BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – As Connecticut prepares to move to the next stage of it’s opening up, the hockey world continues to make plans, not only for the upcoming playoffs, set to begin at the end of July but for the 2020-2021 season and beyond.
PLAYER MOVEMENT AND TEAM NEWS
Ex-Hartford Wolf Pack, Nick Ebert, signed a two-year deal with Orebro HK (Sweden-SHL). Ebert was a Group 6 Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA). He was not offered a contract by the organization. This will be his second European tour in Sweden with Orebro.
Alex Broadhurst of the San Diego Gulls signs with HIFK Helsinki (Finland-FEL).
The Cleveland Monsters lost Calvin Thurkauf, who returns home to skate for EV Zug (Switzerland-LNA) next season.
Jakob Lilja, who split last between Cleveland and the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL) has signed with Barys Nur Sultan (Kazakhstan-KHL).
Reid Boucher, of the Utica Comets, saw his deal with Avangard Omsk (Russia-KHL) be officially announced.
34 of last season’s AHL players have signed to play in Europe. 19 of the 31 AHL teams have lost at least one player to signing overseas.
One player not heading to Hartford training camp is Nils Lundkvist. The defenseman signed another one-year deal with Lulea HF (Sweden-SHL). The COVID-19 crisis with travel and visa issues abounding were contributing factors in the decision. Lundkvist had a very strong SHL season last year winning the Young Player of the Year award for European based players and had a very strong WJC tournament being named to the all-tournament squad
Ex-Wolf Pack and New York Ranger, Stu Bickel, has been hired as the Head Coach for the Minnesota Magicians (NAHL) after two seasons as a college assistant with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (Big 10).
The 24-team NHL Stanley Cup tournament to bring closure to the 2019-20 NHL season has begun to take shape. The five hub city finalists are Las Vegas, Edmonton, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto. Columbus, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, and Dallas were eliminated from the 10 finalists. On Friday Vancouver announced suddenly that it was out of the running as well.
The tourney is expected to start around July 28th with the Rangers playing the Carolina Hurricanes in Las Vegas.
The NHL roster size for the tournament will likely be affixed at 30 with an unlimited amount of goalies. Teams will begin their preparation starting on July 10th at yet to be announced locations.
Surprisingly, Lias Andersson won’t be attending Rangers training camp, but one member of the Wolf Pack will be, Vitali Kravtsov. Read about it HERE.
Rangers President John Davidson told TSN that Kravtsov will be among the players vying for the post-season roster.
SCOTT TANSKI
Remember ex-CT Whale, Scott Tanski? He had his one and only AHL season back in 2011-12. He announced his retirement. His long curly red hair, big smile, and his openness were his off-ice calling cards. He played the next six seasons in the ECHL, primarily with the Orlando Solar Bears, who are owned by former Whale front office executive, Bob Ohrablo. Tanski also skated with the Reading Royals and South Carolina Stingrays. Tanski departed for two seasons with the Glasgow Clan (Scotland-EIHL) where he hung up his skates. He arrived in Hartford in training camp after a four-year junior career with the now-defunct Brampton Battalion (OHL) (now in North Bay) on a tryout invite by Rangers Director of Player Development, Gordie Clark. Tanski literally left practice at the University of Ottawa (OUAA) to take the chance and made the Wolf Pack as a walk-on. He earned an AHL contract and never looked back. He was a third and fourth line penalty killer and a relentless worker on the ice but was never a consistent finisher.
COLLEGE MOVEMENT
Goalie, Hunter Shepard, of the University of Minnesota-Duluth (NCHC) signs an AHL deal with the Hershey Bears.
Martin Marella of AIC (AHA) becomes the 32nd college player to sign in Europe with Almtuna IS (Sweden-Allsvenskan). His teammate, Jason Pike, signs a North American professional deal with Utah (ECHL).
Paul Mayer of the Colgate Raiders (ECACHL) signs with Orlando (ECHL).
Steenn Pasichnuk of the Arizona State Sun Devils (NCAA Division I-Independent) joined his brother Brinson in the San Jose Sharks organization when he signed an AHL deal with the San Jose Barracuda. His brother signed an NHL UFA deal and had been the Sun Devils captain last year.
Brett Orr of Bentley College (MASAC) becomes the 33rd player to sing in Europe out of college with the announcement that he has signed with the Dundee Stars (Scotland-EIHL).
170 of last season’s Division I and III college players have now signed contracts to play in Europe and North America. Hockey East has seen 23 players sign contracts, while The Big 10 has 20, the NCHC 19, WCHA, and ECACHL each have13 and the AHA 10.
Bowdoin College, located in Brunswick, ME (NESCAC), is a Division III school and has announced that no men’s or women’s hockey will be played until January 1st signaling where all colleges might be going for the 2020-21 season.
Munn Arena on the campus of Michigan State (Big 10) has announced a pause in the expected renovations this summer to the arena.
John Fusco, the son of former Hartford Whaler, Mark Fusco (80 games), and who won the Hobey Baker award in 1983, was announced as part of the Harvard Crimson (ECACHL) nine-player incoming freshmen class. He follows his family’s tradition of attending the school. Both his mother and father, his Uncle Scott (New Jersey Devils, 11th round draft pick but never played In the NHL), and his cousin Bradley (women’s varsity letter winner) attended the school. Younger brother Brett is still at Dexter Southfield Academy prep school entering his senior season.
Jerry Harding of the Providence College Friars (HE) does an in-conference transfer to UMASS-Amherst as per Mark Divver, Rhode Island-based college hockey writer. This makes 20 college transfers and 18 grad transfers, four Canadian college transfers, two Junior A transfers, and no players so far who have gone to Canadian major junior in the collegiate off-season.
The CHL Import Draft, which is always held after the NHL Draft, will go on as scheduled this coming Tuesday morning June 29th starting at 11 AM. All the teams from the Canadian major leagues Ontario, Quebec, and Western participate.
The OHL Kingston Frontenacs announced they will skip the draft and retain two players from last year’s draft in the 2020-21 season.
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds announced they would retain goalie Nick Malik who played with them in the second half of last season. Malik, is the youngest son of former Whaler, Ranger, and Beast of New Haven defenseman, Marek Malik. He will prepare for the season with HC Ocelari Trinec in the Czech Elite League and has been invited to the Czech Republic 2020 WJC team.
The NAHL and NA3HL will be adding a team from an old WPHL market, the El Paso (TX) Rhinos. The program is leaving the WSHL (Western States Hockey League) that has suspending operations for the 2020-21 season because of the loss of teams and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. The NAHL Rhinos team will begin to play in the 2021-22 season and the NA3HL Rhinos will start this season 2020-21 season.
The NAHL has the recently minted the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks, who were purchased and relocated from Wilkes Barre/Scranton to the Nutmeg State. The NA3HL has the Danbury Colonials.
INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY
In place of the canceled 2020 IIHF Annual Congress which had planned to meet in May in Zurich, the 2021 IIHF Extra-Annual Congress took place on Monday in a virtual form led by IIHF President, René Fasel, and the IIHF General Secretary, who took their seats at the studio of Swiss broadcaster SRF in Zurich. The IIHF has released the 2021 dates for its tournaments which of course are subject to change depending on the pandemic status.
The delegates also confirmed the dates of the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk, Belarus, and Riga, Latvia from May 21 to June 6, 2021.
The 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship will take place in Halifax and Truro in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia where it was scheduled for last spring before it was the first hockey tournament canceled by COVID-19. The proposed dates are April 7-17, 2021.
Similarly, the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship will take place in Plymouth and Ann Arbor, Michigan at the same venues that were scheduled for this year. The proposed dates are April 15-25, 2021.
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk, Belarus & Riga, Latvia
Group A in Minsk: Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, host Belarus, Great Britain.
Group B in Riga: Canada, Finland, USA, Germany, host Latvia, Norway, Italy, Kazakhstan.
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Participants: France, Austria, South Korea, host Slovenia, Hungary, Romania
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in Katowice, Poland
Participants: Lithuania, host Poland, Japan, Estonia, Ukraine, Serbia
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A in Beijing, China
Participants: Netherlands, Croatia, Australia, Spain, host China, Israel
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group B in Reykjavik, Iceland
Participants: Belgium, host Iceland, New Zealand, Georgia, Mexico, Bulgaria
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III Group A in Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg
Participants: North Korea, Turkey, Turkmenistan, host Luxembourg, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III Group B in Cape Town, South Africa
Participants: host South Africa, Hong Kong, Thailand, Bosnia & Herzegovina
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division IV in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Participants: Kuwait, host Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore
MEN’S U-20 CATEGORY-WJC
2021 IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton & Red Deer, Canada
Group A in Edmonton: host Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany
Group B in Red Deer: Russia, Sweden, USA, Czech Republic, Austria
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-20 World Championship Division I Group A in Horsholm, Denmark
Participants: Kazakhstan, Latvia, Belarus, Norway, host Denmark, Hungary
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-20 World Championship Division I Group B in Tallinn, Estonia
Participants: Slovenia, France, Ukraine, Poland, host Estonia, Japan
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-20 World Championship Division II Group A in Brasov, Romania
Participants: Italy, Great Britain, Lithuania, host Romania, Spain, South Korea
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-20 World Championship Division II Group B in Belgrade, Serbia
Participants: host Serbia, Netherlands, China, Croatia, Belgium, Iceland
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-20 World Championship Division III in Mexico City, Mexico
Group A: Israel, Australia, Turkey, host Mexico
Group B: Bulgaria, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Africa
MEN’S U-18 CATEGORY
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship in Plymouth & Ann Arbor, USA
Group A in Ann Arbor: Sweden, Canada, Belarus, Latvia, Switzerland
Group B in Plymouth: Russia, host USA, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship Division I Group A in Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia
Participants: host Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Denmark, Norway, France, Japan
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship Division I Group B in Asiago, Italy
Participants: Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, host Italy, Slovenia, Poland
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship Division II Group A in Tallinn, Estonia
Participants: Great Britain, Lithuania, host Estonia, Romania, South Korea, Serbia
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship Division II Group B in Sofia, Bulgaria
Participants: Spain, China, Netherlands, Croatia, Australia, host Bulgaria
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship Division III Group A in Istanbul, Turkey
Participants: Belgium, Israel, Iceland, host Turkey, Mexico, South Korea
2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 World Championship Division III Group B in Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg
Participants: New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, host Luxembourg, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan
WOMEN’S OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION
Final Olympic Qualification (August 26-29 2021)
Group C in Pribram, Czech Republic: host Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Qualifier 6. In
Group D in Fussen, Germany: host Germany, Norway, Austria, Qualifier 5.
Group E: Sweden, France, Slovakia, Qualifier 4. In Sweden (city TBA).
OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION ROUND 2 (11-14 FEBRUARY 2021)
Group F in Gangneung, South Korea: host South Korea, Great Britain, Slovenia, Qualifier 8.
Group G: in Cortina, Italy: host Italy, Kazakhstan, Spain, Taiwan.
Group H: In Gdansk: host Poland: Netherlands, Poland, Mexico, Turkey.
OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION ROUND 1 (17-19 DECEMBER 2020)
Group J: in Reykjavik, Iceland: host Iceland, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, Lithuania
The 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U-18 Women’s World Championship will be hosted by Sweden in the cities of Linkoping and Mjolby from January 5-12, 2021.
The Women’s Olympic Qualification will start in the upcoming season. A record number of 31 countries entered a team in the Olympic Winter Games and Qualification.
The top six teams of the 2020 IIHF Women’s World Ranking – USA, Canada, Finland, Russia, Switzerland, and Japan – as well as host China, are automatically qualified for the 10-team event. The remaining three teams will be determined in the Olympic Qualification in three stages starting in December.
