerl had signed that NHL contract that had alluded him the summer prior and it all came off of signing an ECHL contract and then competing on a PTO contract at the AHL level to earn his AHL deal.

“It’s a great story,” said Evason of Payerl. “Doing all the right things being not only a good hockey player but a good person, a good teammate. He’s now worked himself into a leadership role on our hockey club. He’s just an all around good guy and he plays the game the right way.”

The next time Payerl suits up for the Admirals it will be his 100th game with the organization. This season he has hit the ground running across the board and is on pace to surpass his pro-best offensive output from a season ago: 15 points (6 goals, 9 assists) in 25 games. The question next seems to be if his hard work has him on Nashville’s radar give how hard he has been knocking on their door.

“He is,” quipped Evason. “He is on their radar. We’ve already talked about it a couple of times this year when they’re going into play a bigger stronger team. Different people that there’s an opportunity to get called up that [Payerl] is a guy, whose big, strong and grinds, and has a great start to his season. I think in the right circumstance there is no question that he could get a shot at getting called up this year.”

It has been two years, eight months, and ten days since Payerl last played in the NHL. 985 days of work with a combined 161 AHL regular season and playoff games played. His time spent with the Admirals has shown plenty of organizations just what they missed out on two summers ago when he was a free agent up until September. Now all that would be left is to follow the likes of Gaudreau and Liambas as incredible success stories that have taken the road to Nashville from Milwaukee.

“It would be unbelievable,” smiled Payerl of a possible return to the NHL. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. I’m just trying to take care of my day-to-day business here. But, that’s the end goal. To try to get there. And do everything I can to get there.”

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Last night’s performance to the Milwaukee Admirals is one that slightly has me frozen. Was it that the Admirals were that good or were the Texas Stars simply that bad? The feeling heading into the weekend was that these two teams play with great pace in transition, both had plenty of skill, and both could end up playing a very wide open contest. It felt like it could be a track meet type of a match-up for the Admirals and Stars. Basically, the hype going in was matched Friday and Saturday night.

On Friday, the Admirals and Stars provided a rather relentless back and fourth game. The Admirals won 4-3 with the biggest bright spot coming defensively by holding the fort for whole of the third period with Marek Mazanec stopping seventeen shots in net for the final twenty minutes. As for what happened last night? That is a far different story.

The Admirals and Stars did have a track meet sort of a game last night. The problem was nobody seemed to inform the Stars that they were involved. The Admirals won 9-1. It’s their biggest win since winning by 9-1 on 2/28/14 against the Iowa Wild on home ice. It is the most amount of goals scored on the road by the Admirals since 11/14/06 when they defeated the Grand Rapids Griffins by the final score of 8-2.

“Pretty tough to assess,” said Texas Stars head coach Derek Laxdal of his team’s performance. “We got a pretty good ass kicking tonight. I think right from the get-go they were the better club and we didn’t have a response for it.”

That is a pretty short and sweet recap of last night’s game from the Stars group. There is just one area of Laxdal’s press conference last night that makes my eye begin to twitch and that’s why this is an Open Letter to him. Because I simply don’t know what on Earth he’s getting at.

Laxdal was asked to elaborate on the following, “I’m not sure if there’s any history between these two teams really but it seemed that it was more physical than last week’s series.” His response:

“There will be probably history next game because guys aren’t going to forget you’re down 8-1 and they’re putting their first power-play unit on the ice. Guys don’t forget that. Guys are upset. They’re getting shown up in their own building. So, there’s going to be a little bit of emotions there. Guys are stepping up for teammates. That’s good to see. At the end of the day it wasn’t a good night for us. Last night we played pretty well in the third period and had a chance to get some points and we didn’t. Tonight they were the better team.”

Before I get into the whole inciting or insinuating that the Stars are out for blood next time they play the Admirals. Because he very blatantly did and you can buy tickets to that game here. I want to address the trigger that made him say that which is the Admirals, who were leading 8-1 at the time, being put on a power-play with 4:33 remaining in regulation and putting their first choice power-play unit on the ice.

Firstly, you’re losing 8-1 at this point coach Laxdal so more than a few things have gone completely wrong at this point. I’d be more annoyed at that on an internal basis. Secondly, if it were up to the Admirals at that point, I feel as if they’d have preferred cruising out to the finish line and winning by that already astonishing scoreline. There was just one problem which was that Bryce Van Brabant decided it would be a good idea to hit Jimmy Oligny in the numbers into the end wall behind the Admirals net and get called for boarding.

So, the Admirals are forced onto the power-play with 4:33 left to play in a game that they already won. Who do you roll out on the power-play? Well, as it happens, the Admirals continued on with the game as though it still was one and the Stars simply didn’t – story of the night. I can appreciate the idea of “don’t run up the score” but when you’re already trying not to and get forced into a power-play and have four forward lines that all have power-play level players on them I kind of don’t know what more the Admirals could have done but exactly what they did.

You would assume that Admirals fourth line would be the safe option for use in a moment such as a power-play, up 8-1, in the closing stages of a game. That isn’t all that true either. It’s not safe at all.

All Félix Girard seems to do is win face-offs to the point that the Admirals have no issue with attempting home run style stretch passes if he is on the ice knowing that he’d win the icing call face-off in their defensive zone should the pass not connect. Girard worked the Admirals power-play late last season leading into the playoffs for his effectiveness at winning face-offs. Him doing what he does wouldn’t help the Stars in that moment.

While not known for goal scoring, so naturally he scored last night, Mike Liambas would have likely rotated into a like-role that Bass provides on the Admirals power-play that sees him as the net front presence. Bass had scored a net front deflection earlier in the game. Liambas, while not as known for it, would have been just as capable providing that net front ability. What he typically is known for by most other AHL organizations though is his fighting prowess. Given the scenario that played out to set the stage for that power-play would it really have been in the Admirals best interest to send out someone for the Stars to continue an altercation with? Even after the fact Dustin Stevenson dropped his gloves to fight an unwilling combatant in Liambas and grappled with him until Liambas finally gave in to fight. The officials should have stepped in and bailed Liambas out to prevent the fight from happening, it took a lifetime before Liambas decided to get involved, but alas – they fought. Why would that situation not have happened directly on the Admirals power-play, following a fight by the Stars between Van Barbant and Bass, considering it did later? The Admirals didn’t want to fight. They didn’t need to fight. They were simply choosing not to fight.

Then there is that third component to the Admirals fourth line by the name of Adam Payerl. He already is part of the Admirals power-play and this season has 15 points (6 goals, 9 assists) in 25 games including 6 points (1 goal, 4 assists) on the power-play. Clearly sending him out on the power-play, the fourth line winger, would have been bad.

This whole situation then is effectively a no-win scenario for the Admirals. If they could have put Jonas Gunnarsson in the game as a skater and had him running around on the power-play I’m sure they would have given it a go. Anything to have helped the Stars see their way out the door swiftly and without more damage.

That’s I feel the biggest issue at hand for Laxdal, though. Finger wagging at the opposition for not doing enough to help them lose by more rather than his own team. I make no bones about it. I felt bad for both Stars goaltenders last night. Maxime Lagacé had a quick leash. Perhaps that was the proverbial wake-up call technique when yanking the starting goaltender. What’s sad is to do that, for it to fail miserably, and then Landon Bow – a guy who exited the middle of Friday night’s third period to throw up because he is battling flue-like symptoms – had to be in net for the rest of the game. The goaltenders were hung out to dry and forgotten about. The Stars were the inventors of their own peril last night. It never mattered who was going out on that final Admirals power-play. They were probably scoring regardless because they were playing a team a man short on the ice with their heads long elsewhere.

The next time the Admirals and Stars play, buy tickets here, will be April 1st. That is a date already notorious in Admirals lore for such a circumstance Laxdal seems to be suggesting the Stars wouldn’t mind having because “guys don’t forget.” The previous game that the Admirals played in when it was a 9-1 game featured a combined 141 penalty minutes with 10 fighting majors. Thanks to the AHL’s new Fighting Policy that simply wasn’t going to happen last night and, when it tried to, the Admirals players didn’t want to get involved – they already won the game anyways. I’d hope that the Stars and Laxdal do forget and rather do something regarding their ineffective and hopeless defense of their’s which has allowed 3.76 goals per game this season compared to the Admirals allowing 2.52 goals per game.

So, Laxdal and the Texas Stars, do yourselves a favor and relax on this your off-day. Practice for yourselves, as the head coach stated angrily a few times, is at 10 o’clock Monday morning. Though, I’d hope the team avoids doing what Laxdal also stated the team do after last night.

“It’s one of those games where you almost just take the video tape or you take the data drive and throw it out the window.”

Please don’t. You should be watching that footage until you’re all throwing up like Bow. Please take stock of all the mistakes, to which there were many – you don’t have a 9-1 scoreline without that, and fix them. I’m on the Admirals side of the fence and that was painful seeing two goalies so exposed last night. Focus less on “there’s going to be history next time we see the Admirals” and more of a focus on night allowing 9 goals against. The lessons of how not to play well are in the video tape and on those data drives. That should probably be saved, utilized, and bludgeoning players over their heads this week until they never play like that again.

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We are still so very early into this hockey season. Much can still manifest itself and there are plenty of stories yet to be told. Though, one particular storyline that has become more of a theme to the 2016-17 season so far has been the goaltending rodeo that the Nashville Predators seem to want to have with Marek Mazanec and Juuse Saros. Their lack of confidence in their own decision at back-up to Pekka Rinne has been a bit of a circus. It’s a three-ring circus: Rinne front and center with the other lads sitting down on the far side rings watching him perform his magic.

Lost in all of that his a 24-year old Swedish goaltender by the name of Jonas Gunnarsson who has been with the Milwaukee Admirals this entire season and has only played four times throughout the Nashville juggling act. By this time a year ago he had already played in 25 games for the Malmö Redhawks in the SHL. In his first splash to the North American scene he has basically taken a backseat to Nashville’s back-up instability while in Milwaukee.

I’ve always had the belief, especially at the goaltending spot, that inconsistent playing time leads to inconsistent playing form. The time that’s given needs to be earned, so there is a give and take there – I get that, but with how Mazanec and Saros have been thrown around early this season the time given to Gunnarsson is about as rare as a steak with a cowbell still attached to it.

In looking purely at what Gunnarsson has done in the time the Admirals have been able to play him you’d assume he has deserved all the time away from the responsibilities of a goaltending net. Yet, that just isn’t true.

Gunnarsson holds a 1-2-1-0 record from his four starts. He has a 4.21 goals against average and a 0.850 save percentage. Numbers don’t lie but they don’t always tell the full story. The very first North American pro start for Gunnarsson saw him left for dead on a night when the Admirals put together what has held up as their worst game of the season by losing 6-1 on the road to the Iowa Wild. That’s not exactly confidence building – nor is having to wait the next seventeen days to get a shot at redemption. Gunnarsson would stop 20/22 in an overtime win for the Admirals over the Charlotte Checkers to record his first North American pro, AHL, and Admirals victory in net.

You’d think then that a small consultation game would be back in order after having held the fort to help provide a foundation for the Cardiac Kids to rally down from a 2-0 deficit – but you’d be wrong. He waited out the next four-games until getting the next chance to play. He then stopped 26/30 in what would be a 4-3 overtime loss at home against the Manitoba Moose. That was an Admirals team at the end of a white hot run of five straight wins but also one getting depleted with recalls by the Predators to the forward and defensive group.

And so it would happen, Mazanec starts here and there and then the goaltenders flip again. Saros returns, does his thing, and that meant Gunnarson lucking into a game only four-games later. Not only that, but it came on the back of a four-game road trip where the Admirals already played exhausted the night before and looked to have come up completely flat – again, like in Iowa. After a good first period surge nonstop penalty issues for the Admirals in the second period meant needing to take down five penalty kills. The group was exhausted going in. They were exhausted heading out of that second period. And Gunnarsson’s fourth start of the season ended with him looking fantastic at times but still wearing a very bad night for the team on his chin: stopping 25/30 shots on goal in a 5-2 loss against the Chicago Wolves.

With Mazanec now back with the Admirals you simply assume Gunnarsson gets left in the cold once more. It’s possible that Mazanec takes a seat this weekend and splits a two-in-two against the Texas Stars, Gunnarsson has made such a start with similar circumstances with Mazanec around, but it doesn’t feel likely. The talk is to maximize minutes and activity for two goaltenders in the organization right now. Gunnarsson isn’t one of them but he does have a front row seat.

It’s a shame that more can’t be done for Gunnarsson. That the lack of either faith or confidence in who gets the NHL back-up role is such a mess. It works well short term for both Mazanec and Saros, perhaps the Predators and Admirals as well, but it already genuinely is a process that forgets about the other guy.

What are your feelings regarding the Nashville Predators back-up goaltending conundrum? Do you get the impression they don’t have confidence in Mazanec, don’t want to promote Saros so soon, yet are dawdling between both lines anyways? How should Gunnarsson be maximizing his efforts to get an AHL start here and there to show what he can do?

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