BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The news cycle is overflowing with COVID-19-related stories and the sports world, and hockey in-particular is no exception.
AHL AWARDS
With the 2019-020 season now officially canceled the parade of end of season awards begins.
Former Quinnipiac Bobcat (ECACHL), Sam Anas, a fourth-year pro who finished the season with 20 goals and 50 assists for a league-best 70 points while skating in all 63 games for the Iowa Wild, won the AHL John B. Sollenberger Trophy.
Anas 26, represented Iowa at the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic in Ontario, CA and is Iowa’s franchise leader in career assists (125) and points (197). He ranks second in goals (72) and games played (259). He was signed as a free agent by the Minnesota Wild on April 15, 2016.
In the trophy announcement, Anas has a teammate’s company. Gerald Mayhew led the AHL with 39 goals and totaled 61 points in just 49 games with Iowa this season. He wins the Willie Marshall Award for the most goals scored in the season. That award honors the AHL’s all-time leading scorer in goals, assists, total points, and games played.
In his third pro campaign since coming out of Ferris State University (WCHA), Mayhew made his NHL debut in 2019-20 where he notched two goals in 13 games with Minnesota. He skated in the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic and appeared in 209 career AHL contests – all with Iowa – where he scored a franchise-record 88 goals as well as 72 assists (160 points). Mayhew signed his first NHL contract with Minnesota on May 10, 2019, after playing two seasons on an AHL deal.
The AHL awarded Troy Grosenick and Connor Ingram of the Milwaukee Admirals as the recipients of the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for the 2019-20 season. Since 1972, the award has been presented to the goaltender(s) with at least 25 games played on the team which allows the fewest goals per game in the regular season.
The Admirals allowed an average of 2.24 goals per game in 2019-20 while posting a league-best record of 41-14-5-3 (90 points, .714). Milwaukee finished with the fewest goals against in the AHL for the first time in the franchise’s 19 seasons in the league.
Grosenick, who won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding goaltender back in 2016-17, made 33 appearances for the Admirals this season. Grosenick is a seventh-year pro and went 20-9-3 with a 2.29 goals-against average, a .920 save percentage, and two shutouts.
A Milwaukee native, Grosenick was also named the recipient of the AHL’s Yanick Dupre Memorial Award for his outstanding community work in 2019-20.
Ingram was 21-5-5 in 33 games for Milwaukee during the 2019-20 season and ranked third in the AHL in both goals-against average (1.92) and save percentage (.933) while also posting two shutouts.
A third-year pro, Ingram was honored with his second consecutive selection to the AHL All-Star Classic this year and started his pro career in Syracuse eight appearances.
In other AHL news, The Hershey Bears and Washington Capitals agreed to extend their very solid affiliation relationship to the 2023-24 season. The two teams have been together since 2005. Since then the Bears have made the AHL playoffs 12 times in 15 years and are won three Calder Cup titles in five appearances.
CONNECTICUT’S NEWEST JUNIOR TEAM
The new hockey hotbed in the Nutmeg State is Danbury.
Earlier in the week, Danbury saw its newest addition to the Hat Tricks family and the fourth team of its portfolio playing out of the Danbury Ice Arena.
The Tier II North American Hockey League (NAHL) announced Tuesday, the relocation of the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Knights. They will be renamed the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks for the upcoming 2020-21 season.
“We are looking forward to having NAHL hockey right here in town, which brings the highest level of junior hockey to the area. The addition of this team aligns with our vision of turning the Danbury Arena into a premier hockey destination. We can’t wait to drop the puck. We know our fans are going to love this team and the energy it brings,” Herm Sorcher, Partner of DP 110, the ownership group of the Danbury Arena, said.
Bill McCreary, the head coach for the FPHL Hat Tricks team last season has been named the first GM/Head coach for the Jr. Hat Tricks.
McCreary is an NAHL grad. He played for the Texas Tornado where he collected 45 goals and 71 assists in 98 career games. He was named to the NAHL All-Rookie team and an NAHL First Team All-Star during the 2002-03 season.
“The arrival of the NAHL is an exciting moment for not only hockey in Danbury but the entire state of Connecticut. The North American Hockey League has been instrumental in developing players into NCAA student-athletes and we are honored to continue that tradition,” McCreary said. “We are extremely excited to be able to build a culture that embodies the spirit of the NAHL while focusing on developing our players into future NCAA and professional athletes. It’s our commitment to not only helping our players achieve their goals but to also build a ‘family’ that competes for a Robertson Cup year-in and year-out.”
McCreary is a nine-year (2006-15) minor league hockey veteran as both a player and coach with a playing resume that 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 a dual role as player-coach.
Collegiately, McCreary played for Providence College (Hockey East) and Curry College (MA) (ECAC-NE).
The other Danbury teams include the NA3HL Danbury Colonials and a youth team. The building is also home to a fifth team, the NWHL’s Connecticut Whale.
The Knights franchise has been a member of the NAHL since the 2015-16 season.
The Knights enjoyed its’ most successful season to date in 2018. They reached 30 wins in the regular season, earning 66 points in the standings to clinch a playoff berth for the third consecutive season.
The team not only made the playoffs but also won its’ first playoff series, where they dispatched the New Jersey Titans in a best-of-five series that went the distance.
The following round, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton swept the Philadelphia Rebels, thus clinching the 2018 NAHL East Division earning the opportunity to compete for the NAHL Robertson Cup Championship.
The Junior Hat Tricks will play in the seven-team NAHL East Division with the New Jersey (Middletown) Titans, Johnstown (PA) Tomahawks, Jamestown (NY) Rebels, Maryland (Odenton, MD) Black Bears, Northeast (Attleboro, MA) Generals, and the Maine (Lewiston) Nordiques.
Danbury participated in their first NAHL hockey business as part of the league’s Supplemental Draft where they took Andrew Mancini from Canterbury Prep School Saints (New Milford) with the 13th selection and then with their second pick 40th overall drafted Cole Vallese (Salisbury Prep) who is a Providence College (HE) commit for 2021-22.
Other names of note include the 19th overall pick, Cam Knuble, the son of former New York Ranger, Mike Knuble, who was taken by the Shreveport (LA) Mudbugs, He was also taken in the USHL Draft 2016 by the Des Moines Buccaneers in the 6th round 82nd overall.
The 34th selection was Cooper Swift (West Hartford/Choate Prep), who was taken by the Maine Nordiques. He played four games with Langley (BCHL) and most of the season with New Jersey (NCDC).
Jack Ring (Guilford) went 71st overall to the Fairbanks (AK) Ice Dogs. He played for New Hampton (NH) School last season.
The NAHL also announced the rebranding of two teams for next season. The first is the St. Cloud (MN) Blizzard who moved from Brookings, MN last year and will now be known as the St. Cloud Norsemen playing in the NAHL Central Division
The second is the Topeka (KS) Pilots who become the Kansas City Scouts in the fall. That named was used after the NHL team of the mid-1970s for two years (1974-1976) before the franchise was moved to Colorado to become the Rockies who eventually became the New Jersey Devils.
The NAHL is a 26 team league with Danbury as its second foray into the Northeast has primarily been located in the US Midwest and Southwest.
The league has teams in Odessa, TX, Shreveport, LA, Amarillo, TX , Springfield, MO, Chippewa Falls, WI, West Minot, ND, and two teams in Alaska, the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and the Kenai River Brown Bears in Soldotna.
A 27th team will be coming in 2021-22 in the Wichita Falls (TX) Warriors.
TRANSACTIONS
Ex-Hartford Wolf Pack, Oscar Lindberg, leaves EV Zug (Switzerland-LNA) and heads to Dynamo Moscow (Russia-KHL).
Markus Granlund, who split the year between Bakersfield and Edmonton, departs for Salvat Yulaev (Russia-KHL) becoming the 15th AHL player to sign overseas for next season.
12 of 31 teams have seen a player sign in Europe.
UCONN gets another commit from Russia for the fall making him a critical flip from a powerful Hockey East opponent.
Artem Shlaine, who has dual citizenship (US/Russia) comes out of the highly-respected Shattuck St. Mary’s Sabres program in Faribault, MN. He was originally a BU commit last May but was scheduled to go for the 2021-22 season for the Terriers, but he has selected the Huskies and will be on campus in the fall.
He also had offers from Boston College and Ohio State.
Shlaine is 6’1 and 175lbs. He is a left-handed shooting center who resides in Florida. His family moved from Moscow where he scored 60 points in 44 games this past season. Here in the states this season, in 46 games, Shlaine had 26 goals and 52 assists (78 points).
Last season, for SSM he posted 90 points in 56 games played including 34 goals and 56 assists while wearing the number 13 jersey. In six games with Muskegon (USHL) this season, he had two goals and three points.
Last month, Shlaine was drafted in the third round (56th overall) in the OHL Priority Draft by the Owen Sound Attack.
A sixth-round (93rd overall) draft pick in 2018 of USHL Sioux Falls, he suited up for the Stampede in two playoff games last season. In the Central Scouting Bureau (CSB) final list, he joins three other Huskies who are eligible to be drafted he was in the 94th spot, with a pair of sophomore defenseman, Yan Kuznetsov was rated the highest of the four at 36th, Jacob Flynn was 112th and incoming freshmen East Haven’s Nick Capone at 126th.
USA Hockey announced on Wednesday that Ted Donato (Harvard-ECACHL), Kris Mayotte (Michigan-Big 10) and Steve Miller (Ohio State – Big 10) will serve as assistant coaches. Theresa Feaster (Providence) will be video coach for the 2021 U.S. National Junior Team scheduled to compete in the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship that’s presently scheduled for December 26, 2020, to January 5, 2021, in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta.
The group will assist head coach Nate Leaman (Providence), who was named to the position in March.
Nick Halloran Colorado College (NCHC) has turned pro and signed a deal with Ontario (AHL). Three more Division III players have signed deals in Europe.
College players turning pro in North America now stand at 95, including Division III and Europe a total of 154 have done so and 24 underclassmen have left early.
Hockey East leads with 22 signings, Big 10 has 20, NCHC with 18, WCHA has 13, ECACHL has 12, and the AHA has nine.
26 college players have signed in Europe the latest is Parker Tuomie who heads back home to play for Eisbaren Berlin (Germany-DEL).
