Interesting news this afternoon.  Defenseman Jon Blum has been assigned to the Admirals.

He isn’t a stranger around these parts, but I didn’t figure we’d be seeing him at all this year after his strong performance in Nashville when he was called up towards the end of last season.  In 27 games this season, he had 2 goals and 3 assists, and was -11 defensively.  Blum had seen his ice time evaporate, and had recently been a healthy scratch.

So he’s coming to Milwaukee to get some confidence back and get his game back on track.

Which is great for everybody….that is, everybody not named Scott Valentine.

With Teemu Laakso back in the fold (he tweeked a lower body in jury in Chicago and was scratched yesterday as a precaution…he should be fine for this weekend) that pretty much is keeping Taylor Aronson off the ice.  And with Blum now back in town, I have a tough time making the case to scratch anyone else.

Which is too bad, because Scott Valentine has brought some great physical play to the blue line, and is not afraid to hit.  But who else are they going to scratch?

Ryan Ellis?  At times his play may merit a scratch….but there’s no way he doesn’t get playing time.

Sloan?  A good foil for Ellis, and has been pretty consistent on D.

Fordo?  Captain-o.

Bartley?  Dependable two-way player, and one of the unsung heroes of the season so far.

If Valentine is the guy that has to sit out in the short term, hopefully he’ll have the same attitude Grant Lewis had last year, and be ready and productive when his number is called next.

So Roundtable….if all hands on deck are healthy, who would you like to see scratched so that Blum can play?

Taking a quick look at the statistics, it might seem obvious who has been the most valuable defenseman on the Admirals so far this season. Through 20 games of his first full professional season Ryan Ellis’ numbers stand out (4 goals, 11 assists and 15 points).

Yet, I shall argue that Tyler Sloan–not Ellis–has been Milwaukee’s top blueliner.

Here is my case for Sloan. Through 17 games Sloan has just four points, but carries a plus/minus rating of +10 (tops for Milwaukee defensemen, and second on the Admirals behind Ryan Thang).

However, it is the intangibles that set Sloan apart. Sloan’s superior plus/minus rating comes despite playing against the other team’s top lines most nights. And Sloan’s play brings with it the experience of playing 99 games over the past three seasons in the NHL for the Washington Capitals (and four additional games in the playoffs).

Paired alongside Ellis, Sloan allows the rookie the chance to develop in the AHL with a more than capable wing man at his side. Plus when Milwaukee made a coaching change last week, Sloan, who went through a similar change with Hershey, could help guide his younger teammates through the transition.

Nothing against Ellis, I think he is going to be a great NHL player (and even a potential star), but right now if I had to choose one defenseman on Milwaukee to be on the ice for a 2-on-1 against, I would pick Tyler Sloan.

(image yoinked from the Puck Daddy story)

Penny for your thoughts?  Do you care?  Do you hope they bring back Patrick, Adams, Norris, and Smythe?  Think Detroit fans should be happy?  Think Tampa Bay and Florida stick out like sore thumbs in that division?  Think it’s silly that they’re calling them “Conferences” instead of “Divisions?”  I haven’t seen anything about a crossover rule yet (although I may have missed it) ….do you think they’ll need one?

The Admirals have announced today that Wheeling Head Coach Stan Drulia has accepted the open assistant coach position for the Milwaukee Admirals.

This was Drulia’s second year at the helm of the Nailers, and so far had led the team to an 11-6 record, good for second place in the Atlantic Division.  Last season, he took the team to the 3rd round of the Kelly Cup playoffs.

Drulia brings 126 games of NHL experience to the table, and actually played with Ian Herbers when they were both in the Tampa Bay Lightning system.  During the 96-98 seasons, Drulia was third on the Detrot Vipers in points, and then led the team in points in the 98-99 season.  Both Drulia and Herbers made the NHL squad the following year.

Here’s an impressive note from the Admirals’ press release that’s worth sharing:

Before turning pro Drulia cranked out an OHL record 479 points with three different teams, a record that still stands today.

As a coach, Drulia had four straight seasons of winning records, going 181-110-26 during that time coaching Port Huron of the IHL, and Wheeling in the ECHL.   (totals include his record so far this season).

So congrats to Stan, congrats to Ian, and congrats to Marty Gelinas, who can now retire from coaching with an undefeated record.

I haven’t seen an official press release yet, but Josh Cooper and Kevin Wilson are tweetinig that Chris Mueller has been called up, and will play against his hometown Buffalo team in his 2011-12 Predators debut tonight.  He’s apparently leading the stretching at the morning skate.

I guess things like this happen when the team scores 13 goals in two games, with Preds Assistant GM Paul Fenton watching in the stands.  Good time to turn it on, although the Mueller – Thang – Bourque line was kind of quiet last night.

Mueller leads the team with 17 points, on 9 goals and 8 assists.

No word yet on who replaces him on the Ads roster for tonight’s game in Peoria.  Chris Cahill maybe, although he didn’t play in Cincy’s last game on Tuesday…perhaps due to injury?  Maybe we’ll get a wild card guy on a PTO?  And no, we won’t get James Sixsmith.  Thanks.

According to the AHL transactions page, Chris Cahill has been recalled from Cincy.

And it’ll be interesting to see what Coach Herbers does with the lines without Mueller.  We are short one of our regular centers now.  Latta’s line was great last night, so I don’t think they’d want to break that up.  And I can’t imagine that he’d want to break up the Van Flynder combo on that line.  Does Lajunen slide up to play with Bourque and Thang?  Don’t think his play has merited such a move.  Stortini and Slaney are listed as centers on the Admirals website too.  We’ll see.

I’m not going to lie.  To see Kirk Muller taking questions from the Carolina media made me a little sick to my stomach.

And from other Admirals fans I’ve talked to today, it sounds like that was a common feeling.

But life goes on, and it’s now Herbie’s time to shine.

More on Herbie in a moment…but here’s how this chain of events got started, courtesy of Canes GM Jim Rutherford.

I appreciate that the first thing he did was recognize the generosity of the Nashville Predators organization for even allowing Kirk to talk to them.  High marks for that.

Rutherford explains why they went outside the organization for this job.

Sounds an awful lot like some of the reasons that Preds assistant GM Paul Fenton selected Kirk in the first place this summer.

Both Fenton and Darren Pang were guests on the Admirals Center Ice Radio show tonight, and both had some great insights to share on the day’s news.  Panger explains why Coach Muller is the right man for the Carolina job.

Fenton explained how they weren’t going to hold Kirk back, and how he knew immediately that Ian Herbers was going to be the next head coach of your Milwaukee Admirals.

I’m curious as to what specifically Ian was told to work on.

I also find it very interesting that Fenton is so high on Herbie now, after a dark-horse candidate “trumped” him the last time around.  This past summer broke the pattern.  Peter Horachek got promoted, assistant coach Claude Noel took the reigns.  Claude Noel took an NHL job, assistant coach Lane Lambert took the reigns.  Lane Lambert got promoted… and they weren’t comfortable giving the keys to Herbie yet.

But here he is now.  And he’s ready to get back to work.

Ian found out after the Sunday afternoon drubbing in Charlotte.

At the press conference this afternoon, he explained that aside from giving press conferences, he’s got a lot of work to do to prepare for Abbotsford tomorrow night, especailly now that he’s responsible for everything — offense, defense, power play, penalty kill.  But he wore all those hats when he was the head coach in Johnstown prior to being hired by Lane.  So he’s been here before.

The last time an Admiral coaching change had been made mid-season, Darren Pang was an Admiral.  And he recalls what it was like at the time as a player.

So this will be a test for the senior leadership on this team, to make the transition as smooth as possible and to get a sense of normalcy back as soon as possible.

This state of normalcy will have a new assistant coach.  Fenton says that the search for that candidate will take….as long as it takes.

In the end?  I’m happy that Ian will be calling the shots.  I don’t expect a lot to change.  Our post-game press conferences will be different though…and that’s not necesarily a bad thing.  Kirk would give lengthy answers, but often times they didn’t directly address the question you had asked.  For example….here’s a bit from his press conference today.  He kind of answers it, but then goes through some old talking points we’ve heard already…

I’m not mad at Kirk…what else was he supposed to do?  Say no? To everyone else in the hockey world, this is a great opportunity for Kirk and a great opportunity for the Canes.  Puck Daddy lauded it.  They seem to be excited in Raleigh too.  Yeah, it stings for us right now, but in the big picture, this is a case of good things happening to good people, and we’ve got a lot of good things to look forward to from Kirk AND Ian.

Kirk, best of luck with your new team, and please feel free to call up all the star players from the Checkers right before the next time we play them.  Thanks in advance.

We’ll have more coverage on this later, but the Admirals confirmed some things at an afternoon press conference.

1.  Ian Herbers is the new head coach.  There isn’t an “interim” status — he’s the man.  And at this stage of the season, there really is no better candidate for the job.

2.  Marty Gelinas will act as a temporary assistant coach, which I think is a GREAT idea.  I think he’ll be great in this role…He is, of course, the Director of Player Development for the Predators.  So there’s already a strong relationship there between this young team and a mentor.

Again, I’ll write some more stuff later, but be sure to tune into the Admirals Center Ice Radio Show on Sportsradio 1250 tonight.  Listen online at sportsradio1250.com .  Coach Herbers will be on the show, as will Asst GM Paul Fenton, Captain Scott Ford, and analyst Darren Pang, who should have some good insight on what has been quite the day for HR offices in the NHL.

Coming as little surprise, Ian Herbers was named Milwaukee’s new head coach Monday afternoon, replacing the departed Kirk Muller, who left to take over the head coaching duties of the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL.

Herbers becomes Milwaukee’s sixth coach in the franchise’s American Hockey League history. His debut as the Admirals bench boss will take place Tuesday night against Abbotsford.

The promotion for Herbers comes after two-plus seasons as an assistant coach with the Admirals. On an interim basis Nashville’s Director of Player Development Martin Gelinas will serve as Herbers assistant coach.

So Roundtable . . . What do think of today’s monumental events? Is Ian Herbers ready to take over as Milwaukee’s head coach after being passed over during the offseason in favor of Kirk Muller? Are you happy for Muller, or dissappointed that he left the Admirals after just 17 games?

Previously on Admirals Roundtable….

Roman Josi was playing some good hockey for the Admirals.  And Niclas Bergfors had cleared waivers and was assigned to the Admirals.

Michael Latta’s twitter page yesterday foreshadowed a promotion for Josi, and the Preds came through this morning with an official press release.  Roman Josi is your newest Nashville Predator, and he is currently the 8th defenseman on the roster. (Teemu Laakso is currently on injured reserve).

I doubt that they’d make this move if Josi wasn’t going to play.  So that leaves Jack Hillen and Teemu Laakso as odd men out.  I don’t expect that the Preds will be interested in carrying 8 defensemen for very long, so how is the next shoe going to drop?  Both Hillen and Laakso are on two-way deals, but require waivers.

Trade?
Assignment to Milwaukee?
One of them gets picked up on waivers?

We’ll probably find out on our next episode….

Meanwhile…

Niclas Bergfors, as Vlad pointed out in the previous post, was placed on unconditional waivers yesterday.  Today he cleared, and that should be the end of his relationship with the Nashville Predators organization.

Not sure what prompted the the unconditional waivers…maybe the Preds didn’t want to pay him big bucks to play in Milwaukee, maybe he pitched a fit about a minor league assignment, maybe they didn’t want to mess with the chemistry of the team down here with a guy who couldn’t or wouldn’t play the scheme….whatever the reason, you can cancel your Niclas Bergfors jersey order now.  (speaking of jerseys…there are some Black Friday discounts over at the Ads website…may be worth your time.)

David Poile has made some good under-the-radar free agent signings over the years, but this wasn’t one of them.  Still, credit the team for addressing it in November instead of March.