While the Admirals do have an extra week before they play their first regular season game, they’ve only got two days of camp before they play their first pre-season game.
Taking a spin through the training camp roster, there are a few names we haven’t seen before or written about yet. So here’s a quick primer. If you see them in action at the Kern Center on Friday, you can tell your neighbor on the bleachers about them and sound like you know what you’re talking about.
Mike Embach. A 5’10 forward from Orland Park, Illinois (SW suburb of Chicago). He played in college for all four years at Ferris State University, leading the NCAA in shorthanded goals his senior year (5). Embach signed with the Texas Stars on an ATO after his senior season was done in 2011. The following season he spend in the ECHL with the Chicago Express, with a scoring line of 13g/13a in 60 games. He spend last season mostly with Cincinnati, and finished third on the team in goals with 18. He had a cup of coffee with the Lake Erie Monsters for two games, and had one assist there.
At the time he signed with the Cyclones last season, head coach Jarrod Skalde said, “Mike was a guy who I admired last season when we faced Chicago. He has a tremendous work ethic and compete level. I feel that this could be a breakout year for him on the ice and we’re very excited to have him.”
He may say that about everybody….I don’t know. But it’s a nice endorsement regardless.
Mike Moffat. A 6’1 defenseman from Scarborough, Ontario. He was in rookie camp with the Preds, and scored a goal in that first game against the Panthers. Not sure if his plan is to turn pro or head back to the Ontario Hockey League as an over-ager. Last year for the Kingston Frontenacs, he was tops among the defenseman in points. If he isn’t turning pro, he’ll at least get some more good face-time with Dean and Stan this week.
Chris Reed. A 6’1 defenseman from Solon, Ohio. A CCHA guy that played four years at THE Ohio State University. He has spent the last two seasons with Cincinnati, making cameo appearances last year with Springfield, Lake Erie, and Houston in the “A”. He finished fourth in all of the ECHL in the +/- category at +26, and second among defensemen.
He is signed with the Cyclones for this season, and assistant coach Matt Macdonald says, “Chris brings a high level of consistency to our club. Not only is he a leader on and off the ice, he plays every game like it’s do or die every night. Chris puts a lot of pressure on the other team defensively, but isn’t afraid to jump up into the play when he can. We’re very excited to have him back.”
He may say that about everybody….I don’t know. But it’s a nice endorsement regardless.
After a solid 2-0 pre-season victory that is being overshadowed by that mess from the Leafs/Sabres game…the Predators have announced some more cuts.
Exit Patrick Cehlin, Joonas Jarvinen, Joonas Rask, Miikka Salomaki, Colton Sissons, and Austin Watson.
Or rather, WELCOME Patrick Cehlin, Joonas Jarvinen, Joonas Rask, Miikka Salomaki, Colton Sissons, and Austin Watson.
I think this will be a solid core for the Admirals this year. I’m very excited to see what Salomaki and Sissons will bring to the table.
16 forwards remain in Nashville, including Taylor Beck and training camp invitee Simon Moser.
8 defensemen remain, including Joe Piskula.
Piskula would need to pass through waivers, so don’t be surprised if his official announcement comes tomorrow.
So Roundtable….does Taylor Beck make Nashville’s opening night roster? If so, at whose expense will it be at? Do you think a body will be moved via trade? And are you surprised to see Moser — a guy without a Nashville contract — still in camp?
The Predators announced today that they have assigned Scott Darling, Scott Ford, Magnus Hellberg, Kevin Henderson, Mike Liambas, Bryan Rodney, Scott Valentine and Mark Van Guilder to the Admirals.
Interestingly enough, Marek Mazanec stays in Nashville camp as the third goalie, while Hellberg is heading north.
Not sure what Hellberg’s day-to-day-lower-body-injury may have played in that decision, or whether they think he’s a known quantity, and want to see a little more of Mazanec. There may be something to read into that….there might not be.
21 forwards and 9 defensemen remain in Nashville, including Taylor Beck, Patrick Cehlin, Joonas Rask, Miikka Salomaki, Colton Sissons, Austin Watson, Joonas Jarvinen, and Joe Piskula.
Training camp invitee Simon Moser remains in Nashville too. The forward from Bern, Switzerland (same city as Roman Josi) is getting a longer look than most guys who don’t have a Nashville contract. He is under contract with the team from Bern, but I’m not sure if it has some kind of NHL out-clause, perhaps similar to Mattias Ekholm previously.
Regardless, he’s a name to keep an eye on this week. He played with Josi on the Swiss team during the World Championships, with three goals and two assists in the nine games.
The Admirals put out a press release yesterday, announcing that four guys have signed AHL contracts with the team.
Three of them we already knew about.
Goalie Scott Darling is going to be the #5 goalie in the system. We reported his arrival back in July!
Earlier this week, we introduced you to forwards Vinny Saponari and Barry Almeida.
The fourth guy, to complete the set, is defenseman Theo Ruth.
After being a teammate of one Mark Van Guilder and one Ryan Thang at Notre Dame, Ruth spent the last three years playing for the Springfield Falcons in the AHL.
The statistics won’t overwhelm you.
149 regular season games, 2 goals, 14 assists, and a combined -50 defensively over the three years in Springfield.
I’m hopeful that there’s more to his game than meets the ice with those stats. I go back and forth on the whole +/- debate in general these days. That number sticks out, but maybe he was consistently matched up against the opponents top lines. The Falcons were around a .500 team his first two seasons, before winning their division by 20 points last season.
Ruth was a 2nd round pick by the Washington Capitals in 2007, selected three picks after P.K. Subban, eight picks before former Admiral goalie Jeremy Smith, and twelve picks in front of Nick Spaling. He was acquired by the Blue Jackets in the deal that sent Sergei Fedorov to Washington. He was the only piece that went to Columbus in that deal.
At the time he was drafted, the Caps put together a nice get-to-know-your-draft-pick page for him, with some scouting reports.
Central Scouting Bureau: A stay-at-home defenseman with good mobility … has a good wrist shot from the point that gets through to the net … plays the body hard and hits with authority … quick to get to the puck in the corner and strong one-on-one.
ESPN (because they know hockey, right?): Teddy Ruth is another product of Ron Rolston’s under-18 program. Although his offensive output is never going to be very high, Ruth’s character is off the charts. Ruth possesses all of the necessary skills to become an NHL defenseman, but we believe his work ethic and leadership are what will guarantee his success in the NHL. NHL comparable: Adam Foote, Columbus Blue Jackets
Now he sounds a little better, doesn’t he?
Where is he going to fit in on the depth chart? I think it may have more to do with whether or not guys like Charles-Olivier Roussel and Taylor Aronson have progressed to the point where they can hold down a Milwaukee roster spot. Ford, Bitetto, Valentine, Rodney, Piskula, and Jarvinen are probably 1-6. Not sure how they’ll come out after that.
While there has been no official press release, I feel confident reporting that there are a couple more guys that have been signed to AHL deals.
Why am I confident?
On the Predators training camp roster, they note players “Attending camp on an AHL contract with Milwaukee” with an asterisk. And there are some names with asterisks you may not recognize. So let’s meet them now. They have some…interesting stories.
Player #1: Forward Vinny Saponari, who is actually participating in Preds rookie camp this weekend. Originally a 4th round selection of the Atlanta Thrashers, he played played college in, wouldn’t you guess it….Boston!
Two schools in the Boston, in fact.
Two schools because he was kicked off of the team for the first one.
The Boston University men’s hockey team has dismissed both Vinny and Victor Saponari from the team and suspended Corey Trivino, according to a school press release issued on Tuesday. “Over a period of time, there have been cumulative instances in which Victor and Vinny Saponari have displayed conduct unbecoming of a Boston University hockey player,” Terriers coach Jack Parker said in the release.”
Ouch. So Vinny and his brother didn’t get the “boys will be boys” ruling they were hoping for.
So Vinny. It was just a silly misunderstanding, right?
“There was a drinking rule that was broken earlier during the year, and then I was late to a bike ride, and that was pretty much it really,” Saponari said. “[Parker] said that he didn’t feel like he wanted me on the team anymore. I didn’t really have a chance to argue back or give any feedback. I didn’t really have a choice. Our meeting was pretty short, didn’t last very long.”
I wonder if the RAP SONG he made with a teammate had anything to do with it? It’s called, “Party Like A Puck Star”. (parental guidance recommended….it’s usually a family show around here on the blog….and this isn’t exactly radio friendly)
So there’s that elephant in the room.
The 6’1 right handed shooting forward was on the BU National Championship team his freshman year, and had 30 points (12/18) in 38 games his sophomore year before his dismissal.
So he applied to transfer to Boston College. The board of admissions rejected his application. Which is surprising….you’d think they’d be happy to steal a hockey guy from BU.
After playing a year in the USHL, he was admitted to Northeastern University, just around the corner from BU, where he became teammates with one Anthony Bitetto. In his last game his junior season, he scored the game winning overtime goal against…..BOSTON UNIVERSITY. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!
A senior on a bad team last year (they went 5-18-4-0), he finished second on the team in points. St John’s signed him to an ATO after the season, and here he is now in Preds rookie camp this weekend.
Player #2: Barry Almeida. He’s a 5’8 forward. A left handed shot. And wouldn’t you guess it…..a Boston guy. Played four years at Boston College.
He almost lost hockey after a freak incident at the end of high school. From an article in the Boston Globe….
There was a time, beginning in the summer of 2006, when Barry Almeida’s young hockey career was in jeopardy.
The Springfield native, who had committed in May of that year to play for Boston College, was at a family bonfire celebrating his high school graduation when a bottle exploded and a piece of glass lodged in one of his eyes.
The injury required multiple surgeries to restore his vision. He missed much of the next season recovering, and then played the 2007-08 campaign with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers before heading to BC.
Nearly six years later, Almeida is having a career year. The 23-year-old left wing heads into tomorrow night’s Beanpot championship game against Boston University with 17 goals – more than twice his output from last year.
In his senior year, he finished second on the team in goals with 22, and third in points, as BC won the National Championship.
Undrafted, he signed an ATO contract with the Hershey Bears after the BC season was done. And then last year, he split time between Hershey and Reading in the ECHL, participating in their run to the Kelly Cup championship.
So depending on how things go in camp, he may be a Milwaukee guy or he might be a Cincy guy. We’ll see.
Head Coach Dean Evason arrived in Nashville today in advance of rookie camp, and was very nice to give us some of his time to talk about a wide array of topics.
Looking back on last season, there was certainly an adjustment for him as a coach, after having been an assistant in the NHL for so long. But that finish at the end of the season…that was pretty priceless.
“It was a learning process, and I think what we take out of last season is…we were very proud of how we finished. Obviously we struggled a little bit at the start with everything that was going on…in different dimensions. But the way we finished the season, to win the amount of games that we won, I’m very proud of the guys for competing down the stretch like they did.”
(Photo credit: Scott Paulus)
Coach Evason and Coach Drulia will be diving in head first this weekend for rookie camp, going behind the bench for the games in Florida. Evason talks about what he’s hoping to get out of this weekend.
“There’s obviously some guys that we’re going to have in rookie camp that won’t be with us (in Milwaukee)…the junior players. But the projection is to have them next year, or whenever they’re going to come out of junior or college… I guess the main thing is to watch the players that are going to be coming to us. The Salomaki’s…the Sissons’….guys like that are going to be coming to us, so we’ll get a good idea of how they play the game. But as important, is how they conduct themselves on the bench and within practice. It’s always fun to watch the progression from rookie camp into main camp, and see how guys excel or drop off.”
Speaking of Salomaki and Sissons…..
“We have real high expectations for both of them to play high up on our forward depth charts. Both are highly touted prospects, played very well in their respective leagues last year, and we’re looking for them to play a prominent role. Our job in Milwaukee is obviously to win hockey games, but we’re there to develop these players to eventually go on and play in the NHL and hopefully for the Nashville Predators. We’re looking for big things from both of those guys.”
Of course anything can happen in Nashville’s training camp. A player can impress amazingly or disappoint horrendously. Or an injury or two can shuffle the roster a bit. Remember the epidemic of hamstring injuries? But for the most part this year, Coach Evason says he has a good idea who will be in Milwaukee.
“Last year was a different year clearly with the lockout…we weren’t sure exactly who we were getting or if the NHL was going to go and it then would bump guys down. This year, we have a real good understanding of our team, and who is going to be coming to us. And as I said earlier, it’s nice to know the personnel. We’ve got our line combinations kind of structured already to at least get into training camp with those lines, and then play with it from there. Whereas last year, coming into development camp when we first came here, we had no idea. There were some players I had no idea what they brought to the table, besides watching a little bit of video. So now I know the personalities of players, and obviously how they play on the ice.”
One guy that everyone will be watching in training camp (when they aren’t watching Seth Jones) will be Filip Forsberg – the guy the Predators obtained for Martin Erat and Michael Latta. Is there a snowball’s chance that he’ll play in Milwaukee? Yeah, about a snowball’s chance, it sounds like.
“There’s always an opportunity depending on how things shake down in Nashville. There’s always a trickle down effect. Clearly, he’s a guy that Nashville wants to play in Nashville. They made a trade for a highly touted player that we all believe can play in the NHL. So the chances probably aren’t great that he’ll be in Milwaukee, but there’s certainly an opportunity.”
One of the treats for Milwaukee fans last year was watching some of the players take some giant steps forward in their games. And Coach Evason expects those players to continue to take giants steps forward this season. Guys like Austin Watson and Kevin Henderson, who got their first taste of the NHL at the end of last season. And then there’s a certain goaltender…
“(Magnus) Hellberg is a guy that made GREAT strides last year for us, and all of these guys are going to play a more prominent role for us. It’s going to be nice to see how they’ve developed through the summer, not only physically – a lot of people think, ‘ah, physically I wonder how he’s going to be…’ It’s more (developing) mentally…guys coming in more confident. A guy like Watson who has played NHL games, he should come into this camp now feeling very good about his game. He’s now made a step forward, and he should be a real leader on our hockey club.”
Aaron Sims talked a lot last year on the radio about how great the locker room was. Obviously, he’s not talking about the furnishings…he’s talking about how great the players and coaches got along and worked together as a community. I asked Coach what makes a locker room a great locker room, and is there something that he does to create or nurture it.
“I think as a coach, if you’re honest, you’re up front, there’s nothing behind the back, there’s no mind games…you just give it to the players straight up, what’s going on, how things are….I think individually they respond to that. And then what happens is I think your group takes leadership and takes ownership of the dressing room. The coaches give them that structure and that honesty, and then from there they take the room and make it the environment that it is.”
Looking ahead, the Admirals are one of six teams that won’t be playing any games that first weekend of the season. When they play their first game of the year against Abbotsford on October 11th, the Heat will be playing their third game. Is this scheduling quirk an advantage or disadvantage for the Admirals? Tough to say.
“We’ll wait and see how it works out. We’re thinking of it on the positive side that we’re going to have an extra week to get our systems down, to get good conditioning in, so that we’re able to get into the first game in that second week and be full speed. But it’s going to be tough not to play games. We’re going to have to be creative as a coaching staff to try and keep the guys interested and motivated so that we are ready to play that first game.”
The last question I asked him was kind of a fluff question….it got the good laugh I was hoping for, and it also got the answer I expected. Would Dean ever want to be the Uncle Ben’s Human Hockey Puck?
“I think our organization does a tremendous job of entertaining the fans, keeping it interesting and fun….but being a human hockey puck is not something that I’ve ever aspired to do.”
If you like travelling to see the opening night game on the road, you’ll definitely get some frequent flyer miles out of it this year. The Admirals will start the season with their one and only trip to Abbotsford for a pair of games.
Here are some notes about the schedule:
12 games against Chicago and Rockford
10 games against Grand Rapids and Iowa
4 games against Charlotte, Texas, San Antonio, Lake Erie, Oklahoma City, and Abbotsford
2 games against Toronto, Hamilton, Rochester, and Utica
There will be 9 sets of 3-games-in-3-days. Of those 27 games, only a third will be home games, and a pair of 3-in-3 sets will be all road games.
January 24th-26th — A home and home and back home set against the Rockford IceHogs. Friday in Milwaukee, Saturday in Rockford, Sunday in Milwaukee. Think they’ll be tired of seeing each other? Think that third game might be a game you’ll want to get tickets to?
80% of the schedule is weekend games (Fri, Sat, Sun). On the home schedule, we’ve got 16 Friday games, 6 Saturday games, and 6 Sunday games. And then 10 home games during the week.
There are 9 games in April. Four of them are against the Wolves. Grand.
One five game homestand, three four game homestands. 8 out of 9 games between February 26th and March 15th will be at home.
No huge roadtrips….the longest is a four game stretch, which happens twice. Once in beginning of the season on the trip that includes the Texas teams, and one in March that includes the teams in the northeast.
Over the last 12 games of the season, it’s split evenly between home and road games.
By my count, just five, maybe six trips that’ll involve expensive airplane fares….depending on if they want to fly or bus to Cleveland. And there aren’t any weird scheduling quirks where they’re in playing in Milwaukee on Friday, and then playing in Charlotte the next day.
No random mid-week school-day-game matinees at 10am.
Chris Mueller, if with the Texas Stars, will be visiting Milwaukee twice in October — Saturday the 26th and Wednesday the 30th. We’ll see Utica (aka last year’s Chicago Wolves with new free agents like Mike Santorelli and Zach Hamill) on February 7th. And Rochester will make their first trip to Milwaukee since the 06-07 season on March 2nd.
And last but certainly not least…….For our friend Todd from Milwaukeehockey.com ….. Daytona 500 is February 23rd. The Admirals will NOT have a home game…they’ll be in Grand Rapids that afternoon.
It was announced today that the Admirals signed a pair of players to AHL deals.
Forward Paul Crowder was one of them. You may remember him from suiting up in 5 games for the Admirals in the second half of last season when everybody and their mom were called up to the Preds. Back when Coach Drulia was the boss in Wheeling, Crowder was his captain. So there’s history with the guy. And he made a nice enough impression last season to get a two-way (AHL-ECHL) deal this year.
Photo Credit: Ron Byrd
And then there’s Mathieu Tousignant.
A forward who we last saw as a member of the Texas Stars. And one of those guys that might be described as a rat, a pest, and a nuisance if you’re playing against him.
We got our fill of him in the playoff series against the Stars in 2011 Calder Cup playoffs. And then according to Stephen from the 100 Degree Hockey blog, things didn’t seem to work out with the Stars.
” ‘Tousi’ had one really good year with Texas, 10-11. He was effective that year in using speed to get to pucks and make things happen. For the most part, his role was 3rd line at best, 4th line more likely. Pest more than enforcer. Did have some fights, mostly forgettable.
“He spent a lot of time (last season) in ECHL Idaho and then was deemed expendable and sent to St John’s for nothing.” Not even a bag of pucks. He was loaned to the IceCaps, similar to the way Zach Hamill was loaned to Milwaukee at the end of the year.
And that’s how he completed his entry-level contract. So he’s got a change of scenery now.
If he still has some nastiness to his game, or if the coaches can get him back to being the pest that he was in 2011….imagine him on a line with Mike Liambas. That might be fun to watch.
So Roundtable — what do you remember about Tousignant from that playoff series? Are you happy with these depth moves in general?
News & Discussion Site For Your Milwaukee Admirals
After being a teammate of one Mark Van Guilder and one Ryan Thang at Notre Dame, Ruth spent the last three years playing for the Springfield Falcons in the AHL.
Player #1: Forward Vinny Saponari, who is actually participating in Preds rookie camp this weekend. Originally a 4th round selection of the Atlanta Thrashers, he played played college in, wouldn’t you guess it….Boston!
Player #2: Barry Almeida. He’s a 5’8 forward. A left handed shot. And wouldn’t you guess it…..a Boston guy. Played four years at Boston College.
Admirals Roundtable 
