CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK OFF SEASON VOLUME 16 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Teams are all in the home stretch preparing for the 2018-19 season and this was a busy week.

PLAYER & COACHING MOVEMENT

Ex-Hartford Wolf Pack forward, Chad Wiseman, gets a league upgrade. Wiseman was named the new assistant coach for the Guelph Storm (OHL). Last month, he was named the head coach for his hometown Burlington Cougars (OJHL) a Junior A league after being a development coach last year.

Former Bridgeport Sound Tiger head coach, and former New Haven Nighthawks player, Lane Lambert, was a part of the Capitals Stanley Cup winner, follows head coach Barry Trotz to the Islanders. Lambert was named associate head coach.

Another former Nighthawk and player, as well as a Rangers assistant coach,  replaces him. Scott Arniel was hired to be an assistant coach for the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals. He joins former QU Bobcat Reid Cashman, who was promoted to assistant coach from Hershey, on Todd Reirden’s staff.

Ex-Pack Marty Wilford was elevated from the San Diego Gulls to be an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks.

The San Jose Barracuda (AHL), the Sharks top farm team, adds two new assistant coaches. They are moving two scouts up the ladder. Long-time AHL tough guy, Jimmy Bonneau, and Michael Chiasson, the son of a former Whalers player, the late Steve Chiasson.

The late rearguard’s other son, Ryan Chaisson is at SUNY-Plattsburgh (SUNYAC) a Division III program.

Another AHL’er heads to Europe as Niki Petti Laval signs with Mora IK (Sweden-SHL). Andrew Crescenzi also flies over the ocean leaving the Ontario Reign and signs with HC Bolzano (Italy-AEHL).

Ex-Pack, Francois Bouchard, last playing for GHC Bordeaux (France-FREL) and after a year off, has signed for this season with the Dundee Stars (England-EIHL).

Ryan Verbeek, the nephew of former Hartford Whalers and NY Rangers great, Pat Verbeek, who’s now Tampa Bay’s assistant GM and Director of Player Development, leaves Canadian college hockey Dalhousie University (AUAA) for HC Lyon (France-FREL). He canceled a deal he first signed with Cergy (France-FREL).

Hayden Verbeek, Pat’s his other nephew, will be with Laval (AHL) this season.

According to a team press release, ex-Pack, Daniel Paille, has had his career cut short because of a concussion. He had just signed a two-year extension with Brynas IF (Sweden-SHL) before a vicious blindside hit from one-time Springfield Falcon, Thomas Larkin, of Adler Mannheim (Germany-DEL) in a Champions Hockey League tourney game. Paille, a new father, not only lost his career but most likely, also lost a chance to be on the Canadian Olympic Team in PyeonChang, South Korea because of the injury.

Larkin received only a four-game suspension.  View it HERE.

Shane Prince, who played four games with the Sound Tigers last year on an injury rehab, heads to HC Davos (Switzerland–LNA).

Three former UCONN Huskies have changed addresses.

Johnny Austin, who after the season ended up playing nine games with the Laval Rocket who he got his first pro point, has signed with the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Goalie Garrett Bartus, from the last UCONN (AHC) team, goes from Ft. Wayne (ECHL) to Greenville (ECHL).  Shawn Pauly, from UCONN’s first Hockey East team, goes from Kansas City (ECHL) to Coventry Blaze (England-EIHL). He canceled his HC Lyon Lions (France-FREL) deal to sign with Coventry.

Ex-Pack, Joey Leach, who had five games with the Wolf Pack last season, re-signs with the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL) for this season.

Jared Fiegl is another NCAA grad signing a pro deal going from Cornell University (ECACHL) to Orlando (ECHL).

That makes 171 Division I players that have signed pro deals in North America and 225 total players have signed North America and Europe.

The US Hockey Hall of Fame has released its Class of 2018.

Heading the list is the long-time University of Michigan head coach and a former NHL player, George “Red” Berenson. He coached 33 years with 22 consecutive NCAA appearances and an overall record of 848-426-92. He coached 1,366 games and won NCAA titles in 1996, and in 1998. In the old CCHA conference, the Wolverines finished first and second 20 of 23 years of the conference’s history.

Berenson played 987 NHL games, primarily with the St. Louis Blues. He was with Montreal early in his career before spending 49 games with the Rangers in the mid-1960’s before being traded to the Blues.

Berenson then spent five years with Detroit and finished out his career with St. Louis his last four years.

Minnesotan, Natalie Darwitz, won three Olympic medals (two silvers and a bronze) and was the youngest woman selected to play with the national team at age 15. She holds the NCAA women’s regular season scoring record at 114 points and is presently the coach at Hamline University in Minnesota in the Division III MIAC conference.

David Poile has worked for USA hockey for over 30 years in various capacities. He is the current GM of Nashville Predators and is the longest-serving GM in the NHL with 36 consecutive years. He started out with Washington.

Read a nice feature piece on Jack Finley, son of ex-Wolf Pack Jeff Finley HERE

At the WJSS (World Junior Summer Showcase) we got to see another Drury score a game-winning goal. Jack Drury, the son of Ted Drury, an ex-Whaler, and the nephew of Chris Drury, the Wolf Pack GM and Assistant GM with the Rangers, completed a two-on-one break. Like his uncle did on many occasions, he snapped a shot high over the glove hand of Finnish goalie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, with 7:19 to go in regulation. The goal would turn out to be the game-winner in a 2-1 US victory.

Darien’s Spencer Knight (Avon Old Farm’s) had a strong performance in the game’s second half with nine saves for the red, white and blue. In Sunday’s wild 6-5 loss to Canada, QU’s Keith Petruzzelli had a tough afternoon in Kamloops, BC. He gave up five goals on 20 shots and was pulled for Cayden Primeau.

Drury set up Paul Cotter for a goal with 2:35 left in regulation to draw the US closer to 6-5.

Primeau earned a win for the US in the teams first game a 5-4 OT win over Sweden.

This weekend, the Ivan Hlinka-Wayne Gretzky Cup will be played in Red Deer, AB, and Edmonton, AB. It will be on the NHL Network. The semifinals are on Friday. Saturday is the bronze medal game and the Gold Medal Game on Sunday at 5:00 pm EST.

The US team video coach is the current and long-time Wolf Pack assistant GM Pat Boller (Danbury).

Canada’s goaltending consultant is all-time Wolf Pack great, Jason LaBarbera.

Canada won its opener 10-0 over Switzerland. The US blanked the Czech Republic 6-0. The Czech goalie was Nick Malik, the youngest son of former Whaler, Ranger, and Beast of New Haven defenseman, Marek Malik. He gave up the first four goals on 25 shots before being pulled.

With little time for a true search for a new assistant coach to replace the recently departed Brendan Buckley (Boston College), UConn did the next best thing. They went in-house to round out head coach Mike Cavanaugh’s coaching staff for the season.

The Huskies promoted Joe Pereira (West Haven/South Kent Prep) to associate head coach and hired Tyler Helton as an assistant coach and Joe Ferriss as a graduate assistant to work under Cavanaugh.

Pereira has been a part of Cavanaugh’s staff since his first season. He begins his sixth year on the bench this fall. He has played a significant role in the program’s recruiting efforts during his tenure with the Huskies.

Helton has been a part of the program since his freshman year in Storrs in 2012. He begins his first season as a full-time assistant coach in 2018-19. He will assist the program working with the Husky defensemen, special teams and assisting with all aspects of recruiting.

Helton initially joined Cavanaugh’s staff in the fall of 2013 and has worked with the program as a student assistant and graduate manager over the past five seasons.

Ferriss returns to his alma mater for his first collegiate coaching job. He will assist the program with the video breakdown of games and practices, developing scouting reports, and practice plans.

Ferriss graduated from UCONN in 2016 with a degree in exercise science after playing 120 games during his four-year career on the ice for the Huskies.

One-time Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) assistant coach, and CT Nighthawks (EHL) head coach, Graham Johnson, is named head coach at Milwaukee’s School of Engineering (WIAC), a Wisconsin-based Division III program.

RIP to the great Stan Mikita who spent his entire NHL career in Chicago. Mikita is the only player in NHL history to achieve the trophy hat-trick consisting of the Art Ross Trophy (Scoring), Hart Trophy (MVP) and Lady Byng Trophy (sportsmanship). He achieved that not once, but twice and not just twice but in back to back years, 1966-1968. That’s a feat that neither Gretzky, Lemieux, or Orr ever accomplished.

He won four NHL scoring titles as part of the Original Six.

In 1,394 games, Mikita tallied 1,467 points and is the all-time leading scorer in Chicago BlackHawks history.

Mikita’s earning The Lady Byng trophy was amazing. Early in his career, he was known to have a hair-trigger temper and was a willing and able fighter despite being just 5’9. He toned down his play and never again crossed the 100-minute mark after his sixth season.

Mikita escaped from then communist Czechoslovakia. He was born in Sokolce in what is now the Slovak Republic. He arrived in Canada and had a great junior career in St. Catharines winning the league scoring title. Later, when his hockey career began, Mikita settled into Chicago.  In the Windy City, Mikita became an icon along with Bobby Hull in the 1960’s.

Mikita also created the first deaf and hearing impaired hockey academy in North America. It would help youngsters with those disabilities to learn to develop their hockey and socialization skills.

WJC SCHEDULE RELEASED

At the WJC tournament in Vancouver, and Victoria, BC December 26^th-January 5^th,  it will not feature a preliminary round, USA-Canada game on New Year’s Eve. Rather it will be against Russia. The only time the two North American countries can meet is in the medal round games.

The official schedule because of the West Coast time difference will mean some holiday late nights and DVR recording.

The US preliminary game schedule is;

Dec. 26 vs. Slovakia 6:30 pm

Dec. 28 vs. Kazakhstan 10:30 pm

Dec, 29 vs. Sweden 10:30 pm

Dec. 31 vs. Finland 10:30 pm

The elimination and medal round games start January 2^nd. All USA games will be shown on the NHL Network as they pick up the feed from TSN in Canada.

OUTDOOR HOCKEY SOUTH AMERICAN STYLE

Playing outdoor hockey right now to some is laughable, but at the southernmost latitude where Chile and Antartica meet, an outdoor game took place. Read about this unique event. HERE.

REASON 1,500 TO HATE THE HURRICANES

To include the fabled “Brass Bonanza” as one of the eight finalists for a Hurricanes goal celebration song, for many here in Connecticut, it’s offensive. Consider that the team did leave here and the former owner forbade the name to be uttered in the office no less, just is a slap in the face to those who still long to see the team here. Read about this HERE.