BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Much is going on in the hockey world. You would think the hockey season is coming to a close with the playoffs in the conference finals, but the hockey world is not slowing down.
The hockey hotbed of North America in May of 2019 is actually North Carolina.
The red-hot Carolina Hurricanes knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champions Washington Capitals and followed by sweeping the New York Islanders, but have been derailed from their express to the Stanley Cup Finals by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals. The Bruins have won the first three games in the contemporary version of a Hartford Whaler – Bruins, Adams Division rivalry redux some 22 years later.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes AHL farm team, the Charlotte Checkers, who were the league’s best team throughout the regular season, have been true to form in the playoffs. They took out the Boston affiliate, the Providence Bruins in four games, and then swept the red-hot Hershey Bears, who ironically enough are the Washington Capitals affiliates.
Charlotte scored seven goals in Game 2. That was the first time Hershey has surrendered seven goals in a playoff game since 2012. They scored two late goals in the third period of Game 3 to take a 3-1 win. They won Game 4, 6-2, with Aleksi Saarela, a one time Rangers draft pick, scoring a hat trick. Ex-Pack defenseman, Bobby Sanguinetti picked up two assists.
The seven wins in eight games came despite the Checkers losing their leading scorer, Andrew Poturlarksi, for two games to an undisclosed injury. They also had to deal with briefly losing their goalie, Alex Neidljkovic, who was recalled to the big club in Carolina. They lost top defenseman, Jake Bean, for the rest of the playoffs as a result of the Hurricanes Trevor Van Riemsdyk’s season-ending shoulder injury that required surgery on the Hurricanes.
Bean got replaced by a sixth-round ‘Canes prospect, Jesper Sellegren, whose Swedish postseason was over.
The Checkers will meet up with the Toronto Marlies, another scorching hot and unbeaten playoff team in the Eastern Conference Finals. Without disrespecting the other teams in the race for the Championship, the battle between Charlotte and Toronto is the real Calder Cup final. It will be played starting in Charlotte next Friday and they’ll play in a 2-3-2 format.
Should Carolina find a way back into the series with Boston, or Charlotte were to win it all, or both squads capture gold, there is one person to thank, former GM Ron Francis who was unceremoniously demoted and let relieved of his position by new Carolina owner, Tom Dundon, last year. Most of the players in Carolina and a vast majority of the Charlotte team became part of the organization under his watch.
As if the franchise’s success weren’t enough with both the NHL and AHL teams in their respective conference finals, the Hurricanes ECHL team, the Florida Everblades, are playing the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers in one of the ECHL semi-finals.
In the other two series, each has a big Game 6 on Monday.
The Chicago Wolves lead the Iowa Wild three games to two winning Game 5 on Friday 7-4 with a Curtis McKenzie scoring a hat trick. The balanced scoring saw three Wolves players register a goal and assist. The contributors were Stefan Matteau, Gabe Quinney and Daniel Carr.
Iowa was led by Ryan Donato, the son of ex-Pack/Sound Tiger, Ted Donato, who tallied his first two AHL playoff goals.
In Game 4, Iowa won as Gerald Mayhew scored his AHL playoff best 9th goal and was rewarded the next day with a new, two-year, two-way contract. It will pay him $700K-NHL/$100K-AHL in the first year, and $700K-NHL/$150K-AHL the second year.
In the Pacific Division final, two of the AHL’s higher scoring teams have been just that with the Gulls up three games to two on Bakersfield Condors.
The Gulls newest addition paid off big dividends in the first two games.
Maxime Comtois fresh off a seven-game QMJHL series with the Drummondville Voltigeurs scored the game-winner, his first AHL playoff goal in Game 1 ending the 5th longest playoff game in AHL history at 4:20 of the 4th overtime.
He scored the game-winner in a 4-1 Game 2 victory the following day for San Diego.
Bakersfield Joe Gambardella tallied five points (three goals and two assists) in a wild 7-6 OT win in which Bakersfield scored with 11 seconds left in regulation off the stick of the high scoring, Tyler Benson, who had his first playoff goal.
It was also the first time the Condors scored a goal with an extra attacker all season!
William Lagesson won it just 33 seconds into overtime for Bakersfield.
The Condors won Game 5 in double-overtime 2-1 at 13:02 by Josh Currie.
Big news from the top of the AHL mountain.
Dave Andrews has informed the AHL Board of Governors that he will step down from his position after the 2019-20 season, his 26th season. Andrews has helped shepherd the AHL through some amazing growth and expansion from the 16-team league he inherited from the late Jake Butterfield.
The timing of Andrews retirement It makes sense. It would come after the expected NHL work stoppage that will affect the AHL. The American League will see their respective rosters expand as they have during other labor intense times. They will be flooded with many top prospects and shine a very bright light on the AHL, especially if there is no NHL hockey for a potentially significant period of time.
Andrews will be working with Seattle to plant the 32nd AHL flag in a North American city. He will have to help them resolve some team locations such as possible issues in Hartford and Bridgeport because of the unresolved XL Center issues and the expiration of the 20-year lease at the Webster Bank Arena which comes in two years with the building now run by OVG.
When Seattle does make its choice it will likely initiate Vancouver switching from having their team in Utica move to out West as part of the final realignment of the AHL and North American minor pro hockey.
It will also usher in a whole new era at the top and there will now be a significant search to find his replacement.
This signals an end to one era for the AHL and the beginning of a new. It might even include a switch in league headquarters.
Looking at the map since Andrews took over the AHL landscape, there is a greater concentration now in more Midwest and Western centered entities as money shifts to those parts of the US. The change in the center of the AHL axis is a potential byproduct in this tectonic plate change in the AHL hemisphere.
With Ken Holland leaving the Detroit Red Wings for the Edmonton Oilers, it would seem that Ron Francis would be a perfect fit for the expansion franchise in Seattle with its current hockey advisor, also a former Whaler, Dave Tippett.
With Holland’s departure, the newly named Detroit GM is Steve Yzerman, who was a playing legend in the Motor City. He brought in another former Whaler and Ranger great, Pat Verbeek with him from Tampa Bay. Verbeek will be the new assistant GM with the Red Wings, opening the door for Francis out West.
In turn, the Lightning promoted former Wolf Pack, Jamie Pushor, to assistant GM/Director of Player Development. Pushor takes Verbeek’s spot and former Choate player and NHL’er, Mathieu Darche, was hired to be the Director of Hockey Operations after not being involved in the pro game at any level for eight years.
The Flyers announced the new coaching staff for head coach, and former Ranger coach, Alain Vigneault. He will be assisted by Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo. The team returned former New Haven Nighthawk, Scott Gordon to be Head Coach for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for next season.
To nobody’s surprise, well, except for maybe conspiracy theorists, the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed a ten-year renewal of their lease at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Their original twenty-year lease was set to expire at the end of June.
Those conspiracy advocates who posted reports the team might move were, at best, ill-informed or at worst, just making stuff up. There is no way the AHL would ever let Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins leave the AHL orbit. It works out too well for its Northeast Pennsylvania corridor with Hershey and Allentown (Lehigh Valley) and the parent Pittsburgh Penguins and their ECHL affiliate the Wheeling Nailers in West Virginia all a perfect equal distance from each other for recalls.
Former UCONN Husky, Max Letunov, might hold the unofficial pro record for being traded while not on a team.
He just completed his first full pro season with the San Jose Barracuda, but his KHL rights in Russia were traded from Salavat Yulaev to Traktor Chelyabinsk. He signed a two-year deal initially with San Jose and on July 1st becomes a restricted free agent.
While with the UConn Huskies, Letunov saw the St. Louis Blues, who first drafted him, send him, then in his sophomore year, to the Arizona Coyotes.
The Coyotes then traded him to the San Jose Sharks at the 2016 NHL Draft just before his junior season.
Salavat drafted him in the 1st round (26th overall) in the 2013 KHL Draft and have held his rights since. In addition, he was drafted by Swift Current (WHL) in the CHL Import Draft in 2015 but was drafted the year before by Youngstown (USHL) and he opted to play there to maintain his NCAA eligibility and go to UCONN after rescinding his commitment to the University of New Hampshire (Hockey East).
Arizona State University, presently an NCAA Division I independent program, will become the first NCAA Division I school to play in China in July/August. Read the following story on this inaugural event HERE.
WORLD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Worlds are officially underway in Slovakia. A few familiar names dot the lineups and benches of the ten participating teams in the final major international hockey tournament of the 2018-19 season.
The US squad has ex-Pack and current Rangers, Chris Kreider, and Brady Skeij as well as the team’s newest signee, Adam Fox. Hartford GM, Rangers Assistant GM and Trumbull native, Chris Drury, is the team’s GM. Ranger GM Jeff Gorton is on the Team USA Advisory panel.
Canada has ex-CT Whale, Jonathan Marchessault, as well as, Sean Couturier, the son of ex-Nighthawk Sylvain Couturier, who is currently the GM of Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL). Also, there is a late addition in Pierre-Luc Dubois, the son of ex-Nighthawk Eric Dubois, and current Rangers assistant coach, Lindy Ruff.
Russia has current Ranger/Wolf Pack goalie Alexander Georgiev and ex-Wolf Pack/Ranger Artem Anisimov.
Sweden has current Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and William Nylander, the son of ex-Whaler/Ranger, Michael Nylander.
Finland has Kaapo Kakko, who is expected to be the Rangers first pick, second overall behind the Devils, who will likely take, Jack Hughes (on the US squad) next month at the NHL Draft in Vancouver. The team also has AHL’er s from this season, Juho Lammikko (Springfield) and Niko Mikkola (San Antonio).
The Czech Republic has ex-Pack and current Ranger, Filip Chytil, David Musil, nephew of ex-Whaler and Ranger Robert (Bobby) Holik, and the GM is former Ranger Petr Nedved. Ex-Pack defenseman, Petr Zamorsky, was among the last cuts for the Czech squad.
Switzerland has ex-Pack, Andres Ambuhl, and Vincent Prapalan from this season’s Springfield Thunderbird (AHL) team. In a big surprise, ex-Pack, and Ranger, Raphael Diaz, was not on the final roster.
One of Slovakia’s assistant coaches is ex-Whaler, Robert Petrovicky.
Denmark has ex-Pack, Nicklas Jensen up front.
Great Britain features goalie Jackson Whistle, the nephew of ex-Nighthawk, Rob Whistle.
One of the best stories at the World Hockey Championships is France’s head coach and ex-NHL’er with St. Louis, Philippe Bozon, will be coaching his son, Tim Bozon, who played in Montreal and in the AHL for several before returning to play hockey in Switzerland.
Tim Bozon’s only AHL penalty shot goal was scored in Hartford against his former junior teammate Mackenzie Skapski when he played for the St. John’s Ice Caps.
MEMORIAL CUP
The Memorial Cup Is set to begin on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the four teams are almost set to battle for the Canadian major junior hockey supremacy.
The host team gets an automatic bye. In this case, that would be the Halifax Mooseheads, who lost to the QMHL President Cup Final to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in seven games. They have former New Haven Senator, Claude Savoie, on their scouting staff. The two teams will be the QMJHL representatives.
The OHL representative will be the Guelph Storm who won the Robertson Cup in the OHL Final over the Ottawa 67’s in six games. Despite being down 2-0 in the series, they reeled off four straight wins and in Game 6 were down 2-0 after one period and ended up winning 8-3.
Guelph features two assistant coaches with CT connections. Ex-Pack, Chad Wiseman, and ex-New Haven Senator, Jake Grimes.
The WHL saw the Prince Albert Raiders and the Vancouver Giants go to a Game 7 on Monday night to win and become the WHL rep. The Raiders feature two former Springfield players as coaches in Marc Habscheid (Springfield Indians) and Jeff Truitt (head coach with the Springfield Falcons) and have former Whaler, Dalla Guame, as one of their senior scouts.
Vancouver has another former Falcon in Assistant coach, Jamie Heward and Bowen Byram, the son of former Springfield Indians, Shawn Byram.
The tourney can be seen on the NHL Network picking up the feed from TSN in Canada Game 1 on Friday is at 7 pm EST as Atlantic Canada is an hour ahead of the Eastern US and Quebec province will feature host Halifax playing with Prince Albert or Vancouver to kick off the tournament.
PRO PLAYER MOVES
No big surprise as we first reported now former Wolf Pack defenseman Julius Bergman’s move to Frolunda HC, the reigning Swedish Hockey League champions was announced officially on Wednesday as a two year deal with the Indians after five seasons in North America.
Bergman played just eight games with the Wolf Pack he was traded first by Ottawa to Columbus in the Matt Duchesne deal on February 22nd, then three days later after being assigned to Cleveland, but never played there, He was sent to the Rangers in the Adam McQuaid deal and then assigned to Hartford.
Joining him on the AHL Euro list as a member of HV 71 is Emil Johansson of Providence and so is John Ramage, the son of ex-NHL/WHA defenseman, Rob Ramage, goes from Binghamton to Eisbaren Berlin (Germany-DEL).
That makes just 12 AHL players, a relatively low number at this point, that have left for Europe.
Mathieu Sevigny, the son of former Wolf Pack Pierre Sevigny, after an injury-riddled last season of major junior with the Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL), has signed with HC Cholet (France Division-2) for next year.
Chris Rumble, the son of ex-New Haven, Darren Rumble, switches German DEL team going from Fischtown to Iserlohn.
Alexander Tarnstrom, the nephew of ex-Sound Tiger, Dick Tarnstrom, goes from Trangsund IF (Sweden Division-1) to Segeltorps IF (Sweden Division-1).
Another ex-Sound Tiger changes their address. Johan Sundstrom goes back home to Frolunda HC (Sweden-SHL) leaving Kunlun (China-KHL).
Five more college players have signed for play in Europe in the fall.
Mathias Israelsson from Minnesota State-Mankato (WCHA) heads back home to start his pro career with Hanhala IF (Sweden Division-1). Then a pair of UMASS-Amherst (HE) players, Connor Wilson and Avni Berisha both sign with Mulhouse (France-FREL) for next season plus Madison Dunn Alabama–Huntsville (WCHA) and Mark Logan R.I.T. (AHA) both sign with Nantes (France Division-1).
That makes 13 college players that have signed in Europe, a total of 199 college players to have signed pro deals in North America and Europe.
FHL HOCKEY RETURNS TO DANBURY
The FHL (Federal Hockey League) makes a third try in Danbury with the return of the Danbury Hat Tricks its the fourth time Single-A hockey will call the Danbury Ice Arena home.
The previous incarnations were the Danbury Titans, Danbury Whalers and the ill-fated gang of goons called the Danbury Trashers (UHL) run by convicted mobster James Galante.
In between, the Trashers and Titans, they had two semi-pro teams in the Danbury Mad Hatters (EPHL) and the New England Stars (NEHL).
The team also announced its first GM/Head coach in Bill McCreary, III.
McCreary comes to Danbury to take on his first professional Head Coach/General Manager role. A native of Southampton, Ontario, McCreary is a nine-year (2006-2015) Minor League Hockey veteran as both a player and coach.
McCreary’s playing resume includes time spent with the Trenton Titans (ECHL), Huntsville Havoc (SPHL), New Mexico Scorpions (CHL), and the New Jersey Outlaws (FHL). He was part of championship teams in both Hunstville (2010) and New Jersey (2012) where he served the dual role as player-coach. Collegiately, McCreary played for both Providence College (Hockey East) & Curry College (ECAC-NE).
Most recently, Bill has served as the Hockey Director for the New Jersey Colonials youth program out of Mennen Arena. In addition, Bill’s other coaching stops include the Watertown Wolves (FHL), East Coast Selects-Q, Portland Junior Pirates (USPHL), North Jersey Avalanche, Seacoast Spartans and the ISS Kings. He was a scout with Victoriaville (QMJHL) in 2017-18.
On the youth level, Bill won National, State and International Championships. He played for Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep in Minnesota where he was linemates with current Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise.
He played junior hockey for the Texas Tornado (NAHL) and amassed 45 goals and 71 assists in 98 games. For that season, he was named to the All-Rookie team and First Team All-Star.
McCreary has a long family history of hockey players, coaches, and General Managers. His Grandfather Bill McCreary Sr., Great Uncle Keith McCreary, Father Bill McCreary Jr. plus cousins Ron and Bob Attwell played in the National Hockey League (NHL). He is also related to Bill McCreary, a Hall of Fame inductee as an on-ice official in the NHL and his son Mike McCreary who referees minor league hockey.
As an added note, Bill has also been named Hockey & Coaching Director of the Western Colonials Youth Hockey program.
(Parts of a team press release were used in this section)
