CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK OFF SEASON VOLUME 17 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The summer months are winding down and teams are finalizing their rosters for their respective training camps in North America. Around the world, however, some seasons have already begun. It was another busy week in the hockey world.

PLAYER & COACHING MOVEMENT

Ex-CT Whale/Wolf Pack Kris Newbury signs with the Brampton Beast (ECHL), the ECHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens after a year in Europe.

Ex-Pack, Alexandre Giroux, 37, signs with the Thetford Mines (LNAH) for next season as he winds down his playing career.

Ex-Pack, Devin DiDiomete, has gone from SHC Fassa (Italy-AlpsHL) to SG Cortina (Italy-AlpsHL) for next season.

Ex-Pack goalie, Miika Wiikman, stays in England, shifting from Milton Keynes Lightning to the Coventry Blaze (England-EIHL).

Now an ex-Pack defenseman, Brendan Kotyk, who played seven games last year in Hartford, has signed a deal with Toledo (ECHL).

Hershey signed ex-CT Whale defenseman, Logan Pyett to a one-year AHL deal.

Pyett was out of hockey for a year batting sarcoma cancer, a bone cancer in his upper thigh. Pyett beat that strain of cancer and has been working his himself back into game shape.

The 30-year-old defenseman played last year with the Tokohu Free Blades in Japan in the Asia League Ice Hockey (ALIH) as part of his game training. In 26 games, Pyett scored four goals and 15 points and 49 PIM. Pyett borrowed some playbooks from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach, Scott Gordon, to aid his rehab training. He was supposed to play with the Phantoms two years ago when the cancer was discovered.

Should Pyett have a full and successful AHL season next year, he would certainly be a frontrunner for the AHL Hunt Trophy.

AHL’ers moving to Europe continues.

Zach Sill of the Hershey Bears heads over to play with HC Sparta Prague (Czech Republic-CEL). Paul Postma of the Providence Bruins heads to AK Bars Kazan (Russia-KHL) and Lance Bouma Rockford goes to HC-Geneva Servette (Switzerland-LNA).

Yaroslav Dyblenko has already switched teams after leaving Binghamton his contract was traded from St. Petersburg to Spartak Moscow (Russia-KHL) in training camp.

The AHL to Euro list stands at 72 players from 26 teams.

Three AHL free agent signings.

Wayne Simpson goes from Hershey to the Rochester Americans while Chase Balisy, who bedeviled the Wolf Pack the last two years in Springfield with the Thunderbirds signs a one-year, two-way deal with the Ottawa/Belleville Senators for $650K-NHL/$135K–AHL.

Six more collegians sign North American pro deals.

Brady Tkachuk leaves BU after just one year and signs an NHL entry-level with Ottawa. He can be assigned to Belleville (AHL). He was drafted fourth overall in June’s NHL Draft. Former Terrier teammate, Nikolas Olsson, signs with Adirondack Thunder (ECHL).

Jordan Klimek goes from Northern Michigan University (NCHC) to Kansas City Mavericks (ECHL). Joining him in Kansas City will be Brett Beauvais from Robert Morris (AHC), Tim Shoup heads from Dartmouth College (ECACHL) to Orlando (ECHL) and Dexter Dancs goes from the University Michigan (Big 10) to Idaho Steelheads (ECHL).

Three more college players are off to Europe in Tanner Jaillet who had the nation’s best GAA at 1.89 with Denver University (NCHC) signs with EHC Wolfsburg (Germany-DEL), Dan Kelly goes from Tufts University (NESCAC) in Boston to Toulouse BHC (France Division-2) and Kevin Loppatto Manhattanville College (UCHC) to Vannas HC (Sweden Division-1) .

That makes 30 college players from all divisions to sign in Europe, 178 Division I players have signed North American deals and 235 total who have signed North American and European pro deals.

Former Nighthawk, Bud Stefanski, is stepping back behind the bench. Stefanski joins the OHL Sudbury Wolves with his son-in-law, former NHL’er Riley Stillman, as an assistant coach.

Stefanski’s grandson, and Stillman’s son, Riley, will be with the Springfield Thunderbirds in the fall.

After 12 years in Peterborough, the last six as head coach, ex-Hartford Whaler and New York Ranger, Jody Hull, was named the new associate head coach of the Niagara Ice Dogs (OHL) for next season. Hul played in 831 NHL games over a 16 season career, including 118 with the Whalers and 50 with the Rangers.

Former Whaler, Mark Hunter, left the Toronto Maple Leafs to return as the GM of the London Knights (OHL) coached by his brother, Dale.

In a very surprising move, Austin Mikesch, the eldest child of former Beast of New Haven forward Pat Mikesch, played with the Nipawin Hawks (SJHL), the team the Humboldt Broncos (SJHL) were heading to play on that fateful day last April. Mikesch has decided to join the Broncos this season.

Pat Mikesch is the head coach/GM of the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL).

Hlinka-Gretzky Cup results

The Canadians captured gold in the five-day Hlinka-Gretzky Cup tournament held in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta this year. The Canadian team defeated Sweden 6-2 in Edmonton last Sunday. The tourney was held in Canada for the first time since 1986. Former Wolf Pack goaltending great, Jason LaBarbera, was part of the gold medal squad as a goaltending consultant. Alexis Lafreniere from Rimouski (QMJHL) scored twice. He will clearly be a top five draft pick next summer.

Canada has secured gold 22 times in 28 years in this summer hockey tourney honoring the memory of great Czech great, Ivan Hlinka.

The US lost to Russia in the bronze medal game 5-4. Vasili Podkolzin had a hat-trick with two-of-the-three-goals coming on spectacular shots. He led the tournament with eight goals and clearly increased his draft stock for next year. The US’s Connor Hughes was a standout and earned a top five-star rating toward the draft as well.

Russia’s Ilya Nikolayev may have scored an even better goal then Podkozin and Hughes. He first went with a backhand spin-a-rama and the shot got blocked, then he got the puck back and scored to the short-side displaying tremendous agility.

ECHL AFFILIATIONS MAP

Lots of movements in the Double AA affiliate map for the AHL as the leagues try to sync up with a 31-NHL, 31-AHL, and 31-ECHL pyramid structure being the desired goal. The ECHL is always will be difficult because they fall outside of the current CBA agreement with the NHL and the AHL CBA agreement. The ECHL has its own player agreement.

The switches have been numerous with Toronto leaving Orlando and going to St. John’s (Newfoundland Growlers). Orlando then hooks up with Syracuse (Tampa Bay). Meanwhile, the Rangers departed from Greenville to go to Maine (Portland). The Minnesota Wild makes a change too after the Quad City Mallards dropped to the SPHL. They now have a new agreement with the  Allen Americans in Allen, TX.

The St. Louis Blues, now in San Antonio, hooks up with the Tulsa Oilers after the Winnipeg Jets left there. The Jets, in turn, hooked up with Jacksonville, FL while Arizona/Tucson is now in Norfolk. Then there’s the Colorado Avalanche who have a new AHL affiliate in the Colorado Eagles (Loveland) who now have Utah, who split from Anaheim.

Three ECHL teams are without NHL/AHL affiliates. That makes five NHL organizations without a Double AA affiliate.

The ECHL cities are Ft. Wayne, Greenville, and Rapid City.

The NHL teams without an ECHL affiliation are San Jose, Columbus, Florida, Las Vegas and Anaheim.

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE HOCKEY

In Australia, the nation’s capital city team, the Canberra (CBR) Brave, sit atop the short, thirty-game season AIHL as their season comes toward the end. They will then start their Goodall Cup playoffs.

Canberra is 20-4-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) for 60 points. The team’s leading scorer also tops the AIHL. He is former UCONN Husky, Trevor Gerling. His 18 goals and a league-best 38 assists (56 points), is one better than Perth Thunder’s, Pierre-Luc Grandmaison, as of the start of the weekend action starts.

Cheshire native, Rob Malloy, and his Newcastle Northstars teammates are batting his former team, the Sydney Ice Dogs for the fourth and last playoff spot. Newcastle and Sydney ice Dogs are tied at 35 points as the Northstars have a record of 8-9-0-3-4.

Malloy in his sixth AIHL season has 21 points in 21 games played with five goals and 16 assists.

In New Zealand, the Southern (Queenstown) Stampede, the defending Birgel Cup champions, will seek their fourth straight title next Friday against the winner of this Friday’s semifinal meeting between the West Auckland Admirals and the Dunedin Thunder.

The Stampede still has its player-assistant coach in Adam Blanchette (Berlin/Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack). The Stampede topped the Admirals in the short season regular season finishing first with one more win with a 13-0-0-3 record and topped the five-team league with 110 goals for and the best defense surrendering just 44 goals.