CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK OFF SEASON VOLUME 7 

Wolf Pack Off Season Volume 7

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Things are heating up not only outside, but in hockey news as well.

STANLEY CUP FINALS

With the Pittsburgh Penguins knocking off the Nashville Predators in six games, not only do the Pens become the first team to repeat as champion in over 20 years, but there are several Connecticut connections and two more chances for Lord Stanley to visit the Constitution State this summer.

On the ice, Nick Bonino (Farmington) captures his second title. Ron Hainsey (Bolton), who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Carolina Hurricanes, nabs his first Cup ring. Jake Guentzel, the son of former New Haven Nighthawk and the current head coach of the University Minnesota, Mike Guentzel, after starting the season in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The architect, getting his third Stanley Cup title, is GM Jim Rutherford. He was, of course, the GM with the Whalers and played with the New Haven Nighthawks.

AHL CALDER CUP FINALS

The last hockey in North America for the 2016-17 season was played in the AHL and the Grand Rapids Griffins, with a 4-3 win, became the AHL Calder Cup champs for the second time in the last five years winning the series in six games over the Syracuse Crunch.

Martin Frk’s goal with 7:19 left in regulation held up to give the Griffins the victory and the Calder Cup.

On the championship squad earning Calder Cup rings include ex-Pack Matt Ford (19-8-4-12), after nine years of minor pro hockey, and Dylan McIlrath, a plus-10, and five assists. McIlrath dressed in all 19 postseason games. It was a crazy season for Big Mac as he played with five teams – two in the NHL and three in the AHL. Grand Rapids head coach Todd Nelson became just the third person to win a Calder Cup as a head coach, assistant coach, and a player. The other two are Bob Woods all with Hershey and Mike Stothers, currently with Ontario).

Congrats all around!

On the runner-up side for the Crunch were North Branford’s Adam Erne, and ex-Pack, Daniel Wolcott.

The AHL Jack Butterfield Playoff MVP was given to Tyler Bertuzzi who had nine goals and 19 points in 19 postseason games. Tomas Nosek, who had three assists and 22 points and ex-Sound Tiger, Cory Conacher, had 12 goals and 28 points in 22 games followed by his teammate Yanni Gourde who in 23 games had 18 assists and 27 points.

PLAYER MOVEMENT

Ex-Pack Dan Girardi is also now an ex-NY Ranger. After an 11-year career in the Big Apple, Girardi played in 788 games and was being brought out by the Rangers to the tune of over $6 million dollars. Girardi’s achievement in even getting to the NHL was remarkable. He was undrafted and started his pro career on an ECHL tryout contract!

The Rangers also announced the signing of ex-Pack, Jed Ortmeyer, to become the team’s new Director of Player Development taking over Chris Drury’s previous role and Steve Eminger, an ex-CT Whale who retired from active playing finishing up last season with Cleveland, now becomes a Rangers Pro Scout.

Another Wolf Pack Euro transfer is going as far away from the scene of last year’s Wolf Pack team as he can get.

Taylor Beck, who is also an ex-Sound Tiger, played with four teams last year. He was with two in the NHL – Edmonton and the Rangers – and two in the AHL – Bakersfield and Hartford – where he finished as the league’s second-leading point getter. Beck is off to the KHL in Russia joining Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg.

Linus Arnesson of Providence heads home to skate for Orebro HK (Sweden-SHL). Karl Stollery Albany has signed with Dynamo Riga (Latvia-KHL).

That makes 34 AHL’ers to date to head overseas. The Wolf Pack have seen four players leave North America.

Simsbury native and Westminster Prep grad defenseman Tommy Cross signed a one-year, two-way contract at NHL money at $650K with Boston.

Former Yale Bulldog Andrew Miller signed a one-year extension with the Carolina Hurricanes at $650K-NHL/$285K-AHL. He played in Charlotte most of the last year.

Former Whaler Mike Vellucci was named the new head coach for the Charlotte Checkers (AHL) and Sheldon Brookbank was added to ex-Sound Tigers’ Jeremy Colliton staff with Rockford (AHL) as an assistant coach.

Former Sound Tiger from Year One, Daniel Tetrault, was elevated from assistant coach to head coach for Rapid City (ECHL). One time Sound Tiger goalie, Joe Fallon, becomes the first player to sign with their new ECHL team, the Worcester Railers HC after playing last year with Dundee (England-EIHL).

Quinnipiac University junior forward Andrew Taverner transfers for his senior season to Arizona State for the 2018-19 season after sitting out the NCAA-mandated one year.

A quartet of ex-Sound Tigers has changed their mailing addresses.

Tomas Marcinko is leaving Kunlun Red Star (China-KHL) returning home to his native Czech Republic to plays with HC Trinec (Czech Republic-CEL) in the fall. Tony Romano goes from Odense (Denmark-DHL) for a second stint in Norway with the Stavanger Oilers of the NEL.

Tyler McNeeley goes from Rosenheim (Germany-DEL-2) SC Bietigheim-Bissen (Germany DEL-2) and Sergei Ogorodnikov who split last year between two teams, HK Gomel (Belarus-BHL) and Yermak Angersk (Russia-VHL) will skate next year for Podhale Nowzy Targ (Poland-PZIHL).

Last week saw the reunion of three ex-Hartford Whaler buddies. Joel Quenneville, the head coach, and Kevin Dineen, the assistant coach, welcomed their fellow Whaler great, Ulf Samuelsson, as the new assistant coach in charge of defenseman with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. Samuelsson’s has his jersey 5 in the rafters of the XL Center along with Dineen’s number 11.

Samuelsson is a former assistant coach with the Rangers, Wolf Pack, and Avon Old Farms.

Will they be joined by a fourth member of the ex-Whalers, Ronnie Francis?

Vancouver announced it was filling out their coaching staff for next season. The staff includes two ex-Wolf Pack players under new head coach Travis Green. The team retained goalie coach, Dan Cloutier, and now becoming a formal assistant coach is Manny Malhotra, who was a skill development coach last season.

Ex-Whaler Doug Jarvis was the only assistant coach retained from last season

Ex-CT Whale, Kale Kerbashian, after splitting this past season first with Allen (TX) Americans (ECHL) and then with the Wheeling (West Virginia) (ECHL) Nailers has signed to play in Australia with the Newcastle North Stars for the summer joining Cheshire native North Stars captain, Rob Malloy.

Ex-Pack, Petr Zamorsky, and his minus-22 go from Orebro HK (Sweden-SHL) to HC Sparta Prague (Czech Republic-CEL).

Nick Pisitkouilis who played at Westminster Prep (Simsbury) out of hockey for two years signed with EC Falken (Germany Division-3)

As we first reported last week, Portland, an ex-AHL city, will become an ECHL club in 2018-19.

On Thursday, Comcast Spectra announced, in conjunction with the ECHL, that they have acquired the controlling rights to the recently folded Alaska Aces and will be moving them to Portland to play at the Cross Insurance Arena.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced they will be handling the hockey operations side to the recently retired Daniel Briere. He will become the team’s Director of Hockey Operations while former Whaler head coach/GM Paul Holmgren assumes the President and Board of Governor role for the team.

The Flyers started pro hockey in Portland back in 1977 with the Maine Mariners. They play in the arena known as the Cumberland County Civic Center until 2014. Presently, the Flyers ECHL team is in the Keystone State in Reading, a minute’s ride from their AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley (Allentown).

In a Cantlon’s Corner exclusive, expect after next season for St. Louis to leave Chicago and place their AHL prospects in Indianapolis the present home of the ECHL Indy Fuel as part of the chessboard changing minor league hockey map.

Expect Boston to mimic the Red Sox minor league arrangement and make Portland their ECHL affiliate. The Red Sox have their Triple AAA team in Pawtucket, RI, Double AA in Portland and Single-A team in Lowell. Currently, the Bruins ECHL affiliate is in Atlanta.

KHL OUTDOOR GAME

If you have some free time and a slew of travel points, the KHL will hold its first regular-season outdoor game on December 2nd in Helsinki, Finland. The game will feature Jokerit Helsinki and SKA St. Petersburg to help mark the league’s ten-year anniversary plus Jokerit Helsinki’s 50^th year as a franchise and the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Finnish hockey.

The rink will be a portable surface with an intriguing design concept. They will have the stands overlooking the surface as it would have been 100 years ago with no seating.

The game site area will be along the Finnish waterways between the Siltasaari and Kaisaniemi districts of the city. Near the area that is considered the spot where the first Finnish hockey game was played.

The KHL did have an outdoor game in its first season an All-Star game at Moscow’s Red Square.

NAHL DRAFT

The last North American junior draft has taken with North American Hockey League (NAHL) and several names of note were selected.

Blake Coffey, son of former Whaler Paul Coffey was taken by the Corpus Christi (TX) IceRays in the 2^nd round 32^nd overall. He was selected by two other junior leagues and four teams first Windsor (OHL) in 2014, Waterloo USHL 2015 and then Tri-City USHL in 2016.

In 3^rd round 57^th overall Riley Prattson of Tolland who plays with the US Selects Academy program at South Kent Prep was taken by the WWilkes-BarreScranton (PA) Knights. He is a Providence College (HEA) commit for 2018-19.

Strauss Mann of Greenwich from the Brunswick Prep Bruins was taken in the 4^th round 80^th overall by the Aberdeen (SD) Wings.

Another Fairfield county player in Alex Mella (Stamford) from the prestigious Shattuck’s St, Mary’s program in Minnesota was taken by the Janesville (WI) Jets in the 7^th round 161^st overall. He has now been drafted by three junior leagues Rimouski (QMJHL) and Green Bay (USHL) in 2015 and is a Northeastern (HEA) 2018-19 commit.

Corey Clifton, a Quinnipiac University in 2018-19 commit was taken in the 7^th round 163^rd overall by the Aston (PA) Rebels. He was taken by Muskegon (USHL) in their draft earlier this spring. He is the younger brother of ex-Bobcats Connor and Tim Clifton.

Jaxson Stauber, son of former Wolf Pack and New Haven Nighthawk goalie Robb Stauber (current head coach of the US Women’s National team) was selected in the 4^th round 75^th overall by the Bismarck (ND) Bobcats. He was selected by Sioux City USHL earlier this spring in their draft.

Then Mike McCosh, son of former Nighthawk and New Haven Senator Shawn McCosh was taken in the 6^th round 137^th overall by the Johnstown (PA) Tomahawks from the Phoenix Jr, Coyotes U-16 program.

Lastly, Jack Lippis of Gunnery Prep (Washington, CT) was taken in the 8^th round 170^th overall by the Springfield (Illinois) Jr, Blues.

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