BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The New York Rangers skipped the Traverse City, MI prospects camp for the second consecutive season due to Covid-19 concerns again; development camp is winding down at the team’s training facility in Tarrytown, New York. Exhibition games and the team’s main training camp are ready to begin.
For the Hartford Wolf Pack, the team prepares for their training camp as a new batch of Wolf Pack players will arrive in early October. Then, they are slated to start the season in Hart City at the XL Center.
The latest signees, all on AHL contracts, surprisingly are defensemen. The blueline would seem to be the one position where the Rangers are exceptionally deep with few available slots. The team expects to give a severe amount of ice time. They will take a long look at Braden Schneider, Matt Robertson, and Nils Lundkvist. Veteran Mason Geersten is on an NHL deal and will certainly be looked at while helping the younger players learn the position at the professional level. His versatility will also allow him to fill in at left-wing when the need arises, as he did last year.
SORT OF NEW FACES
Jeff Taylor also fills a veteran spot. However, he did spend more time being scratched than actually playing in games. Over the last two years, Taylor has been on the game roster for 16 Wolf Pack games. He played 23 games with the team’s former double-A affiliate, the ECHL’s Maine Mariners. He also played in four (4) games with their new team, the Jacksonville Icemen. He will likely reprise his role again this year as a Wolf Pack fill-in rearguard.
Zach Guittari, the Rhode Island native and Loomis Chaffe (Windsor) grad, will have little room to operate roster-wise. He will likely play a limited role in Hartford as a fill-in or be a full-time player in Jacksonville.
Zach Berzolla, from Colorado College (NCHC), is in the same boat as Guittari, on the bottom rung of the organizational ladder. He signed in Hartford out of school but didn’t play a shift. However, after the abbreviated AHL season ended, he played 15 regular season games and four playoff games with the Florida Everblades (ECHL), who went to the Kelly Cup semifinals.
FORWARD
Tanner Fritz joins the Wolf Pack filling a need at the forward spot. He spent his first six years in the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (nee Bridgeport Islanders). He is the second Fritz in team history to play for both Connecticut teams and the 43rd player in 25 years.
One free agent, LW Cristiano DiCiacinto, 25, and a former 2014 late-round draft pick (sixth-round, #170th overall) for the Tampa Bay Lightning, joins the Pack. DiCiacinto moves to the professional ranks after playing for Acadia University (AUAA) in Wolfville, New Brunswick. He played with Hamilton (AAA), and then his major junior career was spent with the Windsor Spitfires (OHL). He did that before spending four years in Canadian college hockey. After a late-season stint with Jacksonville (ECHL), DiCiacinto will be at Hartford training camp.
OPENINGS IN NEW YORK
The roster spots in The Big Apple are limited. Former Pack (for now) Will Cullye, who showed flashes last season, has impressed the big club early. Because of the NHL’s deal with CHL (Canadian Hockey League), the team has known all summer to decide. Hartford will not be an option if he does NOT make the big club because he is a 19-year old. He will be returned to the Spitfires (OHL), a new head coach in ex-Pack/Ranger, and NHL’er Marc Savard. He’s made a strong case for his staying in New York thus far.
PRESEASON GETTING UNDERWAY
The Wolf Pack will play the Providence Bruins in a game closed to the general public on October 6th at the XL Center. The puck will drop at noon. In addition, they will play two other exhibition games, both against Bridgeport on October 8th and 9th.
The Pack is slated to start its regular season in Hart City at the XL Center on October 15th against Bridgeport.
The Islanders signed three players from last year’s team, Dmytro Timashov, team captain Seth Helgeson, Mike Cornell, Otto Koivula, and Cole Bardreau. They also signed a free-agent goalie in Jon Gillies (Salisbury School). He will likely be in Bridgeport after playing for the Utica Comets last year.
Goalie Francis Marrotte, who played just two games in Bridgeport, signed this season with the Allen Americans (ECHL). Also, signing is seldomly used defenseman Ryan MacKinnon. He put pen to ink, signing with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (AHL).
NEW FACES
The Rangers added a Director of Hockey Operations to work with their longtime VP of Operations, Pat Boller. He reprised the same role from the last two years. He had been at Northeastern (HE) in Matt Harlow. He is the son of the late 1980s New Haven Nighthawk and current Edmonton Oilers scout, Scott Harlow.
PLAYERS COACHING MOVEMENT
A troika of ex-Pack is on the move.
Matt Puempel goes from Malmö IF (Sweden-SHL) to Augsburger (Germany-DEL).
Peter Holland goes from Avtomobilist Yekarterinburg (Russia-KHL) to Djurgårdens IF (Sweden-SHL).
Gabriel Fontaine tries to resurrect his career after playing just 17 games over the last two years with the Wolf Pack due to a series of successive left shoulder injuries that required surgery. He is in the training camp of the Colorado Eagles (AHL).
Vincent Sevigny, the youngest son of ex-Wolf Pack Pierre Sevigny, is in the camp of the Ottawa Senators.
Former Nighthawk and NHL player, Paul Boutilier, returns to the bench as an assistant coach with the Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL). They have been awarded to host the 2022 Memorial Cup.
Former New Haven Senators player and Providence General Manager and Boston Bruins Assistant GM John Ferguson Jr. took the Assistant GM job. He is the new GM of the Tucson Roadrunners (AHL) as well. He will work with the Arizona Coyotes and report to former Providence Bruin player, head coach Bill Armstrong.
MORE MOVEMENT
The AHL transfer list is up to 84.
Luke Moncada heads to Vienna (Austria-IceHL), joining last season’s Cleveland Monsters teammate Cliff Pu, who is there for a while. He is reportedly heading to Kunlun (China-KHL). His family has ancestral Chinese heritage, so he may be eligible to play for the Chinese National Team in the upcoming February 2022 Beijing Olympics for China.
Ex-Pack defenseman, Rob O’Gara, has hung up the skates. He returns to Yale University (ECACHL), his alma mater, as their newest assistant coach. He played with the Hershey Bears last year.
Ex-Pack/Sound Tigers goalie J.F. Berube is in the Columbus Blue Jacket’s camp and likely will wind up in Cleveland.
After canning a coach, Cleveland gets an extra body (ex-Wolf Pack and new assistant coach, Sylvain Lefebvre). Now it’s a player, Zac Rinaldo. He was sent right to Cleveland’s camp.
Brandon Fortunato (Quinnipiac University-ECACHL) signs with the Jacksonville Icemen (ECHL).
CONGRATS, PAUL HOLMGREN
Congratulations to former Hartford Whalers Head Coach and GM Paul Holmgren. He and former Boston Bruins Peter McNab were named to the US Hockey Hall of Fame last week, as was longtime hockey chronicler Stan “The Maven” Fischler.
Holmgren held both roles at separate times from 1993-1995, first behind the bench then later as the GM.
His alcoholism, a long-known secret, was unvarnished on March 31st, 1994, when he was arrested for DUI and evading responsibility in Simsbury after taking out some mailboxes, newspaper boxes, and a telephone pole. He was arrested in his driveway. Since then, he has joined AA, successfully controlled his addiction, and was a model citizen.
Holmgren went back to Philadelphia and has been with the Flyers in almost every capacity. He’s been GM, Assistant GM, Assistant Coach, Head Coach, Director of Player, Personnel, Team President, and his latest as the team’s Senior Advisor.
HOLMGREN AS A PLAYER
He played 527 NHL games registering 144 goals, 173 assists (323 NHL points), and 1,684 PIMS. He was rough and ready. He played college hockey for one year at the University of Minnesota. He played for a year with the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints. Holmgren’s junior hockey was with the St. Paul Vulcans, where one of his teammates was Dave “Killer” Hanson of Slap Shot fame.
After two years in Buffalo, Peter McNab was with B’s for nine and half seasons, including a Stanley Cup final with former Wolf Pack GM retired Jim Schoenfeld. After a college career at Denver University (WCHA), now in the NCHC conference, it was unique to play college hockey then go pro. He played in a rougher NHL-era and ended his playing career in New Jersey with the Devils.
McNab had 954 NHL games with 813 points, including 363 goals from (1974-1986) and his late father, Max, was a longtime NHL executive. His brother David was a Whalers pro scout from (1983-1989) and with the Rangers (1989-1993). He finished with the Anaheim Ducks. Both are dual citizens.
Fischler was the voice and face of hockey in the US in the 1970s and 1980s and covered the six-team NHL in his younger years, and is a great historian of that era.
