The 2013-14 AHL season is officially over. The Texas Stars defeated the St. John’s IceCaps in five-games to take home this year’s Calder Cup.

Texas finished the AHL’s regular season with the best record in the entire league. They were pushed really hard by the Toronto Marlies in an intense seven-game series to reach the Calder Cup Finals. Once they survived that test the Stars managed to take down the IceCaps before the series even shifted back to Texas for the final two-games of the seven-game series. They managed that on the back of three-consecutive overtime winners in St. John’s.

Game 1
St. John’s IceCaps, 3 @ Texas Stars, 6

Game 2
St. John’s IceCaps, 2 @ Texas Stars, 1

Game 3 (OT)
Texas Stars, 2 @ St. John’s IceCaps, 1

Game 4 (OT)
Texas Stars, 4 @ St. John’s IceCaps, 3

Game 5 (OT)
Texas Stars, 4 @ St. John’s IceCaps, 3

You can’t say this series wasn’t a blow out or anything. Even on paper, the IceCaps were in each and every one of these games against the Stars. The real backbreaker came from their Game 4 defeat on Monday night. The IceCaps let a 3-0 lead slip and they lost in overtime after conceding four-straight Texas goals. That allowed the series to tilt to a 3-1 series lead for the Stars. And they didn’t wait for Game 6 in Texas to clinch the Cup.

Former Admirals Chris Mueller and Kevin Henderson were part of this Calder Cup winning Texas Stars team. Mueller played in 60 games with the Stars this season and scored 57 points (25 goals, 32 assists). In the playoffs he produced 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) in 19 games. Henderson played 15 regular season games with the Stars since his loan deal from Milwaukee and picked up 9 points (5 goals, 4 assists) in that time. For his playoff run of 21 games he tallied 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists).

The man who took home the league honors as MVP this season also managed to win the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the MVP of the Calder Cup Playoffs. That man is of course 30-year old Travis Morin. During the regular season he was phenomenal: 88 points (32 goals, 56 assists) in 66 games. In the playoffs his brilliance continued all the way through the Stars run to the Calder Cup: 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists) in 21 games – including overtime game-winning goals in Game 3 and Game 4 of the Calder Cup Finals.

Are you happy to see Chris Mueller and Kevin Henderson win the Calder Cup? What do you think Francis Wathier is currently thinking? What do the Milwaukee Admirals need to do in order to be at the same level as the Texas Stars were, from start to finish, during the 2013-14 season?

In a move that really flew under the radar (not picked up until JoeBlockhead hit the Roundtable comments section up with the news) Joonas Rask has signed a two-year deal with HIFK.

The deal was actually announced on the HIFK website last week. I didn’t see or hear much made of this news. Double shame on me considering, of all Finnish teams, I’ve been following HIFK the closest because of Juuso Puustinen joining them around this time last season.

Rask made a splash in his first career North American hockey game with the Milwaukee Admirals. He scored a goal and an assist in Milwaukee as the team won 6-4 against the Charlotte Checkers.

In addition to that, he was called up to the Nashville Predators and scored an assist in his NHL debut on 4/27/13 in Columbus.

Despite that quick start, his first full professional season in North America in 2013-14 didn’t offer up enough consistency. When you consider the flashes of brilliance, speed, and skill he is capable of – and compare it to his stat line of 58 games, 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists), a plus/minus of +8, and 15 penalty minutes – it is a shame he couldn’t have done a bit more.

In my talks with Rask throughout the season I often asked him about the differences between European and North American hockey. I feel Miikka Salomaki‘s playing style ends up better suiting the North American game because of his grit and toughness. Rask meanwhile showcases great skating and stickhandling ability but can be shoved around by the bigger bodies on the ice – which close in on him far quicker on the smaller North American ice surface. I’d be curious how much of that feeling actually weighed in on his decision to return back home in Finland.

What were your impressions of Joonas Rask this season? Is there a serious learning curve to the North American style of hockey? Did HIFK just become your new favorite non-AHL or NHL team? Mine too!

Hot off the presses this morning is a report suggesting that Joonas Jarvinen has signed a deal with the Sochi Leopards of the KHL.

#Preds pending RFA Joonas Jarvinen signed deal with #Sochi of #KHL per R-sport.ru

— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) June 17, 2014

Jarvinen is a pending restricted-free agent of the Nashville Predators this off-season. Yet, with the plethora of young blue line talent coming into the Milwaukee Admirals next season (Johan Alm, Jonathan Diaby, Garrett Noonan, Jaynen Rissling, Mikko Vainonen), the room on the roster for defensemen is practically sorted.

I feel that, should this report be accurate, it will be a loss of one of the best defensive defensemen that the Admirals had last season. Injuries may have sidelined him to just 54 games in the regular season but he managed to improve his plus/minus +11 points over his rookie campaign in Milwaukee

Tough loss for the Admirals? Yes, but they have so many young names entering 2014-15 that you should expect this to be the first of a few names to be shipping out of Milwaukee this off-season. I would anticipate Vainonen to step into Jarvinen’s defensive minded role rather seamlessly for the coming season.

Also worth mentioning that the team Jarvinen would be joining, Sochinskiye Leopardy (Sochi Leopards), are a brand new franchise. Sochi, as well as Jokerit Helsinki and Lada Togliatti, are a part of the KHL’s 2014-15 expansion. Perhaps he can hip check Alexander Radulov into next week for us all while he is over there.

Thoughts on this potential move for Joonas Jarvinen? Who, if any, will remain in Milwaukee’s defense from the past season? Who is the next defenseman that will head elsewhere? Are there any defenseman that the Admirals need to keep from the past season?

The Nashville Predators have announced that Ben Vanderklok will be the team’s new goaltending coach. He will take the role served by Mitch Korn after serving as the Predators assistant goaltending coach for the past five-seasons.

Predators Press Release:

Nashville, Tenn. – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that the club has named Ben Vanderklok the team’s goaltending coach. The Welland, Ontario native has served as the organization’s assistant goaltending coach for the past five seasons.

“Ben has worked closely with all the goaltenders in our organization and has been integral in their development and success while learning from one of the best in Mitch Korn,” Poile said. “This is a natural fit to have Ben transition into the lead role, and his relationship with Pekka Rinne and Carter Hutton will make this process seamless.”

Since 2009, Vanderklok has worked nearly all the goalies within the organization, from Pekka Rinne, Carter Hutton, Anders Lindback, Chris Mason and Dan Ellis at the NHL level to Jeremy Smith, Magnus Hellberg, Marek Mazanec, Mark Dekanich and Scott Darling with the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals and ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones.

His work was integral in Mazanec’s transition to North America in 2013-14, which saw him play 25 games with the Predators, becoming the youngest in club history to record a shutout on Nov. 19, 2013 at Detroit and being named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for November 2013. Also last season, Darling came to the organization with one AHL game to his credit, and ended 2013-14 ranked among the league leaders in save percentage (.933), goals-against average (2.00) and shutouts (6) for the Admirals.

Poile also acknowledged Mitch Korn’s service and contributions to the franchise.

“We thank Mitch for his 16 years of work and dedication to the Nashville Predators, and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” he said.

Vanderklok has also worked as goalie coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s Niagara IceDogs since 2008, helping them reach the playoffs for six consecutive seasons and reach the OHL Final in 2011-12. During his first four seasons with the IceDogs, Vanderklok helped Hamilton, Ontario native Mark Visentin become a first-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes (27th overall), earn silver (2011) and bronze (2012) medals with Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, become 2011 OHL Goaltender of the Year, and earn the 2012 Dave Pinkney Trophy as the goalie with the lowest goals-against average.

Vanderklok started his coaching career with the Port Colborne Pirates of the Golden Horseshoe Junior Hockey League (Junior B) from 2003-06 before instructing and training Brock University’s (Ontario) goalies from 2007-09. Since 2003, he has run Ben Vanderklok Goaltending, which conducts camps and clinics in the St. Catharine’s, Ontario region.

A dual Canadian-Dutch citizen, Vanderklok retired from play following four seasons (2000-04) and two league titles in 2002 and 2003 with the Amsterdam Tigers of the Netherlands Elite League. He played a pair of seasons with the OHL’s Barrie Colts from 1998-2000.

The 32-year-old and his wife Marlene have a daughter, Ava.

The Roundtable did a feature story on Vanderklok back in March. Having been a fixture within the organization for as long as he has, with players and coaches alike knowing him and his work, this was a good internal hire by Nashville. It’s tough to lose someone as brilliant as Korn. But having someone like Vanderklok as a successor should lessen the bite.

Last night, the Cincinnati Cylones were shutout 4-0 in Game 6 of the 2014 Kelly Cup Finals. They were bested by the ECHL’s top team during the regular season, the Alaska Aces. It is Alaska’s third ever Kelly Cup triumph: 2005-06, 2010-11, and 2013-14.

It may not have gone the way of the Cyclones but there were some outstanding performances and positives to take from their brilliant push for the Kelly Cup this season. Let’s go through them.

The obvious positive to take out of the Cyclones successful season is that they played a deep season. It’s great for that organization but also huge in terms of player development for the likes of Taylor Aronson, Zach Budish, Magnus Hellberg, and Josh Shalla. While their fellow Nashville Predators prospects are in summer vacation mode – they were all training, practicing, and playing in a competitive atmosphere. The longer the development time – the better.

~ECHL Playoff Stats~

Shalla: 23 GP, 17 points (11 goals, 6 assists), +2, 14 PIM
Budish: 24 GP, 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists), +7, 12 PIM
Aronson: 24 GP, 7 assists, +6, 18 PIM

Hellberg: 0 GP

Alright, so you’re thinking Hellberg didn’t really gain much during this time. Think again. From his injury in January to his eventual return with the Cyclones in late-March he was doing next to nothing as far as on-ice activity. If anything, he was practicing lightly as he slowly pushed himself back to game shape. The entirety of the Cyclones Kelly Cup run he has been healthy and working. Think of it this way. In what could be a lost season for him in his development – the Cyclones deep run may have offered him a lifeline to get his time out with injury back.

Speaking of Hellberg, it must have been a humbling season for him in the case of not getting the net. Marek Mazanec took his spot in Nashville. Scott Darling nudged him aside in Milwaukee. And then Rob Madore was “the man” in Cincinnati. Milwaukee Admirals head coach Dean Evason always told me that Hellberg is very accountable of himself and his performances. That’s something I agree with in my two-seasons around the big Swede. It’s that mentality that should have made his sitting on the bench during the Kelly Cup Finals run not as much of a bummer as you would expect. After all, his counter-part was making a name for himself.

The MVP of the 2014 Kelly Cup Finals wasn’t awarded to a member of the winning Alaska Aces. Instead, for the first time in ECHL history, it was given to the side that came up short. It was awarded to netminder Rob Madore. During the Cyclones run to the Kelly Cup he started all 24 games, won 14, had a 2.29 goals against average, and a 0.930 save percentage. In short, he was astonishingly good all throughout the playoffs.

Madore was under contract to the San Antonio Rampage. According to CapGeek, similar to Darling on the Predators page, he doesn’t exist! I’ll take that as a one-year deal that expires this off-season UFA style. If I’m right, I think Mr. Madore did himself just as much justice in the ECHL Playoffs as Darling did for the Admirals this season. He performed well enough to get on plenty of teams’ radar. Madore turned 26-years old in May. Darling will turn 26-years old in December. Needless to say the goaltending options are out there this off-season – two of which coming right out of our organization (Milwaukee and Cincinnati).

How do you feel the Milwaukee Admirals products performed during the Cincinnati Cyclones Kelly Cup run? Does their extended playoff run help them heading into the 2014-15 AHL season?

2014 Calder Cup Finals
St. John’s IceCaps vs. Texas Stars

St. John’s IceCaps: 46-23-5-8, 11-5-0 in playoffs, 258 goals scored & 47 in playoffs; 207 goals against & 28 in playoffs. Texas Stars: 48-18-3;11-5-0 in playoffs, 274 goals scored & 53 in playoffs; 197 goals against & 39 in playoffs.

The Calder Cup semifinals wrapped up last night in stunning blowout fashion as Eastern Conference champion St. John’s and Western Conference champion Texas each scored convincing knock out victories over their opponents. The IceCaps took Game Six 5-0 over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, while Stars stormed through Game Seven 6-2 over Toronto, which had yet to lose prior to the conference finals.

Heading into the championship series both franchises have short histories in the American Hockey League. Texas arrived in the Austin area for the 2009-2010 campaign, as the new incarnation of the Iowa Chops. Meanwhile, St. John’s joined the AHL for 2011-2012 as the minor league affiliate of Winnipeg. The city had been home to the Manitoba Moose, but that franchise needed to skip town after the arrival of the Jets. Despite incredible success on the ice and at the ticket office during its first three years, the AHL’s only Atlantic Canada franchise is likely on the move soon. Winnipeg would prefer to relocate the team to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and other teams would prefer not making the trip to St. John’s.

All season I have been grossly underestimating Texas, the highest scoring team in the west and arguably the most veteran team in the league. A couple of familiar former Admirals, Chris Mueller and Kevin Henderson are key contributors for the club. Mueller, who played in nine games for Dallas, including four playoff games this spring, has five goals and eight points in 14 post season contest, while Henderson has six points in 16.

Travis Morin is still the key cog, who along with fellow veteran Mike Hedden lead the team with 15 playoff points each. Two others with plenty of NHL games on their resume are also key contributors, defenseman Derek Meech (notably with Detroit) and forward Dustin Jeffrey (notably with Pittsburgh). Goaltending duties have been shared by prospect Jack Campbell and veteran Christopher Nilstorp, but the big Swede (9-4-0, 2.14 G.A.A., .914 S.P.) was the team’s go-to option against the Marlies.

With a roster also light on rookies, St. John’s most dangerous trio has been recent Chicago Wolves forward Andrew Gordon (team-leading 16 points), top prospect Eric O’Dell (team-leading nine goals) and 32-year-old Jason Jaffray (10 points). Much like Toronto, the IceCaps really excel in their transition game, with three pace pushers in Will O’Neill (team-leading 11 assists), Zach Redmond and 2013 first-round pick Josh Morrissey starring on the blue line. Former Boston Bruins third-rounder Michael Hutchinson has been dynamite in goal for the Newfoundlanders (11-5-0, 1.61 G.A.A., .946 S.P.), and could easily be the playoff’s MVP.

If the Stars have enough in the tank, they should be favored in this series considering their goal scoring prowess, veteran roster and home dominance in the playoffs — six wins in eight games on home ice this post season. The IceCaps also went 6-2-0 on home ice during the playoffs, and could turn around the series with two or three wins on the island in front of its rabid fan base. Hutchinson could be the key in a potential upset.

So far I’ve been wrong about the Stars in the first round and wrong about them in the Western finals. I don’t think I will be here. I see Texas winning its first ever Calder Cup, four years after losing in the finals, with a six-game decision this June.

Bonus Stanley Cup Finals Prediction

The Los Angeles Kings ride Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, plus it’s size and depth up front for a six-game series victory in this epic goaltending clash.

So Roundtable . . . Who do you have in the Calder Cup and Stanley Cup Finals? Who are your MVPs? Are you rooting for Texas due to the Mueller/Henderson connections?

The Nashville Predators were pretty active this afternoon. They’ve signed two players to contracts. The first came for right winger Max Gortz on a three-year entry level contract. That was promptly followed up by the re-signing of goaltender Carter Hutton on a two-year contract.

The deal for Hutton is one that I think is greatly deserved. When Pekka Rinne went down at the start of the season it started a mad scramble of who can plug the Nashville net. Hutton? Magnus Hellberg? Marek Mazanec? Devan Dubnyk?

If you ask me, the best thing that could have happened to Hutton was the move for Dubnyk because from that point forward he really seemed to step up big. He played in 40 games, won 20 games, had a 2.62 goals against average, a 0.910 save percentage, and recorded his first career NHL shutout in his second to last start of the season.

What does this signing means for the likes of Hellberg and Mazanec? I believe this shouldn’t be viewed as a negative for them as much as it should a positive. While Mazanec had a decent season between the AHL and NHL – he still could benefit from more time here in Milwaukee. As for Hellberg, anything could be better for him than what he’s endured this season. Thinking about a goaltending tandem of Maz and Mags in Milwaukee for next season, with both staying healthy, could be great for the Admirals and both young netminders in the system.

Now, about this Gortz kid. He was the Predators sixth-round selection in the 2012 NHL Draft and has played his entire career to this point in Sweden. Per the official press release:

Gortz, 21 (1/28/93), started the 2013-14 season with Farjestad (SHL), before transferring to Frolunda (SHL) on Dec. 9, 2013. The Hoor, Sweden native led Frolunda – and tied for third among all skaters in the 2014 SHL Quarterfinals – in points (5) and goals (3). The 6-3, 200-pound right winger has 70 points (37g-33a) in 106 career Swedish junior league games with Malmo and Farjestad, and 30 points (19g-11a) in 108 SHL games with Farjestad and Frolunda, while posting seven points (3g-4a) in 18 career SHL postseason contests, and 14 points (8g-6a) in 15 career Swedish junior league playoff games.

Nashville’s eighth choice, 172nd overall (sixth round), in the 2012 Entry Draft, Gortz helped Sweden win the 2012 Under-20 Four-Nations Tournament, tying for the team lead in points (1g-2a-3pts), and earned a bronze medal at the 2010 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge.

The Swedish contingent in Milwaukee is growing. It wasn’t even a week ago when the Predators brought in another Swede on an entry-level deal in Johan Alm.

Thoughts on today’s moves from the Nashville Predators? What do you think the re-signing of Carter Hutton means for Magnus Hellberg and Marek Mazanec?