CANTLON: HARTFORD WOLF PACK PRE-SEASON VOLUME 1 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The first skating sessions for the Hartford Wolf Pack’s truncated 2020-21 season are set to begin when training camp begins on Sunday.

The ice at Champions Skating Center in Cromwell is being worked on as they prepare for the first group of players who’ll arrive on Sunday and Monday with training camp commencing in earnest after off-ice testing and physicals.

Players signed to AHL contracts include Vincent LoVerde and Mason Geersten, and Paul Thompson was an off-season signing.

The two goalies who will battle for the top spot between the Wolf Pack pipes are still in New York with the New York Rangers. They are former Hockey East opponents. One-time UConn Husky, Adam Huska, who’s in his second year, and Tyler Wall from UMASS-Lowell each vying vie for the top spot.

The two goalies for the Rangers are ex-Wolf Pack players. They are Alexander Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin. Long-time Rangers stalwart, and future Hall-of-Famer, Henrik Lundqvist, left the Rangers after a buyout of his contract’s final year. He signed a free-agent deal with the Washington Capitals but has been forced to consider the end of his career.

Lundqvist’s sudden, shocking, and unexpected turn of events resulted from a serious medical condition that required open-heart surgery to repair. The surgery corrected his faulty aortic valve and support system.

The biggest surprise of players for the Wolf Pack and Rangers is defensemen with currently 17 organizational signees. Likely to be in Cromwell by Sunday, and the rest of next week are Brandon Crawley, Libor Hajek, Darren Raddysh, Tarmo Reunanen, and Matthew Robertson.

Add two AHL signed defenseman, Mason Geersten, and Vincent LoVerde, who may well be the next Wolf Pack captain, and that’s seven and seven presently in New York making 14, and they have two others in Europe Nils Lundkvist Lulea HF (Sweden-SHL) and Yegor Rykov CSKA Moscow (Russia-KHL).

Morgan Barron, Gabriel Fontaine, Tim Gettinger, Anthony Greco, Patrick Khodorenko, Justin Richards, and Austin Rueschoff are the team’s forwards.

Patrick Newell, Ty Ronning, and the off-season signing of Paul Thompson from the Springfield Thunderbirds, who burned the Wolf Pack the last two seasons as an opponent, will all be on AHL deals with the Wolf Pack.

AHL NEWS

Over the last two weeks, Cantlon’s Corner has reported about dual affiliations being likely to occur. That has now come to pass.

The Stanley Cup Champion, Tampa Bay Lightning, will team up with the Flordia Panthers, their fellow Sunshine State team, will send players to the Syracuse Crunch. The Florida Panthers were set to start a new affiliation arrangement this year with the Charlotte Checkers, who have decided to take the season off due to Covid-19.

The Utica Comets and their parent franchise, the Vancouver Canucks, are forging a one-year dual arrangement with the St. Louis Blues, who, like Florida, was also set to start a new affiliation this year with the Springfield Thunderbirds, who will not play this season in the city of the AHL headquarters.

The Milwaukee Admirals/Nashville Predators will pair up for the 2020-21 season with the Chicago Wolves/Carolina Hurricanes.

One of the last two times there were dual affiliates in the league was the Beast of New Haven affiliation with Carolina and Florida. It was a disastrous two-year run before the team suspended their operations and eventually folded as Paragon Sports failed to purchase Carolina’s AHL affiliate for $2 million. Thirty days later, the late Roy Boe purchased the team from Carolina for $2 million, which led to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers’ birth. Speaking of Bridgeport, they enter the final year of their original $20 million lease.

Another piece of the new AHL puzzle, as Cantlon’s Corner reported, is the new AHL Canadian division will play out of their parent club’s respective barns. The first to announce this was the Laval Rocket. They will call the Bell Centre home for 2020-21 and return to the Place Bell next season, despite Quebec’s provincial lockdown. Premier Francois Legault announced that it runs until February 8th.

Toronto (the Maple Leafs Scotiabank Centre) and Belleville (Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario) have yet to name the official announcements, but that will be done over the next several days. Yesterday, the Ontario Provincial Health department approved and gave the green light to play for the two NHL teams in Ontario, Toronto, and Ottawa.

Late next week, it is likely that team schedules will be announced and the spectator arrangements by market and its broadcasting plans for the season for AHL TV.

PLAYER MOVEMENT

Ex-Pack Ryan Gropp signs with Västerviks IK (Sweden-Allsvenskan) for the rest of the season, making 221 AHL players from last season to sign in Europe, and 50th to head to Sweden.

Former CT Whale Christian Thomas signs with KooKoo (Finland-FEL).

Because the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) have suspended play for this season, ex-Wolf Pack and Sound Tiger, Justin Vaive has signed a deal with the Ft. Wayne Komets (ECHL). Joining Vaive in Ft. Wayne will be former Sacred Heart University Pioneer (AHA) Austin McIlmurray, originally signed with the Greenville  Swamp Rabbits (ECHL).

Belleville announced that it had signed longtime Hershey Bears player Colby Williams to an AHL deal and Cole Reinhardt, who finished his junior career with Braden (WHL).

The Ft. Wayne Komets have announced they will start play on February 12th and play a 51-game schedule. The Toledo Walleye have opted to drop out for this ECHL season.

Several ex-Wolf-Pack players are in Euro hockey news.

After being let go by Kunlun (China-KHL), RW Danny Kristo has signed a deal with the Augsburger Panthers (Germany-DEL). Niklas Jensen signs a two-year extension with Jokerit Helsinki (Finland-FEL).

Former Wolf Pack/CT Whale, Brandon Mashinter, goes from ERC Ingolstadt (Germany-DEL) to HK Propad (Slovakia-SLEL).

Ex-Pack, Bert Robertsson, was relieved as head coach of Linköping HC (Sweden-SHL). They were in 13th place in a 14 team league having just 26 points in 27 games.

After 11 years with the Colorado Avalanche, Greenwich native Colin Wilson, the son of ex-Hartford Whaler and New York Ranger, Cary Wilson, announced his retirement.

COLLEGE HOCKEY

While UCONN is sidelined resulting from a player tested positive for COVID-19, they’re not alone.

UMASS-Lowell has paused its hockey program from January 8-13. Also, Boston University, sidelined the entire semester, will play its first game of the year at home. They will host the Providence College Friars at the Walter Brown Arena, not at Agganis Arena.

The Huskies will be paused for up to as many as ten days. That wipes out this week’s Northeastern games and the yet-to-be officially announced game with Providence College next Wednesday. When they return to play depends upon how their Covid test results come back.

The BU Terriers will be welcoming two transfers in their lineup. Joseph Campolieto is a senior transfer from Union College (ECACHL), and Thomas Jarman joins them for the second semester from the Maryland Black Bears (NAHL).

Providence College is also bringing in a transfer. From Union College. Last year, Jack Adams was a medical redshirt after he missed all last year while recovering from ACL/MCL surgery that he tore while in the Detroit Red Wings development camp.

Going to PC is an emotional choice for Adams. His late brother, Mark “Roo” Adams, who had to overcome injuries himself, played for the 2015 PC NCAA championship team. He died tragically at the age of 27 of a heart attack.

There is also a Division-III transfer as Sheldon Bratt leaves Bryn Athyn (PA) (NCAA Independent) to head to Finlandia University (OH) (NCHA), making 54 school transfers in Division I and III for this year and likely a few more to come.

Last year’s captain for the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks (NCHC), Dean Stewart, signs with the Wichita Thunder (ECHL), making 207 Division-I players to have signed professional deals and 342 total college players from Division I and III to sign deals in North America and Europe.

Conference-wise, the breakdown is Hockey East and the NHHC each having 37, Big 10 with 36, ECACHL has 33, WCHA is at 31, AHA has 28, and NCAA Division I independent Arizona State has four.

Henri Schreifels of RPI (ECACHL) is returning to play with his former junior team the Victoria Grizzlies (BCHL). RPI has canceled its season, and the BCHL has set a new start date of February 8th. He becomes the tenth college player to use the US or Canadian Junior A route this year.