Ahead of tonight’s game in Rockford the Milwaukee Admirals have recalled defenseman Garrett Noonan from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL.

This move doesn’t necessarily come off as much of a surprise. The Admirals defense right now is rather banged up and the numbers aren’t quite there as a result. Conor Allen has missed the last seven-games due to an upper-body injury. Trevor Murphy was clocked with an illegal check to the head by Ryan Hartman four-minutes into the Admirals’ last game and did not return to the ice. Johan Alm missed eight-games straight due to a lower-body injury, returned to game action for a pair of games, but has since been scratched from the last five straight games. It might be that Alm was scratched as Petter Granberg played out his conditioning assignment from the Nashville Predators or it could be, with Granberg returning to Nashville and Noonan now with the Admirals, that Alm’s lower-body injury is still lingering on.

Noonan has been enjoying a strong season at the ECHL level in Cincinnati. He has produced 12 points (3 goals, 9 assists) in 20 games with a plus/minus rating of +6 and 19 penalty minutes. He has played in a total of five-games with the Admirals so far this season, has yet to produce a point of offense, and is a +2 player.

For a bit of fun, considering he was a recent guest on their show, I suggest listening to Noonan chat with our friends over on Penalty Box Radio right here to hear about his time in the ECHL this season.

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Petter Granberg has returned to the Nashville Predators after completing his two week (fourteen consecutive days) conditioning assignment with the Milwaukee Admirals yesterday.

Press Release via Nashville Predators:

Nashville, Tenn. (December 22, 2015) – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced Tuesday that the club has recalled defenseman Petter Granberg (PEH-tuhr GRAN-buhrg) from his conditioning assignment with Milwaukee (AHL).

Granberg, 23 (8/27/92), posted an assist and four penalty minutes during his six-game stint with Milwaukee, helping the Admirals to a 4-2-0 record. Claimed on waivers on Nov. 22, the 6-foot-3, 201-pound blueliner has eight career NHL games to his credit with the Maple Leafs (0 pts, 6 penalty minutes) and 132 AHL games (3g-20a-23pts, 62 penalty minutes) since his first North American professional season in 2013-14. Prior to crossing the Atlantic, Granberg split time between Skelleftea’s Swedish Hockey League and Junior League teams, winning an SHL title in 2013, and earning silver medals in 2011 and 2012.

Toronto’s fourth selection, 116th overall (fourth round), in the 2010 Entry Draft, Granberg helped team Sweden win the 2013 World Championship (along with Predators forward Calle Jarnkrok) and the 2012 World Junior Championship (along with Predators forward Filip Forsberg), as well as earning a silver medal at the 2010 World Under-18 Championship.

Granberg had missed the start of the 2015-16 season due to an injury and he was claimed on waivers by the Predators from the Toronto Maple Leafs organization in late-November before getting a conditioning assignment with the Admirals to reintroduce him to game action. He played a total of six games during the fourteen consecutive days he was allowed to play for the Admirals, had a plus/minus rating of +1, recorded a total of 4 penalty minutes, and picked up an assist.

I wasn’t honestly too familiar with Granberg despite his run with the Toronto Marlies the past two seasons. I chalk that up to his style of play being a stay at home defenseman whose work can often go unappreciated unless you watch that type of player go to work in-person. I was a massive fan of Joonas Järvinen for that reason. And I actually see similarities between the two with one or more differences. The biggest of which was how unbelievably strong Granberg is. His highlight moment for me was seeing him throw Manitoba Moose forward Patrice Cormier to the ice as they jostled for position upon zone entry for a Moose offensive push. Cormier is 6’2″ and 216 lbs. He has the weight advantage on Granberg but it didn’t matter at all. The Swede gave him a shove, knocked him down, made it look effortless, and shutdown an attack all by himself.

What comes now is the biggest question of all. It’s really the question I had once the Predators claimed Granberg. Now what? Well, the Predators put Victor Bartley through waivers and he cleared to reach the Admirals. Anthony Bitetto was odd-man out as the seventh defenseman for the Predators. And now Granberg returns to the Predators to give them their previous and unnecessary eight defensemen on the active roster with two set to be healthy scratched on a nightly basis.

Is Granberg polished enough to be an NHL defenseman? Not at this current fork in the road for him he isn’t. Granberg has eight games of NHL experience to this point. For his first game back from a long layoff due to injury the Admirals dressed an extra defenseman to lessen the blow on him. The next five games the training wheels were taken off and it wasn’t really until the last two games when he started looking comfortable. Is he potentially NHL quality? I think he can be. Right now? He’s in need of continued game time to get back in stride.

If there were an injury in Nashville to a right handed shooting defenseman and the option was Bitetto or Granberg I would feel slightly more confident in what Bitetto would provide than Granberg at this moment. That’s not a knock on Granberg’s ability it’s just the reality of his season right now. Bitetto is ready and waiting. Granberg has simply been waiting all season to get into any sort of a game to get rust off. Two weeks and six-games just to sit on the sidelines to wait for an injury before getting into a game doesn’t exactly make sense to me for the 23-year old. He should be playing. And, like Bartley and Bitetto before him, I sense cobwebs and dust collecting are in his outside looking in future. Playing practice at the NHL level getting NHL level money versus continued development and playing time in the AHL to earn an eventual playing role in the NHL. That’s the challenge and I doubt there is a harder NHL defensive corps to break into than Nashville’s.

Is a trade afoot? Who knows. But this Granberg story is now right where it arrived. Eight active defensemen in Nashville. Two healthy scratches per game. Rise. Repeat.

What will happen to Petter Granberg? Do you think the Predators should attempt to send Bitetto or Granberg through waivers? At some point will the Predators dip into their defensive surplus to make a trade for a high-end forward?

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The Milwaukee Admirals faced the Chicago Wolves on Tuesday night. Later tonight it’ll be time for the parent clubs to duke it out. The Nashville Predators are playing on the road against the St. Louis Blues. To get some insight on how things have been lately for the Predators I reached out to the great Jeremy Gover of 102.5 The Game (ESPN Nashville).

~Govertime~

Admirals Roundtable: The Nashville Predators 2015-16 campaign hasn’t quite lived up to all that happened last season. What do you see that is different or causing some of these struggles this season?

Jeremy Gover: The struggles of this 2015-16 team are not due to lack of effort or lack of talent. Do they need a true number one center in order to compete for the Cup? Absolutely. But the current struggles that has them 4-7-3 in their last 14 and without back-to-back wins since November 17 has to do with one thing: bad bounces. Rinne has played well, they have outshot their opponent in nearly every one of those 13 games and some teams they’ve just thoroughly outplayed but didn’t get the win. The bottom line is there are ebb’s and flow’s during each NHL season. Heck, it’s 82 games long for crying out loud. Last year, they went on a tear in the first 60 games never having lost back-to-back games in regulation. Then, in March and April, they struggled. This season, it appears as if they’re going through that slump in November and December. And, if you’re a Preds fan, you’d much rather struggle now as opposed to down the stretch.

AR: It was a lot of fun not only seeing Austin Watson get his contract in the off-season but earning an NHL spot with the Predators on what is the two-way portion of his two-year contract. What have you made of Watson’s performances at the NHL level this season?

JG: He has proven that he belongs. Probably not as a first or second line center as they thought he might turn out to be when they drafted him in the first round of the 2010 draft but certainly as a third or fourth line player, absolutely. He’s aggressive on the puck, He shows enough offensive flare to give the coaching staff confidence that he can chip in when given the chance and he’s been key on the penalty kill as both Paul Gaustad, Eric Nystrom, and Gabriel Bourque have all missed time.

AR: Additionally, several players associated with the Milwaukee Admirals have seen NHL time this season: Anthony Bitetto, Viktor Arvidsson, Miikka Salomäki, Colton Sissons, Marek Mazanec, Cody Bass, and Juuse Saros. Many of those names are still with the Predators and are performing well enough to make a claim to stay. Who has impressed you the most out of the recalled Admirals?

JG: Sissons made an impression right off the bat and has been a solid bottom six center since and Saros made the most of his opportunity despite the loss in his NHL debut but Arvidsson has been the biggest surprise to me. I knew he could play and I know the Preds scouts love them some Swedes (and have an excellent track record drafting them) but he looks like he belongs. He rarely has a shift — let alone a game — where I think “he looks out of place.” His speed and work ethic are excellent and he could become a key cog to the second or third line over time. Great to see, especially for a player who was passed over in two NHL Drafts before Nashville took him in the fourth round of 2014.

AR: Speaking of Saros, he’s one of a few bigger name talents playing in Milwaukee this season. Where do you see his career path going with the likes of Pekka Rinne still being such a workhorse for the Predators?

JG: This is a tough one for the Preds organization. Certainly, Rinne is the goaltender until he retires. That may not be for another six, seven or perhaps even eight years. If that’s the case, Nashville can’t hold onto Saros until then. So they either need to plan for him to be the back-up to Rinne by 2016-17 or trade him. Carter Hutton‘s contract expires this coming summer so, in a perfect world, Marek Mazanec is promoted to Rinne’s back-up next season and serves in that role for two full years before Saros steps in. He’ll then get a full season or two as an NHL back-up, getting regular work with the big club and then, when Rinne moves on, Saros takes his rightful place as the future of the Nashville crease. But, then again, this isn’t a perfect world.

AR: There’s all kinds of buzz already on the trade front when it comes to the likes of a Matt Duchene or Steven Stamkos. You wrote a fantastic article on the difficulties the Predators face in making high-end moves such as those not too long ago. Where do you sit on the Predators possibly adding a top center and is the potential risk worth the potential reward?

JG: I think they will add a top line player to the roster but I think it’ll be closer to the deadline. There are two problems with that, however. First, if they wait too long — and keep losing — they’ll be out of the playoff race in an ultra-competitive Central Division and Western Conference. Secondly, Nashville hasn’t had the best track record with deadline deals. In 2012, they went out and acquired Hal Gill because they needed size on the backend, they acquired Paul Gaustad because they needed a reliable faceoff man and penalty killer and, if that wasn’t enough, they traded for Andrei Kostitsyn because they needed help at forward. They fell short of their goal by losing to the Phoenix Coyotes in Western Conference Semifinal scoring just nine goals in five games. As recently as last season, they acquired Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli around the deadline. Franson played so poorly he was benched on more than one occasion and Santorelli scored just a single goal in 22 games. The addition of those two players didn’t help Nashville’s fortunes as, once again, they were bounced in the first round, arguably in a series they outplayed their opponent in all but two or three periods but lost nevertheless. If Poile makes a deal close to the deadline, is history going to repeat yet again? An argument could be made that they should make a deal sooner rather than later, giving the team a chance to gel at a time of the year where they can develop some chemistry.

AR: Who is the better defenseman right now: Shea Weber or Roman Josi? (Sidenote. Is there another defensive pairing remotely as good as that in hockey today?)

JG: Shea Weber and Roman Josi are two completely different types of players. It would be like asking “Who was better? Wayne Gretzky or Peter Forsberg?” Gretzky certainly had the numbers but he would shy away from contact almost as if he were allergic to it. Forsberg put up the numbers and didn’t shy away from anyone. Ever. Weber is the best all-around defenseman but Josi is the most offensively talented and has one of the best first passes in the League. In other words, when you enter the zone on a rush, Weber will crush you while Josi will put the puck through your legs and then start a rush the other way.

AR: We’re nearing Christmas. The Predators are in the middle of the pack as far as that tough Central Division goes. How do you see this season unfolding?

JG: Once they start being rewarded for their hard work, they’ll be fine. The question becomes, how much longer will they continue to be stifled? Because of that Central series of games on the horizon, it better be soon.

~Le Fin~

Thank you very much Mr. Gover for taking the time to chat with the Roundtable. For those that don’t already you should follow him on Twitter, check out his work with 102.5 The Game (ESPN Nashville), and he also happens to be a guest of Milwaukee Admirals Center Ice every now and then so keep an eye out for Aaron Sims‘ Twitter feed on Monday’s to see if he’ll be on the show.

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It appears that the Milwaukee Admirals are branching out once again when it pertains to their current roster situation. Following the completion of last night’s game it was evident that not only was Vladislav Kamenev prepared to join Team Russia for the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championships but that Zach Budish had his bags packed to return to the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL).

Stepping in for the likes of Budish, at the very least, will be Zac Larraza of the Manchester Monarchs (ECHL). Larraza will be the following in the footsteps of Matt White on the PTO contract front from Manchester to Milwaukee.

Larraza was part of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program when he was selected in the seventh round (196th overall) by the Arizona Coyotes. He wound up never playing within their organization and instead went to play hockey collegiately for the University of Denver. During his four-year NCAA career he played 134 games and scored 66 points (35 goals, 31 assists). He would join the Monarchs of the ECHL after finishing up college and did have a brief AHL spell with the Portland Pirates on a PTO basis where he recorded an assist in a two-game spell before being sent packing back to the ECHL.

It is of course noting the obvious connection between the two Monarchs teammates now rejoined here with the Admirals, White and Larraza. Despite being away from the Monarchs for awhile now White remains the team’s second highest scorer with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) and has found success here in Milwaukee during his first ever stint in the AHL: 3 points (2 goals, 1 assists). Larraza is third in scoring for the Monarchs this season, right behind White on the team scoring list, with 18 points (11 goals, 7 assists).

This hasn’t been the greatest of times for the 2014-15 Milwaukee Admirals Man of the Year, Budish. Finding work in the off-season was a test. He attended pre-season camp with the Iowa Wild but was dropped before returning to a place of comfort in the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) where he has almost been a point per game player this season. In four-games back with the Admirals he produced a pair of assists while trucking along on the fourth line. He had since been healthy scratched in two of the Admirals last three games.

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The Nashville Predators have activated defenseman Petter Granberg off injured reserve and sent him on conditioning assignment to the Milwaukee Admirals.

Like all conditioning assignments the max amount of time Granberg can be with the Admirals at the AHL level is fourteen consecutive days. Today included, it would mean Granberg has until December 22nd. That can allow for up to seven games with the Admirals should he immediately be introduced to the lineup tonight when the Admirals play on the road against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Press Release via Nashville Predators:

Nashville, Tenn. (December 9, 2015) – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced Wednesday that the club has activated defenseman Petter Granberg from the non-roster list and sent him on a conditioning assignment to Milwaukee (AHL). Granberg was claimed on waivers on Nov. 22.

Granberg, 23 (8/27/92), has yet to suit up in 2015-16 due to offseason surgery, but has eight NHL games to his credit with the Maple Leafs (0 pts, 6 penalty minutes) and 126 AHL games with the Toronto Marlies (3g-19a-22pts, 58 penalty minutes) since his first North American professional season in 2013-14. Prior to crossing the Atlantic, the 6-foot-3, 201-pound blueliner split time between Skelleftea’s Swedish Hockey League and Junior League teams, winning an SHL title in 2013, and earning silver medals in 2011 and 2012.

Toronto’s fourth selection, 116th overall (fourth round), in the 2010 Entry Draft, Granberg helped team Sweden win the 2013 World Championship (along with Predators forward Calle Jarnkrok) and the 2012 World Junior Championship (along with Predators forward Filip Forsberg), as well as earning a silver medal at the 2010 World Under-18 Championship.

Granberg was acquired by the Predators off of waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs towards the end of November. It was a curious move then. It was a curious move now. The Predators had Victor Bartley and Anthony Bitetto on their roster at the time they claimed Granberg off waivers but have since put Bartley through waivers and assigned him to the Admirals. When all resets, and Granberg returns following his conditioning assignment, the Predators should be back in a position where they have two extra defensemen in their ranks.

To this point in his career, Granberg has mainly played at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies in his North American pro playing career: 126 games, 22 points (3 goals, 19 assists), 58 penalty minutes, and a plus/minus rating of +33. He has 8 games of NHL experience as well as 74 games played for Skellefteå in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). When he suits up for the first time as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals he will be wearing the #5.

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Well, that didn’t take long. Only four days removed from the first report of Stevie Moses being placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators had he has officially been unveiled by his brand new team in Russia’s KHL, SKA St. Petersburg, after signing a new one-year contract.

Moses’ new team is currently 37 games into the 2015-16 KHL playing season and sitting in second place in the Western Conference’s Bobrov Division behind his former team Jokerit. When he played in the KHL last season he set a league record by scoring 36 goals in a single season. With a fair bit of the KHL season already off the calendar it’s safe to assume that’s not happening again. I would say though that him going from the Milwaukee Admirals to a line with Ilya Kovalchuk on his opposite wing would probably have him bursting with joy considering the swift nature of his exit from North American pro hockey.

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I’ve been politely keeping my distance from this story. For how long? Since early October. It initially brewed on Twitter… but that doesn’t make it accurate. It appeared on the ECHL Transactions page… but, as history has proven in the past, that also doesn’t make it 100% accurate. Now that so much time has elapsed that he is playing with a new team I can make a confirmation on the matter. Mikko Vainonen was placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators, cleared the waivers process, officially had his contract terminated by the organization, and signed with the Finnish club Ässät of Liiga.

The initial Twitter report cropped up only a few days after Vainonen was sent from the Admirals training camp to Cincinnati to participate in their pre-season regimen that included exhibition games. He participated in one pre-season game back on October 7th and contributed an assist in a 6-1 Cyclones victory. The very next day he would have been put on unconditional waivers. The following day he’d have cleared and had his contract terminated. Where did it all go wrong?

Vainonen was drafted by the Nashville Predators in the fourth round of the 2012 NHL Draft. That meant drafting him based on his performances in his native Finland with the HIFK senior and youth academy squads during the 2011-12 season. So, was Vainonen’s release due to a difficulty adjusting to the North American game? I’d say no and say it because he spent the next two seasons after the Predators drafted him with the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL. In other words, he had quality North American playing experience in junior hockey before he joined the AHL or ECHL ranks. He joined the Admirals at the end of his junior playing career in 2013-14 and played two games. His first full season as a pro last season saw him start the year off with the Cincinnati Cyclones before being loaned back home to Finland for the rest of the season with SaiPa of Liiga. He was back State-side and took part in training camp this pre-season. He was here in Milwaukee before being sent packing to Cincinnati. And now he has been axed by Nashville just prior to the start of this season with this season and next season of his contract being terminated.

So where did it all go wrong you ask? When answering that question look less at Vainonen and more at the competition at defenseman right now. The defensive talent pool is so deep that lifelong defenseman Jaynen Rissling is transitioning to the wing. That experiment started in Nashville’s training camp, continued to Milwaukee’s training camp, and into the regular season for the Cyclones in the ECHL. The  you get players who weren’t even drafted, such as Trevor Murphy and Kristian Näkyvä, getting penned to entry level contracts by Nashville and immediately earning their place on the opening night of the regular season for the Admirals. It essentially puts Vainonen as bottom of the deck where he’ll be stuck in Cincinnati with no real hope to break through the glass ceiling that Nashville keeps making more and more dense.

There is some good and bad to this news story. The good being the obvious which is Nashville cutting Vainonen loose so he can continue his playing career elsewhere. The bad being the sloppy way in which the Predators organization handled this case. The Nashville brass should have been well aware of this reality long before pre-season camps were even a thing. He should have had his contract terminated prior to him ever needing to travel to North America once again much less traveling to Milwaukee and then Cincinnati for a pre-season game before needing to look for elsewhere for a job. The European hockey season was already up and running at the time. Delaying his playing career as they effectively did for far more than two months is harsh.

Fortunately, Vainonen’s now eight-games into his new career with Ässät. He is back to playing in his native Finland. While the aspirations of a North American professional playing career aren’t necessarily over for him it sure looks to be the case after his spell with ECHL hockey being as lackluster as it was. Some players just perform better in Europe, I think. That’s not a bad thing. In the words I’m sure were expressed from Nashville to Vainonen: I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

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Per ECHL Transactions, the Milwaukee Admirals have signed former second round draft pick of the Nashville Predators Zach Budish to a PTO contract from the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL. Budish’s entire professional playing career has taken place under the Predators minor league affiliate’s banner.

Budish almost needs no introduction. He has 93 games of AHL experience and all of those games have taken place with the Admirals. Even for the Cincinnati readership that became familiarized with him during his time in the organization know him well – and recently. Budish signed an ECHL contract with the Cyclones this past off-season. He has 18 points (7 goals, 11 assists) in 19 games for the Cyclones this season.

The man with the biggest head in Milwaukee now only has one thing left to do. Recently returning face Vinny Saponari couldn’t wear his old #74 because Juuse Saros has it so he took Budish’s old #24. Will Budish get to wear his old number this weekend? My guess, knowing the equipment and business side of things, is probably not due to the fact Saponari’s uniforms have already been prepared and that’d be a lot of money and hassle over a pair of PTO signed players.

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The Nashville Predators have reassigned Cody Bass back to the Milwaukee Admirals. This news follows the Admirals signing of Matt White to a PTO contract late last night and Stevie Moses being placed on unconditional waivers by the Predators yesterday morning.

Bass played in a pair of games in his recent NHL call up with the Predators. He didn’t register a point and averaged just underneath seven-minutes of ice time between his two appearances.

If you are looking at the AHL Transactions page for the Admirals you’ll probably be confused to see Moses’ name and the term “recalled from loan by Nashville” after it. That could just be the AHL’s way of deleting him from the Admirals roster or perhaps he has to report to Nashville before clocking out of his NHL contract on unconditional waivers. Either way, I don’t really expect to see him back in Milwaukee.

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