CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK OFF SEASON – VOLUME 5 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – There is so much activity going on in Rangers-World that Blueshirts fans have plenty to be excited about.

DAVIDSON RETURNS

One of the many issues John Davidson (JD) will find on his new big desk as President of the New York Rangers will be what to do with the Hartford Wolf Pack, starting with who their coaches will be.

The Rangers relieved Keith McCambridge as Head Coach the day after the regular season ended. They also handed Assistant Coach, Joe Mormina, his release as well. One of the questions that JD will need to answer will be if they continue to give the head coach just one assistant or if they return to the more standard two assistants format. And secondly, do they look from within the organization or go with a hybrid of someone from within and two from outside the organization?

JD will also have look at the player personnel side at the upcoming combine in the next weeks and the NHL Draft in Vancouver to restock Hartford with better prospects going forward as part of the Ranger rebuild.

The Rangers currently have 19 defensemen in the system. They will need a more manageable number to not only ensure enough depth but also not so many that the prospects don’t have enough ice time to develop. Will Kevin Shattenkirk be traded, bought out or buried in Hartford? Where do Ryan Lindgren and Libor Hajak fit on the depth chart which presently has four guys making $4 million plus a year, and Shattenkirk is one of them.

The talent evaluation process which has suffered greatly these past five years has to be upgraded on both the pro and amateur sides. The glaring lack of depth up top and in Hartford saw both ends have to stretch themselves and the Maine Mariners, the team’s ECHL affiliates yielded only a couple of players who were AHL level players.

The Pack needs to get a better set of veterans and then they need to be supported, so they can push the company vision forward, This will help lead the current batch of youngsters, as well as the new draftee crop coming by the end of June when they assemble at Rangers Prospect Camp that will be held at Chelsea Piers in Stamford after the draft.

Do they have a Captain or not? The organization has traded the last four captains, leaving them to opt for just having three alternates, or do they seek to sign someone to fill in on that role?

Better forwards are needed who aren’t afraid of getting in front of the net. Life MUST be made harder on opposing goalies if this the Pack are to return to a high level of competitiveness.

STANLEY CUP FINAL

The Bruins and St. Louis Blue s finals have plenty of connection to Connecticut.

The Bruins have former QU Bobcat Connor Clifton, Jake DeBrusk, the son of ex-Pack and Ranger, Louie DeBrusk, and Noel Acciari from Kent School. Two more players are on the Black Ace squad, Paul Carey (Salisbury Prep) and an ex-Ranger plus ex-Pack, d-man, Steven Kampfer.

The Blues have ex-Pack and Ranger in Michael Del Zotto and Alex Pietrangelo is the nephew of former Whaler, Frank Pietrangelo.

AHL CALDER CUP PLAYOFFS

As expected, the Charlotte Checkers and Toronto Marlies have had a very good series.

The Marlies evened the series at two in Game 4 as William Carcone factored in all four goals with a hat trick with the third one being the game in overtime.

Then on Friday, ex-Pack goalie Dustin Tokarski turned in a strong performance stopping 40 of 41 shots in a 4-1 win at the Coca Cola Coliseum in Toronto, to get the Checkers to a three to two advantage in the series heading back home to the Bojangles Arena in Charlotte. Tokarski is now undefeated 10-0 with Charlotte since he was loaned by the Wolf Pack back on February 28 and unbeaten (3-0) in the postseason and this was his first start in the series.

Tokarski career AHL playoff numbers are 18-7 with a 1.76 GAA, with a .935 save percentage in 25 games and a Calder Cup title with Hamilton and Norfolk.

The San Diego Gulls with 12,147 fans on hand at the Pechanga Arena the best crowd so far this playoffs including NBA Hall of Famer San Diego native, Bill Walton dropping the ceremonial first puck. Unfortunately, they went home unhappy as the Chicago Wolves’ Daniel Carr, the regular season Les Cunningham MVP trophy winner, scoring the game-winner in double overtime at 6:01 his fourth goal of the postseason.

Carr did it again early in the third period scoring 1:27 after San Diego had tied the game at two and it broke the Gulls and the Wolves skated away from the high flying Gulls. Tomas Hyka and Tye McGinn each had a goal and assists plus Zack Whitecloud had two helpers for Chicago. Goalie Max Lagace had some superb defense in front of him for 19 saves and chipped in a goal !

Lagace became the first goalie in AHL history to be credited with or to score a goal in the playoffs. He was the last Wolves player to touch the puck as the Gulls Isac Ludestrom’s pass sailed into an empty net on a delayed penalty.

Ex-Pack Adam Cracknell gave San Diego the lead early scoring in the first five minutes of the game and Trevor Murphy had two assists.

The first game of the Calder Cup Finals is Saturday night.

ECHL KELLY CUP PLAYOFFS

In their first year at the Double AA level, the Newfound Growlers have made it to the finals to play the Toledo Walleye.

The best of seven series started Saturday in St. John’s at the Mile One Centre with a 4-3 OT win on home ice.

The series is a 2-3-2 playing format.

Newfoundland features former Quinnipiac University Bobcat goalie in Michael Garteig in 18 playoff games is 13-4-1 and a 2.07 GAA. He stopped 30 shots in Game 1 and saw his shutout string end at 123:28.

Toledo has a pair of ex-Pack defenseman in Matt Register in 18 games has four goals and 123 points and Brendan Kotyk in 18 games has one goal and four points third PM total at 32.

In addition, Toledo has former Yale Bulldog Ryan Obuchowski who also played all 18 games with a goal and assist.

MEMORIAL CUP

The championship game on Sunday at 7 pm on the NHL Network will be a replay of the QMJHL President Cup final as the host Halifax Mooseheads take on the red hot Rouyn Noranda Huskies. The Huskies won the QMJHL in Halifax two weeks ago.

The Huskies knocked off the Mooseheads Wednesday in dramatic fashion with two late third period tallies, but Mooseheads already had a bye to the final. Then on Friday, the Huskies with again two third period goals sent the OHL Champs Guelph Storm home with a 6-4 win as Felix Bibeau goal and assist paced the balanced Rouyn Noranda offensive attack.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Finland needed just one goal to knock off Russia in the semifinals 1-0 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Russia with ex-Pack Artem Anisimov advanced by knocking off the US 4-3 in the quarterfinals.

In the other semifinal between the Czech Republic and Canada came out on top decisively 5-1 over the Czech Republic with Mark Stone scoring again and Pierre Luc Dubois son of former Nighthawk Eric was set up by ex-CT Whale Jonathan Marchessault.

The Czechs had current Ranger and ex-Pack Filip Chytil, ex-Pack Petr Zamorsky and David Musil, nephew of former Rangers and Whaler Robert (Bobby) Holik.

The Championship Final will be played Sunday on the NHL Network at 2pm.

Next year’s World Championship in 2020 will be played in Switzerland in Lausanne and Zurich. The following sites have been announced for the next three tournaments; 2021 Riga, Latvia and Minsk, Belarus, 2022 Helsinki and Tampere, Finland before moving on to St. Petersburg, Russia in 2023.

PLAYER & COACHING MOVEMENT

The Rangers snagged the third Russian they coveted to come over the first was 2018 first round pick Vitali Kravtsov and goalie Igor Shesterkin.

The prize they landed left-handed, 6’3, 225-pounder, Yegor Rykov, from HK Sochi (Russia-KHL). Rykov who averaged nearly 20 minutes of time last year and was signed to a two-year two-way ELC deal worth ($925K-NHL/$70K-AHL).

He played four years in the KHL in 157 games five goals and 33 points with a plus-19 rating and won a Gargarin Cup with SKA St, Petersburg along with Shesterkin in 2016-17.  He played for the Russian WJC team in 2017 was first among defenseman in assists and second in total points only Thomas Chabot (Ottawa) had more.

He was drafted by the Devils in the fifth round (132nd overall) in 2016

Rykov was a first round pick (tenth overall) in the 2014 KHL Draft. The Rangers acquired him from the Devils along with a second-round pick in last year’s draft in the Michal Grabner deal.

AHL players moving on to Europe now has seen at least one player from half the league’s team depart next season overseas.

The latest to change his address to overseas is Peter Holland, the ex-Pack, who was traded to Rockford, signs with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (Russia-KHL). Then Jacob Forsbacka-Karlsson of the Providence Bruins heads back home to Vaxjo (Sweden-SHL). Jake Chelios, the son of former NHL’er, Chris Chelios, leaves Grand Rapids and heads to Kunlun Red Star (China-KHL).

Kevin Ekman-Larsson, the younger brother of the Coyotes’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson, returns home as well. He leaves Tucson for BIK Karlsroga (Sweden-Allsvenskan) and Max Kammerer leaves Hershey for Dusseldorfer EG (Germany-DEL).

Providence goalie, Dan Vladar, of Providence had signed with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl but saw his rights traded to HK Sochi last week.

The second Sound Tigers Euro signing in a week also heads to Switzerland as defenseman Yannick Rathgeb, a Swiss native, signs with EHC Biel-Bienne (Switzerland-LNA).

That makes for 23 AHL’ers to sign for Europe thus far.

Ex-Pack Philip McRae heads from ERC Schwenniger (Germany-DEL) to Orli Znojmo (Czech Republic-CEL). Ex-Bridgeport Sound Tiger, C.J. Stretch, leaves Orli Znojmo for the Vienna Capitals (Austria-EBEL)

Evan Richardson, a former UCONN Husky, leaves Manchester (England-EIHL) for HC Briancon (France-FREL) and former Ranger, Craig MacTavish, is the latest to depart from Edmonton. He was the Vice-President of Hockley Operations for the last four years but has now signed to be the head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (Russia-KHL).

Colin Sullivan, who played his high school hockey at Fairfield Prep (CTPUB) and Avon Old Farms (CTPREP), re-signs with HC Chamonix of the Magnus French Elite League team for another season. Andrew Miller, a former Yale Bulldog, departs HC Fribourg-Gotteron (Switzerland-LNA) for Kunlun (China-KHL) where one of his new teammates will be an ex-Sound Tiger, and the son of former New Haven Nighthawk, Dean DeFazio. He is left winger Brandon DeFazio who is coming from Lukko Rauma (Finland-FEL).

Ex-Pack Maxim Kondratiev re-signs with Amur Khabarovsk (Russia-KHL).

Former Sound Tiger Jake Newton will make a Scandinavian switch leaving JYP Javalyska (Finland-FEL) for the recently promoted IK Oskarshamn (Sweden-SHL).

The list of NCAA college players who head to Europe is growing. Alex Riche of Princeton (ECACHL) signs with Kunlun (China-KHL) while Ludvig Hoff of North Dakota (NCHC) forgoes his senior season and signs with Stavanger (Norway-NEL).

The French Division-3 team Meudon in the FFFG league snared five Division III players. Of those five, three come from SUNY-Geneseo (SUNYAC). They are Anthony Marra, Arthur Gordon, and Devin McDonald. Then from SUNY-Plattsburgh, which is in the same conference, goes Antoine Fournier-Gosselin and lastly from King’s College (UCHC) Nicolas Palumbo.

Tommy Besinger, of Endicott College (UCHC), played a few games with Evansville (SPHL) at the end of the season. He signs with HC Mulhouse (France-FREL) for next season. John Curran of Niagara University (AHA) signs with Coventry (England-EIHL). J.M. Piotrowski, who missed all of last season at Yale University (ECACHL), gets his degree and signs with the Melbourne Ice (Australia-AIHL).

There are now 213 college players that have signed North American European deals for next season.

Cooper Moore (Cos Cob/Brunswick School) who’s more than likely to be an NHL Draftee next month in Vancouver, heads to the Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL) next year before going to the University of North Dakota (NCHC) in 2020-21.