Aaron Sims is taking a look at who are some players we should expect in Milwaukee next season. Part one of his epic miniseries addressed the goalies. Read the story, and then come back here for some discussion.
1. What would you like to see happen?
2. What do you think will actually happen?
Charlotte in the Midwest Division? Geographically, it’s a bit of a stretch, but we’ll make it work.
It’ll be nice to see some fresh blood at the Bradley Center this year, for sure. The Charlotte Checkers are the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, and in their first year in the AHL last season, they went on a phenomenal playoff run. They drew the defending champion Hershey Bars Bears in the first round, and upset the champs in six games. They drew the best team in the east, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the next round, and disposed of them in another six games (here’s the box score for game 6….what a 3rd period!). In the conference finals, they ended up being swept by the eventual Calder Cup winners, the Binghamton Senators.
For some more insight on the newbies in the conference, I sent some questions over to Jenni at the Chasing Checkers blog.
Admirals Roundtable: How has the city of Charlotte embraced hockey, and how has the team embraced the city? Do you find yourself defending the stance that hockey can survive in southern cities? Does the newspaper give the team the time of day? Local news?
Chasing Checkers: Hockey first arrived in Charlotte in 1956, when the Baltimore Clipper’s barn burned down, and the team needed a place to play the last few games of the season. The fans were so receptive to it that the team officially moved here the following season, and soon changed their name to the Checkers. The Checkers changed leagues a few times, most recently to the AHL after spending the previous 17 seasons as a member of the ECHL. In a city that boasts an NFL team, an NBA team (who are both pretty terrible, I might add), NASCAR and AAA baseball, hockey often gets the smallest billing, but we are the only team that consistently has a winning record. Our fans are pretty devout, and with only one year of the AHL under our belt, they’ve come a long way, and the fan base is growing by leaps and bounds.
Youth hockey is alive and well in Charlotte, and with our parent club only a few hours up the road in Raleigh, there is a lot of crossover between our AHL and NHL squads. Charlotte is a great city and a great place for hockey. The players love it here, and love the fans. The team does a lot of outreach and community programs. At our playoff rally in May, every player showed up, and even other local sports celebs (NASCAR drivers) to support their team, and none of them were asked or required to be there.
Unfortunately, the Checkers hardly get any true media coverage locally. One local news-only TV station covers the team pretty regularly, but the Sports Director is a former hockey player so he is biased in a good way. During the playoffs, the local newspaper didn’t bother sending a reporter to cover games, and even had the nerve to pick up a story written by a college student at Wilkes University, where he was editor of the school paper and the beat writer for the WBS Penguins. I was horrified our Charlotte paper hired a college kid and Pens guy to write articles about our team in the playoffs!
AR: What style of play did the Checkers employ? Were they a high flying offensive machine? Did they rely on their defense, goaltending, and toughness?
CC: The first half of the season, the Checkers were a powerful offensive machine, with lots and lots of high scoring games, but they kind of refined themselves as the season passed by. Our playoff run (until the final round) was filled with low scoring and no scoring games. We had a battle of goaltenders, with Mike Murphy taking the reigns as our number one guy in the late months of the season, and he carried the team to the Eastern Conference Finals. Murphy will be back this year, sharing time between the pipes with Justin Peters, who spent last season with the Hurricanes backing up Cam Ward. We have a group of great, young prospects who are fast, and offensively powerful. I wouldn’t say we relied on toughness. Our team enforcer and fan favorite Zack Fitzgerald is probably not going to return, but we have a new guy to fill his shoes in former Connecticut Whale tough guy Justin Soryal. The team is a lot of fun to watch!
AR: Do you expect that a lot of folks from last year’s playoff team will be back again this year? Who are three players that should be on our radar?
CC: Carolina tends to use their AHL team as a truly developmental team. The Checkers rarely make big-name minor league signings just to boost the AHL club. Last season, for example, all but two of our regular players were under contract with the Hurricanes (and we had another 3-4 guys on Carolina contracts who played in the ECHL). We had a trio of young guys – Zac Dalpe, Zach Boychuck and Drayon Bowman, who all spent a lot of time in Raleigh, and it’s expected that 1-2 of them will make the big club out of camp. Other than that, the majority of our core is returning. Our defense is very young, but very skilled. Picking just three players is tough, but I’ll give it a shot!
Chris Terry – This will be his third season in the AHL, after playing for the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL. He’s a defensively minded left wing who was also our leading goal-scorer, and ranked third in the league with 34 goals scored. He’s a natural leader, and my personal pick for 2011/12 team captain. He was dominant on the power play, and a big part of what made Charlotte’s PP so successful.
Justin Faulk – Faulk is a rookie this year, having spent the last two rounds of our playoff run with the team this past spring. An American defenseman, he just turned 19, and after completing hisfirst year with the University of Minnesota – Duluth, decided to turn pro. I guess when you win an NCAA title as a freshman there isn’t much more to accomplish at the University level! He’s an incredible skater, and while I haven’t see him play THAT many games, each one impressed me a bit more than the last. He’s definitely going to be a player to watch.
Brett Sutter – The Hurricanes like to collect Sutters… they’ve drafted two cousins (Brandon and Brody), and picked this one up in a trade last year with Calgary. Brett is a center who really took off during the post season, racking up 14 points (4G, 10A) in 14 games played. He’s a physical, in-your-face kind of player who skates hard, and plays even harder. I really feel like this is going to be a break-out year for him.
I would have included Jacob MicFlikier who was with Charlotte last year on an AHL contract, but since he hasn’t re-signed YET, I can’t talk about his awesomeness. Other honorable mentions of the “top three” to watch include netminder Mike Murphy and defensemen Michal Jordan, both who are entering their sophomore seasons.
AR: Do you have reservations about joining the western conference?
CC: Honestly, I think it’s going to be a good opportunity for the Checkers. In their inaugural season, they played in the toughest division in the league, and faced Hershey, Wilkes-Barre and Binghamton a total of 24 times. Binghamton of course ended up winning the Calder Cup, and Hershey and WBS were arguably two of the top-teams in the league all season. Moving to a division where only one team (Milwaukee) had a comparable record to our own should prove to be an advantage. The Checkers are used to flying to most of their games (they did a lot of “Fly to Boston, bus to New England” trips), so that is nothing new. I think playing teams with more recognizable cities like Chicago and Milwaukee will be good for Charlotte, too, simply because our media and some fans are still a bit green and might pay more attention than when we play teams based in Glenn Falls or Binghamton, NY. I just hope that with challenges of time zones, extra travel, etc., that the AHL gods give us a favorable schedule, much like the ones they seem to give Rochester each year, that will allow us to continue to play in the Eastern conference some.
AR: What prompted you to start your blog about the Checkers?
CC: I have a professional background in sports, and always loved writing, and with the lack of regular media coverage on the team, I figured if I wanted to have info about my favorite team, the only way to get it was to find it myself. I never dreamed how much the blog would take off, and that I’d meet great people from all over the country because of it. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s still a learning process… navigating the world of credentialed media, trying to provide readers with credible and interesting stories, etc., all the while having a crazy schedule and job that often takes me away from the breaking stories I’d love to cover, but I’m loving every minute. I was only able to attend one road game last year, but hope to get to a number of them this season, and have plans to “cover” the preseason Hurricanes game from our prospect’s perspective. I have a lot of ideas, and some things in the works for next season that will hopefully bring even more exciting things to my fellow fans in Charlotte!
The Predators were about to sign four restricted free agents prior to their hearing in New York today, which would have determined if the Preds did not send the qualifying offers in a timely manner.
Matt Halischuk and Nick Spaling — Two-year, one-way deals.
Cal O’Reilly — One-year, one-way deal.
Chris Mueller — One-year, two-way deal.
And as CreedFeed mentioned in the previous post, Alexander Sulzer signed with the Canucks. I hope he breaks camp with the team, because the idea of seeing him in a Wolves uniform makes me throw up a little.
In other news…I met the Fonz at Summerfest last night. Turns out Sam Jackson was right this whole time. He’s cool.
The AHL has announced a new format for determining playoff teams in 2011-2012, with the league splitting from four divisions to six divisions of five teams each.
Charlotte got bumped into the Western Conference. Meanwhile, St. John’s (formerly Manitoba) treks to the East. Western teams can all breath a sign of relief that they won’t have to make the voyage to Newfoundland on a regular basis.
The exact number of games against in-division teams and in-conference teams has yet to be determined. However, the playoff format is set to go, with the first round being a best of five series followed by best of seven series in the remaining three rounds. The three division winners from each conference will claim the top three spots (just like the current NHL format), and each conference will reseed the highest-to-lowest remaining teams after the first round (again just like the current NHL format).
Here is a breakdown of the new divisions, directly from a press release from the AHL:
Western Conference
North Division
Grand Rapids Griffins (DET)
Hamilton Bulldogs (MTL)
Lake Erie Monsters (COL)
Rochester Americans (BUF)
Toronto Marlies (TOR)
Midwest Division
Charlotte Checkers (CAR)
Chicago Wolves (VAN)
Milwaukee Admirals (NSH)
Peoria Rivermen (STL)
Rockford IceHogs (CHI)
West Division
Abbotsford Heat (CGY)
Houston Aeros (MIN)
Oklahoma City Barons (EDM)
San Antonio Rampage (FLA)
Texas Stars (DAL)
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
Manchester Monarchs (LA)
Portland Pirates (PHX)
Providence Bruins (BOS)
St. John’s (WPG)
Worcester Sharks (SJ)
Northeast Division
Adirondack Phantoms (PHI)
Albany Devils (NJ)
Bridgeport Sound Tigers (NYI)
Connecticut Whale (NYR)
Springfield Falcons (CBJ)
East Division
Binghamton Senators (OTT)
Hershey Bears (WSH)
Norfolk Admirals (TB)
Syracuse Crunch (ANA)
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (PIT)
So Roundtable: Do you like the new division format? Are you are excited for some new blood, Charlotte, to be frequenting the Bradley Center? If you were the AHL commissioner, how would you breakdown the schedule with division, conference, and inter-conference games?
(photo credit: Scott Paulus)
Still no signings….but here’s a second trade.
Cody Franson and Matthew Lombardi have been traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman Brett Lebda and forward Robert Slaney.
Lebda has a Stanley Cup ring. So that’s nice, I guess. Blogger Emeritus and resident Red Wings fan/correspondent Eric Kent offers these thougths on Lebda: “Meh. Neither physical nor overtly skilled. When playing well, you won’t notice him. When off, he’ll turn the puck over and lose battles”
Slaney has split time the last two seasons between the Toronto Marlies and the Reading Royals of the ECHL. In his last year in juniors, he led the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in goals and points, and was second in PIM’s.
Since then, his pro career hasn’t been anything to jump for joy about. In the 09-10 season, he was a -20 defensively for the Toronto Marlies in just 34 games. Granted, the Marlies gave up the second most goals in the conference that year…but still… That number is an eyesore. Of the 1,152 players who played in the AHL that season, only 11 had a worse defensive rating, and they all did it over the course of at least 67 games. Yuk.
Last season Slaney spent only 9 games with Toronto, and the rest in Reading. In the playoffs, he stepped up a bit with a goal and three assists in four games.
Tough to say right now whether he’ll probably be ticketed to Milwaukee or Cincy.
But the $64,000 question is….why on earth did Brian Burke let the Predators off the hook for Lombardi’s contract?!?!?!
(photo credit: Scott Paulus)
Thanks to those who got this topic going in the previous post, while I was away from my computer yesterday…..
The Predators announced on Saturday that they traded forward Andreas Thuresson to the Rangers for Brodie Dupont — a 6’2 210 pound forward, who spent the majority of last season with the Hartford Wolfpack/Connecticut Whale.
Essentially…the teams swapped a pair of fourth year pros/RFA’s.
Feel free to disagree with me, but Thuressons ’10-’11 campaign was a huge disappointment. The 30 game goal-less streak sticks out to me, and he seemed very disinterested out there at times. We had seen him be a force on the ice in previous seasons, and the killer instinct didn’t seem to be there, for whatever reason. I know Coach Lambert expected more out of a 4th year player like him. But it had to be tough for Thuresson to sit back and watch all the other call-ups. Off the ice, he was a great guy and was a great hockey embassador to the community….but hopefully a change of scenery will help jumpstart his career.
Dupont, 24 years old, was 3rd on the team in points (14g, 31a), and made his NHL debut with the Rangers….one game, no counting stats.
For those of you pining for a more physical presence on the team, you may find Dupont to be an upgrade over Thuresson. Dupont looks like a guy that will drop the gloves to stand up for himself and to stand up for his teammates without any hesitation.
Again, he’s a restricted free agent right now, so he still needs to sign with the Predators before we start penciling him into the lineup down here. But then again, with the lack of movement the Predators have displayed in the free agent period, heck, he may end up on the 4th line in Nashville next year if he signs!
The Predators are the only team in the league that hasn’t signed anybody since free agent season started on Friday. Not true anymore! Niclas Bergfors signed today (Sunday).
So Roundtable….are you sad to see Thuresson go? Was the writing on the wall? Excited to see what this Dupont kid can do?
(Photo Credit: Scott Paulus)
Free agent frenzy began this morning at 11am, and all of the action from the Predators organization so far has been guys walking out the door instead of in the door…
Mark Dekanich signed a one-way deal with Columbus, per Aaron Portzline, who covers the Blue Jackets for the Columbus Dispatch. Haven’t seen the contract numbers yet…but we’ll update the post when they are made public. (UPDATE: $575k is what is being reported…one-year deal.)
The Dispatch did a blog post about the signing this evening, and here are some highlights:
Dekanich’s anonymity coupled with Mason’s struggles over the past two seasons likely will unnerve some Jackets fans. You could almost here the fan base collectively asking, “Mark Who?” But Howson said he’s talked with AHL sources who had the 6-foot-2, 192-pound goalie on the same level as Washington’s prized prospect Brayden Holtby.
“We think he’s ready,” Howson said. “It’s a bit of a risk but we think he’s ready. Given what was available after a few hours, no doubt . . . There are top goalies in the American League who are ready for a chance . . . Eventually, these guys play. Why can’t they play here?”
So congrats to Dex, and congrats to Columbus and their scouts for doing their homework. I think they’ll be pleased with the return on their investment.
Aaron Johnson signed a two-way deal with Columbus as well. A return engagement in that organization.
Joel Ward is a Capital. Steve Sullivan’s back is Penguins property. Panther fans will now be the ones to mispronounce Marcel Goc’s name.
Stay tuned…
If you can’t tell by the headline, I have a lot of topics to catch up on.
1) First things first, I want to give an unqualified thumbs up to the hiring of Kirk Muller as Milwaukee’s new head coach. Yes, its obvious that Muller is here to fill in the final piece of his resume to become an NHL coach. If Lou Lamoriello did not just got burned by an inexperienced coach, Muller likely would have become the new bench boss of the New Jersey Devils.
I have a feeling that Muller will likely be coaching Montreal in a few seasons, whenever the shine of the Canadiens 2010 miracle playoff run wears off from Jacques Martin, and Habs fans get sick of his boring style. I would expect Muller to be in Milwaukee for two years at maximum if he has any success.
I have no issue with that fact. Muller’s pedigree and resume blew away any other options for a new coach in Milwaukee, and just listening to some of his comments and seeing the broad smiles on his face makes it clear to me that Muller really wanted this gig. Muller was a longtime and well respected captain in the NHL and that should make for an excellent coach (no guarantees of course). I was always impressed by his assistant work in Montreal.
My only qualms are that Muller lacks any AHL history and has never even been to Milwaukee. No matter what my favorable impressions are of the Brew City, Milwaukee will be an incredible change of pace from one of the epicenters of the hockey world–Montreal. Maybe that is a good thing. But 3,000 fans on a week night is nothing like 21,000 screaming crazies at Bell Centre. I love going to AHL and Admirals games, but its hard to compare minor league rinks to one of the best atmospheres for hockey in the NHL. If Milwaukee gets off to a slow start, will Muller buckle under the weight? He surely must know that 2 or 3 decent seasons should earn him a head gig in the NHL.
2) The great news for Muller is that if he has any issues, he can turn to Lane Lambert or Barry Trotz for guidance. Both were successful coaches in the AHL, so they are great resources.
I for one could not be happier for Lane Lambert and his promotion to the NHL. I thought he was an excellent AHL coach, and one that deserved an NHL head coaching position. Moving up to be an assistant coach in the NHL should fill in the only drawback remaining on Lambert’s resume.
I would like to wish a hearty congratulations to Lambert and his family.
3) I will be brief with this point, especially since the Admirals roster will likely see plenty of changes in the coming days, but I am excited that Teemu Laakso was resigned. Sorry to see Brett Palin go, but with the roster additions and draft moves I think room will be limited on the Milwaukee blueline. I wasn’t terribly impressed with Nashville’s draft, but then again throw in Mike Fisher as one of the team’s picks and things start looking up.
4) Though I don’t work in Nashville’s marketing department I have no idea why the team decided to make a jersey switch. Why mess with a good thing? I thought Nashville had very sharp jerseys in the past and they sure looked great when they were beating Anaheim in the first round of the NHL playoffs.
5) The Preds Qualifying offer snafu could have drastic consequences for both Nashville and Milwaukee. I would be surprised to hear that David Poile and Paul Fenton didn’t do everything by the book, but with all the coaching changes maybe something got missed. But for an organization that has a limited budget, having to give early raises to players that weren’t scheduled for them could effect the whole organization and leave the development cupboard bare. All signs seem to point to this blowing over as a moot point, but it is certainly something to keep an eye on.
That is it for now for me as I look forward to my annual Fourth of July summer vacation. When I post next, hopefully I will have positive things to write about Nashville/Milwaukee’s performance in free agency.
The affiliation between the Florida Panthers and San Antonio Rampage is official now.
And Chuck Weber will be the coach.
You may remember Chuck Weber from such teams as the Rochester Americans (last year’s FLA affiliate), and the Cincinnati Cyclones.
No witty commentary. It is what it is.
Remember when the Chicago Blackhawks goofed on their qualifying offers a couple years ago?
There are reports that the Predators offers are not in good order this year. It’s being reported by Nick Kypreos (who I still don’t buy as an insider), and some guy named Andy Strickland at Truehockey.com.
Great. A blogger. Awesome. (Hey, wait a minute….)
On The Forecheck has been providing updates throughout the day, if you’d like to keep tabs on the situation. This is all news to the Predators AND to the NHL, but until the players association is done with their investigation, Dirk from OTF rightly concludes that it’s not a closed issue.
Admirals Roundtable 
