Prospect Info: "All Things AHL" Part II...

[ChicagoBlues]

just curious, but if any of you attended a game or watched one, how did defensemen like hakanpaa and edmundson perform?

I guess everyone is waiting for me or CelticNote to reply. Both of us have watched several Wolves games and I believe RobbK was able to tune in somehow from wherever in the world he is these days.

Hakanpaa is massive, but was unable to stand up for himself against smaller players. His skating is herky jerky. He is a good passer and has a very good shot from the point that often made it through traffic to the net. He needs to work on skating, which is understandable because he is pretty big. He improved over the course of the season.

Edmundson was far too aggressive early in the season, but toned it down and stopped taking stupid penalties. His neutral zone play in the first half of the season was shaky, but improved in second half. He excels at squeezing off RW rushes at the half wall. He is very physical and in a couple seasons could be that physical defenseman for whom we are all looking.

As far as NHL-readiness, they are about at the same level with Edmundson just slightly ahead.

 

[RandallRitchey]

I interviewed Paul LaTour this season. He's the Chicago Wolves beat writer and he touched on the young defenders and their games.

Talking Blues Prospects With Chicago Wolves Writer, Paul LaTour http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=58729#.U8SACx4URBc.twitter

 

[Celtic Note]

I guess everyone is waiting for me or CelticNote to reply. Both of us have watched several Wolves games and I believe RobbK was able to tune in somehow from wherever in the world he is these days.

Hakanpaa is massive, but was unable to stand up for himself against smaller players. His skating is herky jerky. He is a good passer and has a very good shot from the point that often made it through traffic to the net. He needs to work on skating, which is understandable because he is pretty big. He improved over the course of the season.

Edmundson was far too aggressive early in the season, but toned it down and stopped taking stupid penalties. His neutral zone play in the first half of the season was shaky, but improved in second half. He excels at squeezing off RW rushes at the half wall. He is very physical and in a couple seasons could be that physical defenseman for whom we are all looking.

As far as NHL-readiness, they are about at the same level with Edmundson just slightly ahead.

All of what you wrote above seems on point to me. I think you watched more Wolves games later in the season, so I will defer on the late season assessment.

Overall I would say both players shouldn't be ready for prolonged call up time until after next season. I would say both are at best two seasons but probably three years out from being full timers...if they make it.

I believe Hakanpaa has more upside, but also more bust potential. He really has to grow into his body. People who don't see that as a big deal, haven't seen Jani IMO. It will be a challenge and it will probably take time, but I think he will get there. If he reaches his potential I could see him being a second pairing guy.

More to come later.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I completely agree that neither Hakanpaa or Edmundson will be NHL ready for at least two more seasons. And I also agree that Hakanpaa has the higher upside and, conversely, bust potential. At this point, however, Edmundson is more ready, even though that means almost nothing due to the fact that both of them need two more seasons in the AHL.

Hakanpaa most definitely is having some (literal) growing pains as his body fills out. He looks very uncoordinated at times. If he can grow into his body, then he could be a good NHL player with his quick, accurate shot and decent hockey sense. And for the love of GOD, he needs some boxing lessons!!!

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I interviewed Paul LaTour this season. He's the Chicago Wolves beat writer and he touched on the young defenders and their games.

Talking Blues Prospects With Chicago Wolves Writer, Paul LaTour http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=58729#.U8SACx4URBc.twitter

I find it interesting that Mr. La Tour has observed Hakanpaa's shot missing the target. That is not what I observed. I found myself pleasantly surprised at how often the shot got through. And no offense to him (or to you RR), but I would hardly consider him to be the Wolves beat writer. His blog (Howlin Wolves, which is a Chicago Tribune publication) is just okay, but there simply was not enough posts or raw information about the team. Weeks would go by without anything. My guess is that he wears other hats and was not able dedicate all of his writing time to the Wolves.

Thanks a lot for the article RR!!!

 

[Robb_K]

I really have nothing to add to what Chicago Blues and Celtic Note have stated above. I only watched 2 regular season and 4 Wolves' playoff games that were streamed. I agree that Haakenpaa and Edmunson are NOT yet ready for The NHL. With Chorney gone, I'm not sure that after Leopold, The Blues will have anyone that can fill in for the second defenceman hurt, without a large dropoff (Regner?).

I am in Munich, germany, after 2 months in Denmark. I will be here through mid September. Then, I'll return to The Netherlands. I arrived in time to see Germany defeat Argentina for The World Cup Championship (unfortunately stayed up till 1:00 to watch Argentina beat The Netherlands in a shootout a few days earlier.

After that major disappointment I feel I deserve to see The Blues win The Stanley Cup this coming season.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

I'm only 45 minutes from the Texas Stars arena, so I'm looking forward to catching the Wolves when they come visit.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

For anyone who is interested here is a good article detailing how AHL rosters are built. It is written by Brendan Burke, who used to cover (and maybe still does) the Peoria Rivermen. He used to do really cool and well-edited interviews with Rivs players.

I've started to build a mock-up roster for the Wolves and will get more into it as the other FAs find a home.

 

[sdaltons]

add Benn Ferriero to the Wolves depth chart. decent signing.

 

[RandallRitchey]

For anyone who is interested here is a good article detailing how AHL rosters are built. It is written by Brendan Burke, who used to cover (and maybe still does) the Peoria Rivermen. He used to do really cool and well-edited interviews with Rivs players.

I've started to build a mock-up roster for the Wolves and will get more into it as the other FAs find a home.

Burke was the play-by-play guys and the social media manager, plus he did all the credentialing for the Rivermen (He credentialed me for the first time in my career). He was a man who wore many hats with Peoria and now does the same with the Utica Comets. Great guy and one who helped me get my career started.

 

[execwrite]

Chicago roster is filling up fast


Jordan Binnington
Niklas Lundstrom??

Chris Butler
Joel Edmundson
Jani Hakanpaa
Brent Regner
David Shields
Jake Chelios


Sergey Andronov Philip McRae Ty Rattie
Benn Ferriero Pat Cannone Dimitri Jaskin
John McCarthy Ryan Tesink Sebastian Wannstrom
Cody Beach Jacob Doty Zach Pochiro

Yannick Veilleux

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Burke was the play-by-play guys and the social media manager, plus he did all the credentialing for the Rivermen (He credentialed me for the first time in my career). He was a man who wore many hats with Peoria and now does the same with the Utica Comets. Great guy and one who helped me get my career started.

And he was a darned good play-by-play guy! I was pretty sure he did that for at least one season.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Chicago roster is filling up fast


Jordan Binnington
Niklas Lundstrom??

Chris Butler
Joel Edmundson
Jani Hakanpaa
Brent Regner
David Shields
Jake Chelios


Sergey Andronov Philip McRae Ty Rattie
Benn Ferriero Pat Cannone Dimitri Jaskin
John McCarthy Ryan Tesink Sebastian Wannstrom
Cody Beach Jacob Doty Zach Pochiro

Yannick Veilleux

Yes it is filling up fast! Keep in mind, however that Chicago carries an usually large number of players on their roster and there will be a lot of movement and shuffling between teams. Kalamazoo (ECHL affiliate) will receive some very good players.

Matt Climie is already under contract and will probably be the starter with Binnington challenging for more time than he is already guaranteed to receive.

EDIT: Doing some digging on Tremblay and it looks like he and D-man Nick Walters (2012, 4th round) will re-enter the draft next season or already re-entered this past draft. The description of it on TSN and THN makes no sense at all. "Nicholas Walters (D) Unsigned draft pick, will re-entered the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Francois Tremblay (G) Unsigned draft pick, will re-entered the 2014 NHL Entry Draft."

What the heck does that mean?

According to HockeyDB neither was drafted this year. Maybe they mean they will re-enter in 2015. I guess June 1st was some sort of deadline. What is confusing is that both Parayko and Schmaltz are from the same draft class.

Anyone have a clue about Tremblay? If he is a no-go, then I can see Lundstrom coming over to play in Kalamazoo.

 

[Dbrownss]

Lundstrom will be in the ECHL next season

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Lundstrom will be in the ECHL next season

Yeah, I think I just figured that out. Thanks.

 

[gumption]

EDIT: Doing some digging on Tremblay and it looks like he and D-man Nick Walters (2012, 4th round) will re-enter the draft next season or already re-entered this past draft. The description of it on TSN and THN makes no sense at all. "Nicholas Walters (D) Unsigned draft pick, will re-entered the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Francois Tremblay (G) Unsigned draft pick, will re-entered the 2014 NHL Entry Draft."

What the heck does that mean?

According to HockeyDB neither was drafted this year. Maybe they mean they will re-enter in 2015. I guess June 1st was some sort of deadline. What is confusing is that both Parayko and Schmaltz are from the same draft class.

Anyone have a clue about Tremblay? If he is a no-go, then I can see Lundstrom coming over to play in Kalamazoo.

walters is listed as our prospect on our site, so there's no way that he could get redrafted. with tremblay, i believe he's trying to work something out with the blues.

found an article claiming he hadn't been offered an agreement/contract (original text in french, roughly translated):

François Tremblay and his client are also trying to find a professional contract. Drafted in the fifth round by the St. Louis Blues in 2012, Tremblay, like (Brandon) Whitney, has not been offered an agreement.

so my guess is, the blues needed to sign tremblay to a certain deal, and hadn't gotten it done, or are not interested in keeping tremblay.
he is eligible for reentry (via draftsite):

A player not signed by drafted team within two years can reenter draft, assuming they are still eligible, and if they are not eligible, will become unrestricted an free agent

so, we drafted him in 2012, and i can't find any certification that we signed him to any sort of deal, so he was able to be redrafted in the 2014 draft. i believe he is 19 years old, and he can still be redrafted. if by the time he turns 20 he has not been drafted, he will become a ufa.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

We shall see.

By the way, thanks for the info. Each of us has pieces to the puzzle.

 

[MissouriMook]

Anyone have a clue about Tremblay? If he is a no-go, then I can see Lundstrom coming over to play in Kalamazoo.

Tremblay's star faded fast last year. He looked pretty good in camp, played well for Val D'Or before the trade, started out on fire at the beginning for Victoriaville, then around the Olympic break just completely lost his game. The worst part, though, was a 4th consecutive year of completely pooping the bed in the playoffs. He appears to be a long-shot at best to be anything other than a career AHL journeyman.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Tremblay's star faded fast last year. He looked pretty good in camp, played well for Val D'Or before the trade, started out on fire at the beginning for Victoriaville, then around the Olympic break just completely lost his game. The worst part, though, was a 4th consecutive year of completely pooping the bed in the playoffs. He appears to be a long-shot at best to be anything other than a career AHL journeyman.

Thank you! That is good information.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Both Walters and Tremblay were drafted in 2012 out of Canadian Major Jrs and teams have 2 years to sign those players or lose their rights. This means that the Blues needed to sign these two by 6/1/14 to retain their rights but the Blues decided to not sign them. This means that they became eligible to be picked again by any team in the 2014 draft but both went undrated.

Kids drafted from Canadian Jr A, US Jr A, NCAA or a US HS have 4 years to be signed. This is why fellow 2012 draftees like Schmaltz, Parayko, Kurker & MacEachern still have their rights owned by the Blues even though they haven't been signed yet.

Euros (except Russians) also only have 2 years to be signed after being drafted so that's why the Blues signed Lindbohm back in March (because they wanted to keep his rights). I'll also note that the Blues lost the rights to Tyrell Seaman when he went unsigned on 6/1/14 but that's a moot point since he had to retire from competitive hockey a year ago due to concussions.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Excellent info! Thanks!

 

[STL fan in MN]

Chicago roster is filling up fast


Jordan Binnington
Niklas Lundstrom??

Chris Butler
Joel Edmundson
Jani Hakanpaa
Brent Regner
David Shields
Jake Chelios


Sergey Andronov Philip McRae Ty Rattie
Benn Ferriero Pat Cannone Dimitri Jaskin
John McCarthy Ryan Tesink Sebastian Wannstrom
Cody Beach Jacob Doty Zach Pochiro

Yannick Veilleux

To my knowlege, the only two players that I'm aware of that are signed by the Wolves (and not by the Blues) are Matt Climie and Jake Chelios. That's bound to change though and IMO, as the Wolves sign guys to AHL contracts, that's going to bump some of our lesser prospects to ECHL Kalamazoo.

Veilleux, Beach, Wannstrom, etc. spent some time in the ECHL last season so I wouldn't be surprised if that happens again. Here's the minor leagues of the Blues/Wolves that I'm aware of.

Rattie
Porter/Jaskin (1)
Andronov (2)
McRae
McCarthy
Ferriero
Cannone
Wannstrom
Beach
Veilleux
Tesink
Pochiro
Doty

Edmundson
Hakanpaa
Shields
Regner
Butler (3)
Chelios *

Climie *
Binnington
Lundstrom

(1) I figure one of Porter or Jaskin will end up in the AHL...most likely Porter
(2) Andronov is still an unsigned RFA but I'm assuming the Blues eventually get him signed
(3) While the Blues have 8 NHL caliber d-men at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if Butler beats out one of Cole/Leopold for the 7th spot and then Cole/Leopold is traded to save money/conserve cap space.
* Players signed by the Wolves to AHL contracts

Lundstrom is destined for the ECHL but so are some of those other guys too IMO (guys like Doty, Tesink, Pochiro, etc.) as I don't think there's any way the Wolves go with that inexperienced of a roster. More guys will eventually be signed directly by the Wolves which will push some of our guys to the ECHL. Long story short, I don't see the Wolves roster as all that full yet as the Wolves are destined to sign their typical number of AHL vets which will push some of lesser prospects to the ECHL.

 

[BlueDream]

What is expected out of Cody Beach this season? Seems like he is good enough to make the team, as a 20-year old he had 18 points in 57 games for a 4th-line enforcer type which is pretty solid.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Cody Beach is not really the enforcer-type. He is very energetic, though and worked very well with Andronov. He is skinny.

Beach needs to bulk up, but he has possible 4th-line NHL potential. Will take a few seasons before he is good enough.

 

[BlueDream]

Whatever you want to call it, Beach likes to scrap.