Struggling through the off-season blues? Well, fear not. Some news should be on the near horizon. This week features the NHL Awards on Wednesday with the 2016 NHL Draft taking place on Friday and Saturday. Plenty of interesting things to come from the next week or so. Will the Nashville Predators be making any trades at the NHL Draft? Where should the go with their first round selection, forward or defenseman? And what remaining restricted or unrestricted free agents get left out in the cold?

The last date to tender qualifying offers to RFA’s takes place on June 30th of next week. Currently that group includes: Petter Granberg, Cody Hodgson, Stefan Elliott, Garrett Noonan, and Gabriel Bourque. Your current unrestricted free agents are: Patrick Mullen, Jamie Devane, Eric Robinson, and Joe Pendenza. Who should be brought back and who should be allowed to walk?

~Rookie Development Camp~

Of note, I will be making my first trip to Nashville in a week’s time for the Nashville Predators Rookie Development Camp. Exact details of when I’ll be arriving are up in the air for now but I want to be there for the first day of on-ice activities. I suspect I’d be on my way out either on or right after the Fourth of July fun (might be worth checking out those festivities in that setting).

The preliminary roster for the camp was unveiled last week. Members of the Milwaukee Admirals who played last season that will be participating are Juuse Saros, Kevin Fiala, Vladislav Kamenev, and Trevor Murphy. Incoming players due for a full-season in Milwaukee that will be around are: Jack Dougherty, Anthony Richard, Justin Kirkland, Alexandre Carrier, and Jonas Gunnarsson. There are also two players that were brought overseas that joined the Admirals late in the season, Janne Juvonen and Joonas Lyytinen, that aren’t currently under any sort of an NHL entry level or AHL contract at the moment. It’s interesting to see that Brandon Whitney isn’t involved yet Juvonen is. I’m not sure if there is anything to that but we’ll see once I get down there.

~AHL’s Newbies~

Announced last week were the official team names and logos for the new AHL affiliates of the Arizona Coyotes and Florida Panthers. The Springfield Falcons are no more as they will now be the Tucson Roadrunners. Thankfully fans in Springfield weren’t completely dumped, Portland Pirates, as their new AHL team courtesy of the Panthers will be the Springfield Thunderbirds.

I can’t say enough positive things about that Roadrunners logo. It’s fun. It’s paying homage to a previous iteration of Arizona based hockey (1967). Plus, their Twitter handle is replying to people with, “meep meep.” That’s a win. Also, as pointed out to me, it is also humerous to think that Roadrunners are trying to elevate themselves into being Coyotes. That organization needs to keep up with the Looney Tunes team names with an ECHL update to the Rapid City Rush… affiliation agreement pending that is.

As for the Thunderbirds. Don’t even get me started about how much I love that. The more Tracy Island and “F.A.B.” jokes the better, I say.

Of course, I suspect that another slight realignment is in order. My thought? Swap the Charlotte Checkers and former Springfield Falcons organization in terms of their Conference standing, relocate the Tucson Roadrunners to the Pacific Division so that those teams can play a full league schedule, and easy as you like – that’s it. Odds of that happening are probably slim. These are the same minds in suits that said the Pacific Division and points percentage make sense, after all.

~Former Admirals On The Move~

Italian League Champion Mark Van Guilder is leaving Ritten for Stavanger Oilers. Van Guilder’s new team competes in the top flight of Norway (GET-ligaen). Josh Shalla has signed for this year’s runners up for the ECHL Kelly Cup – the Wheeling Nailers. The odyssey, but all-around great guy, Charles-Olivier Roussel will be heading to France with Les Ducs d’Angers. The league Roussel will be competing in is Ligue Magnus which is the top flight of French professional hockey. Scott Valentine will be switching from one German club (Krefeld Pinguine) to another in the form of Augsburger Panther in their top flight (DEL). Mathieu Tousignant signed an extension to remain with Ravensburg Towerstars in Germany’s second flight.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

Welcome to a work week which will not feature hockey. I know, it is a very sad thing to think about. Back on Thursday night the Allen Americans won the Kelly Cup for a second consecutive season. Saturday night saw the Lake Erie Monsters win the Calder Cup in sweeping style. And last night the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup to finish off the 2015-16 season of pro hockey in North America.

~Calder Cup Champions~

When I was into full-on numbers crunching to determine when the Milwaukee Admirals could clinch the Central Division title I completely overlooked the Lake Erie Monsters in my calculations. I had the Grand Rapids Griffins and Rockford IceHogs on the brain. Makes sense given their successes during the season but that entire time the Monsters were building for a run. And what a run.

The Monsters road to Calder Cup glory saw the following: a first round sweep of the Rockford IceHogs, a six-game series against the Grand Rapids Griffins, a sweep of the defending Calder Cup champions the Ontario Reign in the Western Conference Finals, and a sweep of the Hershey Bears to win the Calder Cup.

It’s an overall playoff run of 15-2 with the only team to earn wins against the Monsters being the team that eliminated the Admirals in the opening round. The Griffins won back-to-back games while facing elimination after the Monsters jumped out to a 3-0 series lead. The Griffins won 5-4 at home in Game 4 and -shockingly- 6-1 in Cleveland in Game 5. The Monsters wouldn’t lose again. That final hot run of the Monsters, from the regular season to the finish line, was a record of 27-5-1-0 in their last 33 games of the 2015-16 season.

Where do this year’s Calder Cup champion Lake Erie Monsters rank among past winners? Let’s just look at the records and a few stats of the Calder Cup winners in the past ten-years.

2006, Hershey Bears: 21 games… 16-5 record… goal differential of +37 (84 GF, 47 GA)… 21.0 power play percentage (34/162)… 83.8 penalty killing percentage (124/148)… 428 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Tomas Fleischmann, 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists)… Top Goalie: Frédéric Cassivi, 21 games, 2.10 goals against average, 0.931 save percentage, 4 shutouts…

2007, Hamilton Bulldogs: 22 games… 16-6 record… goal differential of +23 (69 GF, 46 GA)… 15.4 power play percentage (20/130)… 86.9 penalty killing percentage (113/130)… 375 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Corey Locke, 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists)… Top Goalie: Carey Price, 22 games, 2.06 goals against average, 0.936 save percentage, 2 shutouts…

2008, Chicago Wolves: 24 games… 16-8 record… goal differential of +23 (80 GF, 57 GA)… 24.3 power play percentage (34/140)… 83.7 penalty killing percentage (118/141)… 514 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Jason Krog, 38 points (12 goals, 26 assists)… Top Goalie: Ondrej Pavelec, 24 games, 2.34 goals against average, 0.921 save percentage, 2 shutouts…

2009, Hershey Bears: 22 games… 16-6 record… goal differential of +22 (69 GF, 47 GA)… 21.6 power play percentage (24/111)… 80.4 penalty killing percentage (82/102)… 288 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Alexandre Giroux, 28 points (15 goals, 13 assists)… Top Goalie: Michal Neuvirth, 22 games, 1.92 goals against average, 0.932 save percentage, 4 shutouts…

2010, Hershey Bears: 21 games… 16-5 record… goal differential of +24 (75 GF, 51 GA)… 22.3 power play percentage (21/94)… 82.2 penalty killing percentage (74/90)… 302 penalty minutes… Top Scorer(s): Alexandre Giroux, 27 points (14 goals, 13 assists)… Chris Bourque, 27 points (7 goals, 20 assists)… Top Goalie: Michal Neuvirth, 18 games, 2.07 goals against average, 0.920 save percentage, 1 shutout…

2011, Binghamton Senators: 23 games… 16-7 record… goal differential of +22 (81 GF, 59 GA)… 22.0 power play percentage (24/109)… 83.0 penalty killing percentage (73/88)… 231 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Ryan Potulny, 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists)… Top Goalie: Robin Lehner, 19 games, 2.10 goals against average, 0.939 save percentage, 3 shutouts…

2012, Norfolk Admirals: 18 games… 15-3 record… goal differential of +29 (59 GF, 30 GA)… 12.6 power play percentage (13/103)… 93.3 penalty killing percentage (97/104)… 353 penalty minutes… Top Scorer(s): Alexandre Picard, 16 points (9 goals, 7 assists)… Trevor Smith, 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists)… Top Goalie: Dustin Tokarski, 14 games, 1.46 goals against average, 0.944 save percentage, 3 shutouts…

2013, Grand Rapids Griffins: 24 games… 15-9 record… goal differential of +19 (80 GF, 61 GA)… 19.8 power play percentage (20/101)… 87.0 penalty killing percentage (94/108)… 350 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Tomas Tatar, 21 points (16 goals, 5 assists)… Top Goalie: Petr Mrázek, 24 games, 2.31 goals against average, 0.916 save percentage, 4 shutouts…

2014, Texas Stars: 21 games… 15-6 record… goal differential of +19 (70 GF, 51 GA)… 15.9 power play percentage (14/88)… 84.9 penalty killing percentage (62/73)… 217 penalty minutes… Top Scorer: Travis Morin, 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists)… Top Goalie: Cristopher Nilstorp, 19 games, 2.17 goals against average, 0.919 save percentage, 1 shutout…

2015, Manchester Monarchs: 19 games… 15-4 record… goal differential of +23 (68 GF, 45 GA)… 17.1 power play percentage (12/70)… 79.4 penalty killing percentage (54/68)… 188 penalty minutes… Top Scorer(s): Michael Mersch, 22 points (13 goals, 9 assists)… Jordan Weal, 22 points (10 goals, 22 assists)… Top Goalie: Jean-François Bérubé, 17 games, 2.30 goals against average, 0.898 save percentage, 0 shutouts…

2016, Lake Erie Monsters: 17 games… 15-2 record… goal differential of +21 (59 GF, 38 GA)… 24.2 power play percentage (15/62)… 84.7 penalty killing percentage (50/59)… 165 penalty minutes… Top Scorer(s): Oliver Bjorkstrand, 16 points (10 goals, 6 assists)… Lukas Sedlak, 16 points (9 goals, 7 assists)… Top Goalie: Anton Forsberg, 10 games, 1.34 goals against average, 0.949 save percentage, 2 shutouts…

Would you rate this year’s Lake Erie Monsters as the best Calder Cup winning team in recent memory? I have to say, I felt as if that 2013-2014 Texas Stars team was explosive but didn’t necessarily have the dominating playoff run that went down this year by Lake Erie.

An end note. This season attendance in the AHL has done phenomenally well. Game 4 of the Calder Cup Finals saw a crowd of 19,665 fans fill the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland to watch the Monsters clinch on home ice. For perspective, the NBA Finals are going on at the moment at that exact same building and LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers brought in 20,562 fans for their Game 4 against the Golden State Warriors. That’s the AHL Calder Cup Finals battling it out with the NBA Finals strongly. What an awesome turnout in Cleveland. And it put a great final stamp to the 2015-16 AHL season as it was the first season in league history to average 6,000 fans in attendance for the regular season and playoffs.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

Prior to the weekend I thought it would be fun to get another Admirals Roundtable “Mailbag” going to get some early off-season thoughts thrown out there and discussed. I had a few responses yesterday. I’d be happy to add even more today if you want to join in the discussion. Here are your questions from yesterday with my take.

~Mailbag~

Brett Sharp (via Facebook): If Cody Bass stays in Milwaukee and Colton Sissons stays up in Nashville do you think Bass will get the “C” for this season?

Admirals Roundtable: There are two factors for that to happen. One, Bass actually beginning his season with the Milwaukee. Two, the Milwaukee Admirals locker room votes for their captains ahead of the season so he would need to win the vote. I feel like if he does start the season at the AHL level he would be a perfect candidate for a captain. He is a leader off the ice. Does great things on the ice. You really could not go wrong by having Bass wear the “C” and this past season showed why it shouldn’t be viewed as a negative to wear that at the AHL with thoughts it might hinder NHL opportunities. It doesn’t. Nashville liked what they got out of Sissons and are expecting him to take part next season. I think Bass won over coaches up top for what he brings to the table and, as a low line veteran worker, he won’t play shoot yourself in the foot hockey. That was a high quality depth signing to keep him in the picture between Nashville and Milwaukee over the next two-seasons. He can captain the Admirals and contribute here and there for the Predators when called upon to do so.

Noah Faerber (@PredatorsFan2): How do you think moving to a new arena will affect the Admirals for next season? Will it help them or will it hurt them?

AR: I don’t mean for this to come off wrong but I don’t think it matters. A rink is a rink at the end of the day. That said, for the returning faces and coaches, the new locker room will need to start feeling a bit more like home. It is your cooldown, work out, and let your guard down center after all. Beyond that, the lower ceiling and more intimate setting of playing hockey in the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena should only elevate the noise levels that Admirals fans are capable of and make games feel bigger than in the past. It won’t really impact the players hugely but it might create a fun buzz amongst the fans to play a bigger part in establishing home ice advantage. There won’t be an empty upper tank anymore. Where that was the roof has been lowered. I can’t wait to hear what a goal will sound like with our fans roaring at max capacity in that barn.

Robin (@wannabe21): With all the players going overseas, what do you think the Preds need to do to stock the admirals with quality players?

AR: Same ol’ same ol’ I’d imagine. The prospect pipeline has a beginning and an end point. As some exit others enter. We’re due for some exciting first-year players in Milwaukee next season with Justin Kirkland, Anthony Richard, Alexandre Carrier, and Jack Dougherty. Plus, who knows where the next “out of nowhere” stories come from? Frédérick Gaudreau and Jimmy Oligny were undrafted free agent signings of the Admirals. Adam Payerl was a pre-season roster invitee out of the Cincinnati Cyclones after he signed an ECHL contract with them. Matt White was brought in early last season on a PTO from the Manchester Monarchs (ECHL). More than in the past I feel very confident in how the Admirals roster gets filled with talent. Some names do come and go, sure, but that’s the AHL for you. It’s replacing them that is the tricky part and lately that has been nicely done from the likes of David Poile and Paul Fenton.

Cutler Klein (@CutlerKlein): In your professional opinion, do Frédérick Gaudreau and Jimmy Oligny have a shot at the Preds roster out of camp?

AR: They don’t, especially Oligny because he isn’t signed to any sort of a contract through the Nashville Predators. The next time I see Poile there might be a moment where I implore him to change that. I do think all members of the French Fries start their season in Milwaukee but I do think that Gaudreau being brought up as a member of the Black Aces at season’s end wasn’t a simple pat on the back by Nashville. I think they wanted to see just what all the fuss is about up close. The guy works tremendously hard and made a quantum leap forward in 2015-16. Should he play as well or better this coming season he would be a great call-up candidate in the event of an injury at center or wing because of how defensively responsible he is. I’d say the same for fellow French Fry Félix Girard. That trio, which will be expanding this year with the incoming Québec natives, isn’t just popular for how they are away from the rink. They’re great playing in it. I’d love to see all three get NHL action next season. They would all perform well in a lower line capacity.

Jonathan Nowicki (@frontrowjon): With [Austin Watson]’s departure almost a for sure and other vets in NSH being cleared for youth what is our MKE roster looking like? If they win Saturday is this year’s LE team the best team we’ve seen in the West in years. Sweeping Hershey isn’t easy.

AR: I don’t see a Watson departure. If anything this season, now that Eric Nystrom and Paul Gaustad are on the out, should be all systems go to let Watson off a leash and go. He’s just experienced a full NHL season and has probably all kinds of feedback on what is needed for him to be a more consistent and reliable NHL player. That’s what his off-season should be all about and I want to see him get a strong run out in the Fall. As for those gosh darned Lake Erie Monsters… who saw this coming? They were a good group, yes, but I could never have imagined a playoff run the likes of which they’ve had. Let me update what I said last Ramblings: When you dip back into the regular season the Monsters have gone 26-5-1-0 in their last 32 games played. They are 14-2 in the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs having faced the Rockford IceHogs, Grand Rapids Griffins, Ontario Reign, and Hershey Bears. I thought that the 2013-14 Texas Stars were good but they lost 6 games en route to their Cup win. This has been beyond belief for the Monsters. It really has been.

Brandon Marshall (@BrandoWriter): Your prediction for most surprising player to NOT play for Nashville on opening night.

AR: As soon as I saw this question I said, “That’s an easy one.” Because of that I don’t know whether or not saying Kevin Fiala starting the 2016-17 season with the Milwaukee Admirals will really surprise that many people but I think he does. It isn’t a knock against his ability, his behavior, or his maturity. I just feel like if you want to play Fiala in Nashville at the start of the season you need to place him in a role that brings out the best of him. Him in a bottom-six capacity isn’t going to cut it for right now. So, be patient, and let him keep getting sharper and more well-rounded in Milwaukee. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, using the experiences of last pre-season camp, I bet Fiala enters way more relaxed and takes all that comes in his stride. Not making the team last yer hurt him. I think he enjoys pre-season camp more this season, has a better showing, but gets told to keep it up in the AHL and be ready.

On The Forecheck (@OnTheForecheck): If NBC greenlit a sitcom about Juuse Saros, what would the theme music be and who would play Saros? Dean Evason?

AR: Sweet mercy is this question the stuff of legend. First of all, the part of Evason would be played by Stephen Lang. I’m torn between those two but either would be a great pick. After using the CelebsLikeMe website the title role of “Little Bear” Saros would be played by Dylan O’Brien. I think the resemblance is uncanny. And as for that theme song? It already exists with the show title. We just need someone to film Saros trekking through the locker room and rink like that.

Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro): You and 4 AHL-related people (media members, officials, coaches, etc..) head to bar. Who are they and who buys first round?

AR: Let’s make this a very un-hypothetical situation because this generally happens after home games. My people would be Theresea Taylor, Sam Sirna, Dave Boehler (Did you guys know he has a blog?), and -recent entry for this season- Kristen Wooten. Now, anyone of us would be willing to buy a round but I guarantee you -without hesitation- the man to offer up first would be Dave because that’s how great that guy is. Always tends to offer up first.

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.

Welcome to the first installment of Ramblings for the Summer of 2016. For new readers the title should be self explanatory. This is just my weekly column to pepper in some thoughts or musings throughout the off-season as to keep things moving here at Admirals Roundtable. Along the way I’d love to do some mailbag segments but, for today, let’s comb over a few topics.

~More Questions Than Answers~

Another year and another two off-season stories that are identical for the Milwaukee Admirals. What’s going on in net? Who are the main men defending around the net? Last season saw Magnus Hellberg leave and Juuse Saros join as well as Joe Piskula leaving with a veteran defensive void that wouldn’t get filled until mid-season trades came along. We’re pretty much in that same boat again.

The goaltending saga this year is more Nashville specific. Who is going to be Pekka Rinne‘s back-up next season: Carter Hutton or Marek Mazanec? That seems to be the question rattling in my head right alongside why did the Predators sign Jonas Gunnarsson instead of Janne Juvonen? No matter, Gunnarsson should be the battery-mate of Saros in Milwaukee next season. But what about Nashville? Who ends up being the odd man out between Hutton or Mazanec? Or could Nashville actually throw as big of a curveball like Gunnarsson with that job interview and sign someone else completely?

Another big question that faces the Admirals coming into the 2016-17 season will be the defense. Yes, Saros will be good and I’m eager to see how Gunnarsson handles the North American game but both need the help out in front of them to make life easier. Jimmy Oligny being back, barring another NHL team opting to pen him to an entry level contract (hint hint, Nashville), will help a lot. Who else is really going to be around though? Trevor Murphy? Jack Dougherty? Alexandre Carrier? Jonathan Diaby? That’s not exactly a group that inspires confidence. Murphy will be a sophomore looking to make strides. That’s good. Dougherty entered late into the 2015-16 season to make his pro debut. He got a look around and should be good project to watch grow in his first full-season. Carrier will hope to echo some of what Murphy supplied in his first professional playing season. Unlike Dougherty he didn’t get into a game to make his pro debut, he only participated in a handful of practices, but if he can perform Murphy levels of first year success that would be great. Diaby…

My point is that a focal point of the 2015-16 season was reorganizing the defense to include a right-handed shooting balance as well as bring in veteran minds to the on and off ice chemistry. Patrick Mullen, Stefan Elliott, and Corey Potter all did really well for the team with the latter two names getting NHL time at the end of the season. Yet, Potter has already moved on. Taylor Aronson moved on before the season even ended. And I’m curious if the Predators are interested in bringing back Elliott or Mullen.

There are of course possible options keeping some other names that are RFA’s such as Elliott. Petter Granberg could be a good option on a two-way contract that could fill into Potter’s role alongside Oligny nicely. I feel Garrett Noonan is due to be unleashed properly at the AHL level after a great ECHL season for the Cincinnati Cyclones and could be what Kristian Näkyvä was thought to be for this past season – next season.

Still, that leaves the veteran role (possibly even roles) that the team would want to have on defense. The entire 2015-16 season should have provided a learning experience to the powers that be. The Admirals were critical to have a defense that saw an even balance of three right-handed shots and three left-handed shots. Why that wasn’t communicated well in advance so a signing such as Conor Allen could have been spent straight for what you are actually looking for (a veteran right-handed shot) confuses me but it would be worse if the ball gets dropped a second time this off-season.

The entire organization should know what they’re looking for at defense in the AHL in terms of making a competitive AHL team, providing NHL depth, and providing future NHL talent. There shouldn’t be a need for a mid-season blow up to add three AHL defensemen like this past season. Get the right candidates lined up and signed. The lefties of the organization seem set. Some veteran right-handed shooting defensemen will need to be given a deep look at come free agency time. After all, it is an important measure of depth for the NHL level as much as it is for the Admirals in the AHL. Should a Shea Weber or Ryan Ellis go down long-term next season who do you have in the pipeline on the right-side to fill that void? Perhaps all the more reason to shoot hard for Elliott and Granberg on two-way contracts.

~2016 Calder Cup Finals~

I’m not sure how many are still highly tuned to the AHL post-playoff exit for the Admirals. Those that aren’t might see the Lake Erie Monsters in the spot that they are and raise an eyebrow. This was a team that the Admirals did alright against during the regular season: 5-2-1-0 record. Where did this journey for Lake Erie to the Finals take off?

To me, the Monsters are living out what I had hoped the Admirals do in the playoffs this year. I wanted the Admirals to knock off the Grand Rapids Griffins, show the Ontario Reign that they weren’t as good as their points percentage or record in the Pacific Division might have indicated, and then knock off the best that the Eastern Conference had to offer en route to a Calder Cup.

I had fully expected the Toronto Marlies to make it on the Eastern side of the playoffs. That didn’t happen as the Hershey Bears took the Marlies out in a five-game series. The Bears clawed out full-distance series in the opening two rounds of the playoffs against the Portland Pirates and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Through that adversity all that stood in front of them was -the- favorite of these playoffs, the Marlies, and they throttled them.

Tonight is Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals. The Monsters took both games in Hershey and are set for three straight games on home ice. The opportunity is there for the franchise to win a championship in the Quicken Loans Arena before LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers do. The Monsters have had two separate six-game winning streaks during the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs. When you dip back into the regular season the Monsters have gone 25-5-1-0 in their last 31 games played. It has been an absolutely spectacular run for them.

What are some of the off-season storylines that you are most intrigued by? What should the Nashville Predators do with their back-up goaltending role?

Be sure to keep updated with Admirals Roundtable through social media platform of your choice: follow along Twitter, like us on Facebook, get photo updates on Instagram, and listen along on SoundCloud.