CANTLON: SCHNEIDER DEALT TO MILWAUKEE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The two parent organizations of the Hartford Wolf Pack and the Milwaukee Admirals, the New York Rangers and Nashville Predators respectively, announced an AHL deal Monday.

The Rangers dealt their Wolf Pack captain, Cole Schneider, to the Admirals for forward, Connor Brickley.

It’s the fourth straight year the Rangers have dealt the Pack’s captain. This trade, however, is the earliest of the four deals by four games. Ryan Bourque and Mat Bodie were each dealt exactly a year apart on the eve of the trade deadline. Joe Whitney was sent packing to the Hershey Bears ending his 40-game captaincy on February 9^th last year. Schneider played just 36 games.

It was the fifth captain traded in franchise history. The first captain dealt was Dane Byers, who had requested a trade and it was granted as he wound up with the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 11, 2010.

The deal on the surface is strictly a contract wash as each player is a UFA (unrestricted free agent) next season and were unlikely to be resigned.

Schneider was making $350K this year in his second season of a two-year deal while Brickley was making $300K for the Admirals on a one-year contract. Neither player got much ice time with their respective parent clubs this season.

Schneider was recalled as a possible emergency replacement for Vladimir Namestnikov but stayed for several games without being inserted into the lineup.

Several pro hockey sources with knowledge of the deal said it’s been floating around for some time.

“The Rangers had Schneider available a few months ago and I guess it’s the last two weeks they actively were shopping for a deal and got what they wanted.”

The irony is that last year, Whitney was offered to Nashville and they turned the Rangers down. This time they responded favorably as the Rangers wanted Brickley.

Schneider is an alumnus of the UCONN hockey program and he played in 112 games in Hartford with 29 goals and 75 points. This season, in 36 games, Schnieder had 13 goals and 12 assists (25 points) and just returned from a concussion.

This is the second time that Schneider was traded in his career. He went as part of a seven-player deal between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres on February 27, 2016. Milwaukee plays in Winnipeg on Wednesday against the Manitoba Moose.

Brickley, a University of Vermont grad played 39 games this season with seven goals and 11 points in 39 games. He was a minus-11. In his AHL career, Brickley has played 234 games and scored 58 goals and has 113 points for the Everett, MA native. Brickley has 67 NHL games to his credit with five goals and 17 points with the Florida Panthers who drafted him in the second round 50^th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft.

Brickley is the cousin of Dan Brickley, who plays for the Ontario Reign (AHL). He is the first cousin, once removed, from Andy Brickley who played in the NHL with the Bruins (385 games) and has been the long-tenured Bruins color commentator on NESN for Bruins broadcasts.

The Wolf Pack have a three-in-three weekend Friday night with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, followed on Saturday with the Springfield Thunderbirds at the XL Center and then they head to Providence to play the Bruins on Sunday.

It was a busy off day Monday for the Wolf Pack. They watched Schneider leave, plus defenseman Ryan Lindgren got recalled by the Rangers while Bridgeport’s Steve Bernier was handed a three-game suspension for the hit to the head of Steven Fogarty in Saturday night’s game.