News out of Nashville today is that Zack Stortini cleared waivers and has been assigned to the Milwaukee Admirals.

Nashville’s loss is Milwaukee’s gain as the Admirals add a player with 257 games of NHL experience, including 14 goals and 27 assists.  In Stortini, the Admirals add grit and tenacity, as 725 minutes in penalties at the NHL level can attest.  Other than his penalty minutes, the other statistic that stands out for Stortini is that he was a plus player in two of his last four seasons with struggling Edmonton Oilers (+3 in 2009-10 and +3 in 2007-08).

The 26-year-old was also a key cog for the first year Oklahoma City Barons last spring, playing in 29 AHL games, while helping the rookie franchise reach the playoffs.  He also has 37 games of experience skating for the Admirals during the 2005-06.

This season Stortini suited up for one game with Nashville, racking up seven PIMs in just under five minutes of ice time.  One would expect that amount to rise with Milwaukee.

So Roundtable, How will you welcome back Zack Stortini?

For those of you that didn’t see Aaron’s tweet about it, or didn’t see the info in the comments section of a previous post, the leadership positions for the Admirals players were announced over the weekend.

It’s kind of an unusual setup.

Scott Ford will be the captain, but the alternates may be different each night, depending on where the game is being played.

Tyler Sloan and Ryan Thang will wear the “A” on the uniforms on the road.  Chris Mueller and Kyle Wilson will  wear the “A” for home games.

Sloan isn’t a surprise, as he is one of the elder statesmen of the team.  Mueller and Wilson spent some time in the NHL last season.  But this is a tremendous endorsement of the leadership qualities of Ryan Thang.

“I’m very humbled to be nominated as a second year guy,” Thanger says.  “Last year we had so many guys with so much experience….five to ten years older than a lot of us.  And now I’m a second year guy and one of the veterans on the team.  So it’s a little different….We obviously learned a lot last year from the older guys, and I think we can pass it on to the younger guys.”

Should we be surprised about Thang wearing the A?  I don’t think so.  From early on, he was pegged as a guy with a good head on his shoulders.

Eric Kent wrote a piece for On The Forecheck after Thang had joined the team towards the end of the 09-10 regular season, and here’s what Lane Lambert had said about Thang at the time.

“I like his intelligence level.  I think he was very well coached at Notre Dame.  He has the speed, and he has the maturity and intelligence in his game.  He’s a guy that we look to hear heavily in the future and the Predators look to in the future in the organization. I think he’s come in and done a real good job for us so far.”

And those comments were just after 12 regular season games, as the Admirals were getting started in the playoffs that year.

He went on to play 78 regular season games last season, ranking 3rd on the team in points, and leading the team in playoff points (tied with Gabriel Bourque).

So this really is a natural next step for Thang to grow professionally.

“It feels great.  We’ve got five guys that are going to be great leaders on this team.  We’re going to rotate it through and kind of lead by committee.  Obviously Ford is the guy with the ‘C’, and he’s been around and he really knows the ropes and he’s going to lead us.  But we want to make sure we’re there to back him up whenever he says anything in the locker room.”

(Photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

The Nashville Predators have claimed veteran tough guy Brian McGrattan from the Anaheim Ducks.

Starting in 2005-06, McGrattan has played in 182 games with Ottawa, Phoenix and Calgary, racking up 395 penalty minutes along with 14 points (three goals, 11 assists).  Last season McGrattan split time between Providence and Syracuse of the American Hockey League, notching 15 points and 153 minutes in penalties in 59 games.  The 30-year-old forward did make the Ducks opening night lineup this season, but had yet to play in a regular season game.

To clear space for McGrattan, the Predators placed Zack Stortini on waivers.  If Stortini clears, he will likely be assigned to Milwaukee, returning to the team he played 37 games for during the 05-06 season.  Stortini saw one game of NHL action this year for Nashville, racking up 7 PIMs.

However, with Stortini’s favorable contract, there will likely be interest from another NHL team looking to add a little bit of toughness.

As of right now…

3  Jeff Foss (D)
4  Scott Ford (D)
6  Ryan Ellis (D)
8  Ryan Thang (RW)
10 Ryan Flynn (RW)
11 Chris Cahill (LW)
16 Ben Ryan (LW)
17 Michael Latta (C)
18 Chris Mueller (C)
19 Gabriel Bourque (LW)
20 Joel Champagne (C)
22 Scott Valentine (D)
23 Taylor Aronson (D)
24 Jani Lajunen (C)
28 Kyle Wilson (C)
29 Mark Van Guilder (C)
30 Jeremy Smith (G)
33 Roman Josi (D)
35 Atte Engren (G)
37 Chet Pickard (G)
41 Taylor Beck (RW)
64 Victor Bartley (D)
67 Robert Slaney (C)
71 Juuso Puustinen (RW)
89 Tyler Sloan (D)

According to Todd’s uniform database at Milwaukeehockey.com, Bartley and Slaney will be the first Admirals to wear numbers in the 60’s range.  Puustinen will be the 5th Admiral to wear 71, and Sloan will be the second person to wear 89.

So Roundtable, make some line combinations and defensive pairings that you’d like to see tomorrow night in Peoria!

It was around this time last year that the folks who write for The Hockey News decided that they’d like to give all the AHL teams pre-season rankings.  So they did, and we made a post explaining why we thought it was stupid.

How did those predictions turn out?

– The Calder Cup finalists were ranked 16th and 27th overall.
– The division winners were ranked 19th, 3rd, 14th, and 18th.
– Four of their top 10 didn’t make the playoffs (Chicago, Worcester, San Antonio, Grand Rapids)

The Hockey News writers won’t be mistaken for Carnac The Magnificent.

And really, ranking AHL teams this time of the year is such a silly exercise.  This is a developmental league, and there are so many things that can go right or wrong for a team over the course of a 76 game season.  By just basing your rankings off of how many names you happen to recognize on a pre-season roster, you are setting yourself up for failure, and wasting your time and our time.

Yet, they elected to try their hands at ranking the AHL again this pre-season, and their editor thought it was good enough to publish in this week’s print edition of The Hockey News.  They decided to separate and then rank the teams by conference, and Kevin Oklobzija (from Rochester) had the honors of penning the masterpiece.

Your Milwaukee Admirals are ranked dead last in the conference.

Hilarious.

Now, I’m not going to say that the Admirals are going to rock everyone’s world again this year, and it looks like many teams in the division/conference have improved.  But here’s the thing — the organization has had over 40 wins and over 90 points the last eight seasons.  They had the best record in the Western Conference last season.  They haven’t had a losing record since the 01-02 season, their first in the AHL.  Hockey-types laud the Predators for excellent drafting and scouting.

So what exactly are they basing this first to worst freefall on?  Not buying Coach Muller maybe?  Think we’ll really miss Andreas Thuresson?  What else did they say about Milwaukee to support the ranking?

Just one oddly constructed sentence:  “Rookie Ryan Ellis the next in Nashville’s never-ending defenseman pipeline.”

That’s it.

Just in case you are wondering…..here’s how they ranked our division in the conference:

1.  Charlotte
2.  Peoria
3.  Chicago
11.  Rockford
15. Milwaukee

Kevin is probably a great writer, but I think he’s way offbase with this list.  Ah well.  One of these years I’ll stop being surprised.

Carnac:  “Nate Silver, Miss Cleo, and Julius Caesar”
(Opens envelope)
Carnac:  “Name three people who are better at predicting the future than The Hockey News.”

First off I want to wish my congratulations to Madison native Craig Smith for making the Nashville Predators out of training camp.

But being from Wisconsin’s capital city, I feel I need to speak a few words on his behalf.  Craig Smith is the type of player that should succeed in the National Hockey League.  He has all the raw tools as a forward: the size, the speed, the physicality, the scoring touch, and the ability to beat a defenseman 1-on-1.   If you are an NHL scout or fan of hockey, you can’t help but be impressed by Smith’s talent level.

However, something was never quite right with Smith in college.  He was dominate player, as 27 goals and 76 points in two years can attest to, but Smith was also a bad penalty waiting to happen on a disciplined hockey team, racking up a whopping 154 minutes of sin bin time.  He also struggled to score against his team’s best opponents.  Smith’s three multigoal games last year all came against non-NCAA tournament teams (Holy Cross, Canisius and Bemidji State).

No doubt Smith’s aggressive style will go over well with Nashville fans.  If Predators coach Barry Trotz can continue the process started by Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves of trying to make Smith a smarter hockey player, Nashville might have a real gem on their hands.

“According to some of people I’ve talked to, Craig hasn’t looked out of place at all (with Nashville) at rookie and training camp,” Eaves said. “One of the goals of his life was to play at the National Hockey League level.  He sensed an opportunity to get there this year, so he’s determined (to do just that).”

Per Josh Cooper of the Tennessean, defenseman Ryan Ellis has been assigned to the Admirals.

And per other reports, (and since confirmed by Coach Trotz) forward Kyle Wilson has been placed on waivers, likely with the intention of assigning him to the Admirals as well.

The status of defenseman Mattias Ekholm remains unclear.  If the Preds elect to just keep 6 healthy defensemen (Weber, Suter, Klein, Blum, Laakso, Hillen), he may still get assigned to Milwaukee.  But there’s also a clause in his contract that would allow him to go back to Europe to play if he didn’t make the Preds out of camp.  Francis Boullion’s progress in returning to health may help with the decisions….we’ll see.

With Chris Mueller, Gabriel Bourque, and Tyler Sloan sent to Milwaukee, the Admirals have made three corresponding moves to their training camp roster.

Defenseman Garrett Suter, on a two-way contract, has been assigned to Cincy.

Forward Josh Shalla, a 4th round pick from the most recent entry draft, has been returned to his Junior team in Saginaw.  Maybe we’ll see him again at the end of his season up north.

Forward Aaron Marvin has been released from his try-out.

Still in camp:  Taylor Aronson, Charles-Olivier Roussel, David Leaderer, Scott Valentine, Jeff Foss, Evan Trupp, Chris Cahill, and three goalies.

Leading the team in pre-season goals wasn’t enough to keep Chris Mueller with the big club…..for now.

Mueller, Gabriel Bourque, and Tyler Sloan were officially assigned to the Admirals after the Predators defeated Carolina 2-1 in overtime on a Craig Smith goal.

Roman Josi will again begin the season on the IR, but will begin with Milwaukee when healthy.