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

[Paul Bunyan]

Mallards sign Four

The Quad City Mallards have signed forward/defenseman Ben Woodley and come to terms on tryout agreements with forward/defenseman Jung Ahn, forward Jimmy Kim and goaltender Michael Shibrowski, the Mallards announced today.

Full Article.

They also signed Leroux.

The Quad City Mallards have signed rookie forward Paxton Leroux, the Mallards announced today.

Injury limited Leroux, 21, to 14 games in the major junior Ontario Hockey League last season. The 6’ 3â€, 200-pound Peterborough, Ontario, native scored once and collected 32 penalty minutes in 13 outings with the London Knights. He also played a single game for the Kitchener Rangers. In 2012-13 Leroux picked up an assist along with 66 minutes in penalties in 22 games with the Knights.

Aces finally get someone from the Wild's system

The Alaska Aces, the 2014 Kelly Cup champions and proud affiliate of the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League, announced today that rookie forward Olivier Archambault (Ar-SHAMM-boh) has been assigned to the Aces from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League.

Archambault was signed today by Iowa to a two-way (AHL / ECHL) standard player contract. Iowa is the AHL affiliate of Alaska and Minnesota.

"Olivier is a dynamic and talented forward we're confident will perform as a difference maker every game," said Aces head coach Rob Murray. "After agreeing to terms with us on an ECHL deal, his response to opportunity at AHL training camp speaks volumes of his potential and compete level. We're excited to bring him aboard."

Archambault, 21, skated with the Minnesota Wild as a free agent invitee at the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Mich. and earned a hat trick for Iowa in AHL preseason play on Oct. 1 vs. Chicago. The 5-foot-11, 172 pound forward has 10 games of additional AHl experience with the Hamilton Bulldogs, collecting a goal and an assist in the 2012-13 regular season.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

1-0 Admirals. Budish puts it on net and then linemate has easy putaway. Admirals look much better through first few minutes.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Can't tell all lines. Asked Joe to confirm.

Know that first line is Graovac with Keranen and Mitchell. Phillips is with Schroeder and Almond.

Veilleux with Sutter and Bulmer

Bussieres with Hagel. These two came in tonight for Gabriel and Gogol.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Annnnd Schroeder just sent into Admirals bench.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Admirals go up 2-0 on PP goal. Shot from top of circle was going a few feet wide but hit Blum and went in.

 

[tyratoku]

Can't tell all lines. Asked Joe to confirm.

Know that first line is Graovac with Keranen and Mitchell. Phillips is with Schroeder and Almond.

Veilleux with Sutter and Bulmer

Bussieres with Hagel. These two came in tonight for Gabriel and Gogol.

Are you saying Bussieres hasn't been getting regular playing time lately or am I reading this wrong?

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Are you saying Bussieres hasn't been getting regular playing time lately or am I reading this wrong?

Correct, Bussieres was not in the lineup last night.

End of 1st.

Brassart is the other winger on that fourth line.

They had some decent moments cycling but they are not very strong in their own zone.

 

[tomgilbertfan]

Here's the goals from last night. Colors are weird on the video so sorry about that. Also tried to get the goals from the game prior and the feed was all sorts of messed up.

Mitchell:


Gogol:


Sutter:

 

[Jbcraig1883]

3-0 Admirals. 2 on 1...fake slapshot...hold, and goes 5 hole. Gustafsson does not look that confident after being pulled last night.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

PP goal to make it 4-0.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Bussieres down hurt. Did not see what happened.

 

[tyratoku]

What a bummer. I thought the squad was supposed to be improved this year?

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Schroeder with best chance of game and gets robbed by a good glove save.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

What a bummer. I thought the squad was supposed to be improved this year?

Hard to tell yet. Yes, they are getting smoked but looks like they have more talent this year. They are lost in their own zone, though. Plus, Gustafsson has not played solid at all. Pretty poor save percentage thus far.

They definitely need Olofsson back. Him and one of Folin/Dumba (if one is sent down) would help a lot, imo.

 

[tyratoku]

Hard to tell yet. Yes, they are getting smoked but looks like they have more talent this year. They are lost in their own zone, though. Plus, Gustafsson has not played solid at all. Pretty poor save percentage thus far.

They definitely need Olofsson back. Him and one of Folin/Dumba (if one is sent down) would help a lot, imo.

Why isn't Olofsson playing? How has Gelinas looked?

Next year is when a good chunk of our prospects will start going pro, IMO. I could see guys like Lucia and Belpedio making the jump. Labbe likely will. Maybe Tuch. All of those guys will improve the team quite a bit.

Sounds like Graovac is steadily improving at a good pace. Almost Haula-esque? Mitchell seems like a good player as well.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Why isn't Olofsson playing? How has Gelinas looked?

Next year is when a good chunk of our prospects will start going pro, IMO. I could see guys like Lucia and Belpedio making the jump. Labbe likely will. Maybe Tuch. All of those guys will improve the team quite a bit.

Sounds like Graovac is steadily improving at a good pace. Almost Haula-esque? Mitchell seems like a good player as well.

Olofsson was injured in one of the last preseason games for the Wild.

Gelinas has some good offensive awareness but he looks a little overwhelmed defensively.

I've been a huge fan of Graovac for over a year now. Voted for him much higher than most on our prospects lists. With that said, I'm hesitant in saying he is Haula-esque. Graovac is going to be a top 6 or nothing. He has good size, shields puck well, and has good hands around the net. He is not a speedy guy who can play PK or shutdown other big centermen...at least thus far in his career.

Schroeder has been best threat for Wild but he is just so tiny. Has gotten rocked 3 or 4 times tonight.

I like what I have seen from Mitchell. He was with Graovac and Keranen on top line. Keranen is what he is...good offensive awareness but not very strong...and is adapting to the NA game.

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Here are lines courtesy of Joe O'Donnell:

19, 27, 17 / 36, 4, 18 / 10, 12, 51 / 28, 21, 29. D: 25, 7 / 44, 41 / 2, 24

 

[Minnesota]

What a bummer. I thought the squad was supposed to be improved this year?

One bad game doesn't mean they aren't improved.

 

[P10p]

All games have been bad from what I've seen

 

[Jbcraig1883]

Wild lose 4-0. Admirals are 4-0 on the season.

Baby Wild have had a lot of turnover and a lot of these guys are young and/or first year AHL players. As mentioned above, I think the issue is d-zone. They controlled the puck most of the game but whenever it got into their zone, there was a scoring chance.

I think they look a lot better than last year but this is going off one game...

Bussieres left game with an injury. I believe that Walters and Oloffson have been out with injuries. They definitely need Oloffson. Falk, Gudbranson, and Bickel offer no breakouts or scoring threats. Gelinas is young. Syvret just signed a PTO so is rusty and Blum cannot do it all on his own.

 

[Jarick]

Same problem as they've had the last several years. Nobody on defense.

 

[Paul Bunyan]

Aces are also losing 0-0-2 to start the season, and QC hasn't begun play yet.

 

[DANOZ28]

What a bummer. I thought the squad was supposed to be improved this year?

i thought they added talent, at 0-4 guess not. bummer for the fans.

 

[DrPP]

What if they do have a good roster? What has Kleinendorst done besides one season at Binghamton? He still resigned a year later. Before that New Jersey after a couple years wanted him to be a scout. He certainly hasn't gotten more than expected from anyone at Iowa. Why waste development years with a mediocre coach?

 

[Paul Bunyan]

ACES ASSIGNED D BALDWIN

The Alaska Aces, the 2014 Kelly Cup champions and proud affiliate of the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League, announced today the team has been assigned defenseman Corbin Baldwin from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League.

Baldwin, 23, brings 70 games of AHL experience to the Aces blueline with two assists and 138 penalty minutes. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound defenseman has skated in two games this season and last year suited up in 64 games with Iowa, earning an assist and 129 penalty minutes.

His ECHL experience extends to 38 games with the Orlando Solar Bears in 2012-13 and he had five assists and 49 penalty minutes. That season, was reassigned to Allen Americans and helped guide the club to a league championship with three assists in 19 playoff games.

Full article here.

They need any kind of jump they can get with an 0-0-3 start to the season.