CANTLON’S CORNER: McCambridge and Rangers Fleshing Out Roster and Staff
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – As the summer rolls on, the business of hockey continues to move along as well. For the Hartford Wolf Pack, this has been a very busy off-season.
The rebuild of the Pack began with the firing of Head Coach Ken Gernander, who was not only the team’s all-time winningest and tenured coach but who’d been the face of the franchise from his playing days as the team captain. Gernander was replaced by one of his assistants, Keith McCambridge. Chris Drury, the Trumbull native, and an ex-New York Ranger became the team’s newest GM replacing Jim Schoenfeld. The rebuilding effort on the ice has been in full swing as well.
One of the many pieces still being worked on is the hiring of a new assistant coach. That person has been selected, but they are not ready to announce it as of yet. McCambridge told Howlings, “Right now things (the contract) are being finalized, but we will make an announcement in a few weeks.”
When asked about the position the new coach played on the ice, McCambridge replied, “I can say it’s a defenseman. When I was coaching Manitoba or St. John’s, I handled the forwards there. While I played as a defenseman, we will have a person handling the defense this season.” This will keep the Wolf Pack streak of former defenseman as assistants intact joining the club of Mike Busniuk, Ulf
If the new coach is indeed a former defenseman, it keeps alive a streak for the Wolf Pack of former defenseman as an Assistant to the Head Coach. THis person will join the club of Mike Busniuk, Ulf Samuelsson, JJ Daigneault, Jeff Beukeboom, and McCambridge.
The team’s Assistant GM and coach, the highly regarded Pat Boller, will return. Boller has been the driving force behind keeping the train running for a team that deals with a voluminous amount of administrative work. Boller also helps with the practice sessions as well.
McCambridge had a lot of input in an important signing for the team and a big asset to the forwards. The team signed center Dan DeSalvo, who played under McCambridge two years ago in Manitoba. In a 17 game recall, he logged 14 goals with 51 points in 55 games with Tulsa (ECHL).
After starting last season by registering 13 points in 12 games with Tulsa, DeSalvo came up to the Moose and popped in 18 goals and 40 points in 66 games. He’s a natural center and fills in the required boxes for offensive skills, faceoff ability, and will help the powerplay. These are all areas the Wolf Pack desperately lacked last season.
“(DeSalvo has) very good quickness and vision. He came up when I was there and did well. He really worked in Manitoba last year to get into the lineup and played a lot of first line minutes. He generates offense.”
Veteran AHL writer Pat Williams of the NHL.com and Around the A.com while covering Manitoba thinks he’s a quality signing. “He did very well two years ago on a bad Moose team and he really improved even more last year and utilizes his wingers and will give you some offensive pop.”
Few are returning from last year’s roster. The very few people that are coming back are mostly entering the last year of their respective deals. Those who were unrestricted free agents (UFA’s) or were on one-year deals were not invited back.
Among the departed are Chris Summers, who’s off to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. Marek Hrivik left for the Stockton Heat. Magnus Hellberg left the country for China-KHL. Philip McRae left for Finland-FEL while Taylor Beck is heading to Russia-KHL. The team’s biggest loss is Nicklas Jensen who has officially signed with Jokerit Helsinki (Finland-FEL).
“(Beck’s loss) is tough. We had given him a qualifying offer, but he and his agent felt playing over there was s better option. Jenner played very well for us. He was an obvious offensive force and it’s big hole in our lineup to be filled.”
The latest signee is Westport native, and Choate grad, defenseman, Mike Paliotta, signed with the Toronto Marlies.
Matt Carey, who earned the right to a comeback with his strong second half of last season, will not be back, nor will Tommy Hughes. The one player still on the Pack brass’ radar is goalie Jeff Malcolm. He’s been an in dispensable insurance policy since his arrival from Yale four years ago. With a second year pro on the roster (Brandon Halverson and rookie Chris Nell), they have only two goalies now and need to shore that area up.
“I really can’t comment on Jeff’s status at this time.”
Translation code: We’re talking, but no deal is done.
There are two new pieces to the puzzle that have been added with the signings of Paul Carey (no relation to Matt Carey) and Cole Schneider. McCambridge is pleased with both additions.
“We still have Ranger camp, so before we can pick a team,” McCambridge said. “Carey we saw a lot of last year with Hershey. He’s a really good 200-foot player. He has a good shot and goes to the net and was net front on the power play. He brings a lot of upside.”
Schneider, a UConn alumnus, will play on the wing.
“Clearly, he has offensive upside with some good speed, and shot, from off the wing. We think if he is here, he would provide clear help scoring up front and like Carey had power play time in Rochester.”
One thing really pleasing to McCambridge is the early release of the AHL schedule. The planning for the six-month regular season now has given them the breathing room they lacked with the late August release over the last several years.
“Going into the summer, you always had to wait until August and there was a real crunch time to organize things. This gives some real freedom to coordinate all the various pieces, especially with travel both here and on the road for practice time. Dealing with the logistics of travel, regarding hotels, we have to balance all these things and personal needs, so I’m really pleased the schedule is out early.”
He was a bit disappointed in the playoff structure. The league will remain the top four teams from each division as opposed to the Top 8 in each conference from two years ago.
“I really think that (Top 8) format was better. I thought it made for a better balance, but we have got to work with what we have.”
The pieces of the 2017-18 season are fitting into place for what management hopes will be a long run into next summer.
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