BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Camp and training time is up. It’s showtime for the 2018-19 Hartford Wolf Pack.
“We’re very excited,” said Pack head coach Keith McCambridge, who enters his third year in Hartford and second as the bench boss. “We have had a week of practice to work on getting ready for the game. The pace and execution was very good today and we’re ready for the puck to drop for the players and get the season started.“
The latest edition of the Wolf Pack to grace the XL Center ice is the 22nd edition of the Wolf Pack and by far the youngest they have ever fielded.
20 players from last season’s teams, excluding those now with the Rangers or with Maine (ECHL), are in different hockey cities around on the planet. They include Toronto, Utah, Germany, Austria, and South Korea.
The experience of the team is in goal as opposed to last year when they started the season with two rookies in Alexander Georgiev, and Chris Nell in net. This year, the Wolf Pack will start with two veterans. The rest of the squad is a made up of primarily first and second-year pros.
The duo of Czech native Marek Mazanec, 27, entering his second season with the Wolf Pack, and AHL veteran, Dustin Tokarski, 29, will be manning the fort especially early in the season as this team takes time to jell together.
“It’s a very important position to have experience in goal. Last year, we had two first-year goaltenders trying to learn their trade. Over time, Georgiev turned into a very good goalie and Nell had some strong games. Both Mazanec and Tokarski give the organization quality depth. Their experience in playing in critical situations will be an asset for the team.”
The average age of the team, minus its five veterans, is 21.88 years of age. Toss in the “old goats,” Peter Holland, 27, Tokarski, 27, Cole Schneider, 28, Shawn O’Donnell, 30, and Bobby Butler, 31, and the average age of the team escalates to 23.65.
“Youth brings energy and enthusiasm every day, fresh legs and will cut down on the amount of razors we use,“ McCambridge joked.
The defense corps will have eight members to start the season.
John Gilmour, 25, is back in Hartford and enters his third year. Rob O’Gara, 25, a Yale grad, is in year two. Vince Pedrie, 24, enters his second year. Brandon Crawley, 21, is also in year two while Ryan Lindgren, Libor Hajak, and Sean Day are all 20 in their first full season.
“Chris (Bigras) came here and he has taken advantage of his chance and had a very good camp and he and John (Gilmour) we’re gonna lean on them a bit. We have eight defensemen here so of course two guys will have to sit, but we have a very deep group here.”
Gilmour, despite being sent down, continues to be the happy warrior.
“I’m more comfortable with the process now in my third year. I think we have a very strong group here. We have to be a strong team giving 110% every night and every shift. That was said a lot in camp. It’s going to come down to work ethic and I have had some success in this league and I want to replicate that and get back to New York, but it comes down to using my best assets.”
Lindgren, Hajak and Day all have the “blue-chip” label attached to them.
“They all have strong parts to their game and we’re expecting them to contribute in a significant way,” said McCambridge of the three.
Up front, the Wolf Pack have an interesting meld of players. There are some blue chippers, several unknowns and several vets at interesting stages of their career.
The top bluechip returning for a second tour in Hartford is 19-year-old, Lias Andersson, who turns 20 next week. He came to Hartford mid-season last year after the World Junior Championships from Team Sweden with an injured left shoulder. This year, after a strong camp in New York, he was surprisingly reassigned to Hartford.
“It’s not hard to keep Lias focused on his goal of getting to the National Hockey League. There have been many other first rounders who have come through and spent time in the American League. When I was in Winnipeg, I coached Mark Scheifele, Joel Armia, and Josh Morrissey. They all had to spend time at this level, and (Andersson) is only 19. He is driven and focused and will continue to work on his craft down here and have him ready whenever the opportunity presents itself to be ready to go to New York.
“There is a lot of trust in Lias having him getting those quality minutes. We had him last year getting powerplay and penalty kill time and he will likely have a lot of those minutes again.” Remarked McCambridge of the youthful prodigy.
Steven Fogarty is a combination of known and unknown. He enters his third year and he is known as defensive forward with some strong skills in taking draws, leadership, and can play center or wing. However, he was a minus-25 last year. Then again, he has shown flashes of his offensive skills. Who can forget his three-on-five shorthanded goal from last season?
In their lone pre-season game, he made a sweet setup of Shawn Ouellette St. Amant’s eventual game-winning goal early in the third period.
“I had a very good summer of training and came in healthy. That helps. I had a very good camp,” said Fogarty who noted that the message of shoot-first was omnipresent in camp. “They have stressed it, and if you shoot you can get rebounds to create chances for scoring. We’re good enough players at passing, you just can’t pass up those shooting chances.”
At 6’6, Tim Gettinger clearly is a player who can be recognized immediately out on the ice at left wing. He played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds who went deep in the OHL playoffs, but fell just a bit short of their goal of the Memorial Cup. Gettinger had 33 goal and 69 points in 66 games last year
Ty Ronning, who has such an impressive hockey pedigree. His father, Cliff Ronning, was a long time NHL’er. He arrives after a five-year WHL career with the Vancouver Giants. He played at the end of each of the last two Wolf Pack seasons and his quick pace fits the needs of an NHL aspirant. After a year as their defensive center handling PK duties and anchoring the fourth line, Gabriel Fontaine, is expected to be more offensively involved. Ryan Gropp showed moments of his offensive skills last season and battled through a couple of injury stretches.
St. Amant acquitted himself well in a one-game audition and earned himself an AHL one-way deal. He comes to Hartford off back-to-back ECHL Kelly Cup championship teams with the Colorado Eagles, who elevated to the AHL to be the 31st franchise and parent club of the Colorado Avalanche.
He had some AHL time with San Antonio over the course of the last two seasons when the Avalanche had the Rampage as their primary farm team.
“He came in with a fresh opportunity and he has certainly shown how he can play. We think he can provide some goals to our lineup.”
Two unknown players are off-season European free agent signees. The first is Finnish, Ville Meskanen, and the other is Swedish, Mikael Lindqvist.
The veterans have different paths and will be counted on to help shepard this team early and provide the guidance for these young players.
Schneider, the team’s scorer last year was named the 11th captain in Wolf Pack history and his assistant captains are Fogarty and O’Gara.
“It means a lot when you get the respect of your coaching staff and teammates. It’s something I have wanted to do and I’m excited about it.”
McCambridge who got to see Schneider up-close in a leadership role in an unofficial audition when Joe Whitney’s time as captain was short-circuited and became the third straight captain traded.
“The way Cole approaches the game, he’s very professional about it. The way he comes to the rink and works. He’s not afraid to be vocal in a positive way and you have to have that voice in the room that keep things in alignment as you go through a whole season.” McCambridge said. “When I came into the locker room during games, I found he was on the same wavelength as I was when we needed to address things between periods of games.”
Schneider clearly has strong offensive instincts. Holland, who arrived for 18 games after being acquired from Laval, really help stabilize the Wolf Pack and gave them some offensive jump when they so desperately needed it. Both players are in the last year of two year deals.
“I think very highly of Peter. He came in here and played very well for us. He clearly gave us a first line centerman and can play in all situations. He was a force and got rewarded with a call-up,” remarked McCambridge of the slick-skating center.
Butler was an offseason free agent best known in New England from his college days at the University of New Hampshire (HE) where he registered 111 AHL goals in 288 games with Binghamton, Albany, San Antonio, and Milwaukee and 130 NHL games with 49 points,
He also working toward his post-hockey career as he was signed to be the Director of Player Development with the Boston Jr. Bruins (USPHL-Elite) this year.
At age 30, O’Donnell seems to have more lives than a curious cat, is here on a AHL one-way deal and he is being heavily relied on to be the locker room presence Whitney was not.
The Wolf Pack have sent a number of players who will be a part of the depth structure this season to their new Double AA affiliate, the Maine Mariners.
Among those being sent to Portland, Maine are two goalies in Brandon Halverson and Chris Nell, who are in the last year of their contracts. Also, sent up north is training camp invitee, but a Mariners signing, in Connor LaCouvee. Defenseman Derek Pratt, the UCONN alum and Scott Savage both played the Wolf Pack’s lone preseason game.
The forwards sent to the Mariners were Dawson Leedahl, the last camp cut from Hartford, Drew Melanson, Jason Salvaggio, Riley Bourbannais, Alex Kile, and Mike Marnell.
Two players who could be assigned to Hartford at some point are on the Rangers injured list. Matt Belesky (separated shoulder) played in Hartford last year after being acquired from Boston. Boo Nieves (concussion protocol) is dealing with his third concussion in two years.
(Part II our hockey notes portion to follow)
