2014-15 Iowa Wild, Quad City Mallards, & Alaska Aces Thread

[Scoutguy77]

I agree with you PC Cougar, I still like Bulmers potential.

[MOD]

 

[tyratoku]

Gelinas had his first professional AHL goal last night. I missed it but apparently it was pretty nice.

Today's game has Iowa and Hamilton tied 1-1 after the first.

I missed Iowa's goal. Hamilton's was a bit of a fluke shot that deflected off Curry - who was without his stick - and went in.

Ours was apparently a shot by Falk, tipped by Mitchell, and assisted by Graovac.

 

[tyratoku]

Iowa scores again. Schroeder came in from the right side circles and had a pretty nice snapshot. Keranen was out in front of the net, deflected off him and went in. Bickel got a secondary assist for passing to Schroeder.

Watching Iowa for the first time this season, I can legitimately say I am not very impressed by the skill level. Hamilton is running around doing beautiful passes and setting up plays. Iowa seems much more haphazard and basically uses a system of grinding down opponents.

Really seems to be a lack of skill from top to bottom. While that isn't an all out terrible thing, they definitely need a few guys down there who can put up points.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

So what'll be our talent influx the next year or two? Lucia, Gilmour, maybe Tuch for a year, healthy Olofsson, one of Dumba/Folin, Peterson, Lang, Labbe.

Keranen will probably bolt, though.

 

[tyratoku]

Hamilton just scored again. Curry came out to play the puck behind the net and got crashed into by two Bulldogs and a Wild player. All four got tangled up, puck went back out front, one of the Bulldogs did a wraparound-ish goal to score.

Both of Hamilton's goals have been flukes but by my untrained and distracted eye (I'm doing some notes for class right now as well as watching + posting on here), they've controlled most of the play.

So what'll be our talent influx the next year or two? Lucia, Gilmour, maybe Tuch for a year, healthy Olofsson, one of Dumba/Folin, Peterson, Lang, Labbe.

Keranen will probably bolt, though.

Just watching them play now I think getting Olofsson back will help out a ton. The defense is shaky at best right now. But yeah, definitely need some offensive production from the forwards. Schroeder and Graovac look pretty darn good though.

I was hoping for more from Brassart and Mitchell this year. Both were studs in the CHL. Right now Mitchell is at about .5ppg and Brassart is at about .25ppg. Gelinas has hardly done anything since going professional. So for right now at least the 3 CHL free agents have had disappointing first years.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Assuming he (Graovac) doesn't win an NHL spot, I'd like to see a Lucia/Graovac/Schroeder top line for them next year.

 

[thestonedkoala]

So what'll be our talent influx the next year or two? Lucia, Gilmour, maybe Tuch for a year, healthy Olofsson, one of Dumba/Folin, Peterson, Lang, Labbe.

Keranen will probably bolt, though.

Lucia, Tuch, Olofsson, Dumba and Labbe. Jury is still out on Peterson (and he might be a LONG term prospect, like 3-4 years from now) and Lang could be a Foucault or a Graovac. Way too hard to tell at this point.

 

[tyratoku]

Iowa just scored a shorthanded goal to start the 3rd. I missed it writing this post below:
EDIT: Here is a link to the goal.

Lucia, Tuch, Olofsson, Dumba and Labbe. Jury is still out on Peterson (and he might be a LONG term prospect, like 3-4 years from now) and Lang could be a Foucault or a Graovac. Way too hard to tell at this point.

Russo was saying in a paper a few days/weeks back that the Wild expect Tuch to play next year in NCAA and possibly the year after as well. He didn't mention Gilmour, but since the two of them are linemates they might as well play together again next year. That way they can possibly both come over to the AHL together.

Labbe is going pro after this season, so that should help the defense a bit.

And looking at the top scorers in the AHL, I realized that not many guys are at ppg or really all that close to it. Sure, there are a few outliers like Pulkinnen or Shore, but both of those guys have been down in the AHL a few years now and are or will be in the NHL fairly soon.

Graovac is tied for #11 in the entire league in goals at 16. The #1 guy, Pulkinnen, has 24.

 

[tyratoku]

Hamilton scores again. Defensive breakdown, one Bulldog drew down like three Wild players into a corner and passed back behind him, puck goes out in front of the net, open Bulldog there player shoots and scores as Curry slides left to right.

Hamilton scores again to go up 4-3. Player from the point shot a bomb, a player in front of Curry might have tipped it. Either a tip or Curry was just beat because he was being screened by a Bulldog player right in front. No Wild skater anywhere near the situation trying to clear the crease. Disappointing breakdowns for the last two goals.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Lucia, Tuch, Olofsson, Dumba and Labbe. Jury is still out on Peterson (and he might be a LONG term prospect, like 3-4 years from now) and Lang could be a Foucault or a Graovac. Way too hard to tell at this point.

Peterson might not be as far off as you thing (to get to Iowa, I'm not talking about NHL yet). He's going to be 2 years post-draft after this one, and his first year of college is going pretty well. Maybe 2 more years NCAA and then make the jump.

And just for comparison's sake, at 18 years old Graovac was a 20-30 point player; Lang already has 45 points (in 45 games). Obviously expectations should be tempered at this point for a 6th round pick, but it's not like he's playing on a stacked team or anything. At the very least, he has already exceeded expectations and is ahead of most all, if not all, of our CHL prospect comparable paces (not that we have many to compare, but still).

 

[tyratoku]

Hamilton scores empty net to go up 5-3, game over.

Iowa lost to Hamilton in the back to back this weekend a total of 9-4. Not so good.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Peterson might not be as far off as you thing (to get to Iowa, I'm not talking about NHL yet). He's going to be 2 years post-draft after this one, and his first year of college is going pretty well. Maybe 2 more years NCAA and then make the jump.

I can see two years, maybe three depending on his sophomore but I really don't know if we can project what Peterson is going to be like.

And just for comparison's sake, at 18 years old Graovac was a 20-30 point player; Lang already has 45 points (in 45 games). Obviously expectations should be tempered at this point for a 6th round pick, but it's not like he's playing on a stacked team or anything. At the very least, he has already exceeded expectations and is ahead of most all, if not all, of our CHL prospect comparable paces (not that we have many to compare, but still).

Lang might be okay but it's way, way too early to tell with him. He was a late round choice for a reason.

 

[tyratoku]

Iowa is currently up 3-0, but Bulmer just got crushed into the boards from behind and was slow to get up. He didn't go back to the locker room and is staying on the bench, but...it was a bit worrying.

Flames player got kicked out, not sure if for the rest of the period or if for the game.

 

[tyratoku]

Wild end up winning 4-0, the first shutout of the season for our AHL Affiliate. Get your groove on, Kuemper.

 

[Paul Bunyan]

Just made plans to go down and see their last home game of the season. First Iowa road trip. WOOT WOOT WOOT.

 

[tyratoku]

Iowa is down 2-1. I missed the bulldog goals, but ours was pretty nice. Scrum in front of the net where someone (I think Mitchell) eventually dug it out and passed it to Blum, who was coming in from the blueline and one-timed it from the top of the circles.

They look pretty good.

Turns out the assists were from Veilleux/Walters

EDIT: Had to fix some mistakes. I saw it was 1-0 and assumed the Wild were up. Turns out it was the Bulldogs.

 

[tyratoku]

Gabriel scores and now Iowa is up 4-3. He had an assist on the third goal, giving him a 1+1 in this game.

BUST

 

[Minny Lakes]

Is Keumper the goalie?

 

[tyratoku]

Is Keumper the goalie?

Yup. He actually got an assist on a Blum empty net goal at the end of the game.

5-3 final score.

Last time these guys faced off I watched it a bit harder and Bulldogs looked like the better team by far. This time I did not watch as much but it seemed more evenly matched. Partially because of the improved goaltending.

 

[tyratoku]

Iowa got destroyed 5-1 today. I watched the last few minutes of the first period.

Mitchell scored our only goal. So far he has definitely been the better of the two WHL free agents we got last year. Brassart, aside from scoring a goal last night, has not done a whole lot.

 

[Belizarius]

French fan coming in peace.
Any info on Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel ? He may play with France NT for the next worlds and I'm interested on his progression.
Thanks a lot !

 

[tyratoku]

The Iowa Wild tweeted out a trivia question about most goals in a rookie season, which is currently held by Erik Haula at 14. Obviously established last year, as it was Iowa's first AHL season.

This year, however, it has already been tied by Zack Mitchell, who has 14 goals and 9 assists this year, good for second on the team in goals (After Graovac).

Now, Haula did 14 goals in 31 games and Mitchell has done 14 in 49, but it is interesting. He will probably pot at least one or two (if not more) the rest of the way so it looks like Haulzy's record is going to be broken.

French fan coming in peace.
Any info on Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel ? He may play with France NT for the next worlds and I'm interested on his progression.
Thanks a lot !

Honestly I haven't noticed him at all in the last few games that I have watched. I'll try to pay more attention for the next few and get back to you. Apparently he has one point in his 15 games this year though. The entire team is very low scoring so that could possibly be lower than where it should be.

 

[Granlund 64]

Keranen with his 9th goal and 32nd point tonight. Only -4 on the season on a last place team. Seems to be having a good first season in NA?

 

[Victorious Secret]

Keranen with his 9th goal and 32nd point tonight. Only -4 on the season on a last place team. Seems to be having a good first season in NA?

No doubt. Iowa is a **** team with **** effort and I don't see Keranen take many shifts off, if any. He's been a wonder down there. Hope he gets a chance if there is another roster spot open.

 

[Scoutguy77]

In Des Moines for the weekend hope to get to a game or two, if I do will update.